Eder

[rinkrat]

Eder sent to Germany, not sure if Giants retain his rights.

http://vancouvergiants.com/article/andreas-eder-reassigned-to-munich

[Giantsfan]

Not one bit surprised. I mentioned this was going to happen. Add him to the other Euros the Giants have dumped before Xmas.

Wouldn't surprise me if their entire scouting staff was booted after another blundering season of Euro picks & some of the guys they've chosen in the last 5 years.

It's definitely one of the reasons why the rebuild will be longer than it should.

[Lucic]

I honestly believe Hay has difficulty coaching certain euros. If they don't fit into his style of coaching they have no chance of success (unless they are traded to another team). I'm not trying to point the finger at Hay in this instance but I think that is another reason for the Giants lack of success with drafting Europeans as of late. I agree the scouting staff is the main culprit.

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Once Elson arrived, there was no room at the inn for Eder. I don't care except that it makes me wonder what the scouts are looking at. It also makes me realize what a couple of gems Bliznak and Repik were.

[Priceisright]

Not one bit surprised. I mentioned this was going to happen. Add him to the other Euros the Giants have dumped before Xmas.

Wouldn't surprise me if their entire scouting staff was booted after another blundering season of Euro picks & some of the guys they've chosen in the last 5 years.

It's definitely one of the reasons why the rebuild will be longer than it should.

Ya i think the giants need a shake up in scouting! Drafting too! Other than probably Benson, althought it remains to be seen.

[Priceisright]

Do we have a euro spot open now?

[Giantsfan]

Yes they do. Word is Bonner wants Tvrdon back, but Hay & Tvrdon don't get along. He's in the ECHL & I'm sure Bonner is/has inquired on bringing him back.

[Hockeyak]

I think the Major Junior Leagues in general have difficulty assimilating Euros into the major junior style, length of season and travel demands. Of course, there are exceptions but some of the best Euros aren't coming to Canada. A couple of goalies have worked out ok but there are some Jr. clubs opting to go with 1 Euro or even none.

In regards to the Giants, it could open the door for Tverdon to come back and get traded, which would give value to the Giants. It could also open the door for a Euro goalie in trade - who knows???

[rinkrat]

Do we have a euro spot open now?

I heard Eder is still on Giants list, therefore they do not have an open Euro spot.

[Priceisright]

I remeber when the giants had marek schwartz in net. Euro i believe. Lol. Sorry i had a flashback. :p

He was pretty decent. Not sure what happened to him.

[Giantsfan]

Tvrdon isn't coming back. He & Hay hate each other so that is done.

Schwartz, he was terrible! I'll always remember Byfuglien scoring on him from center ice. Another Euro disatster.

[Priceisright]

56 3304min 147ga 0 2 2.67 26 24 4 1325 0.900

Not too bad.

And he was a 1st round pick by St Louis

[Giantsfan]

We'll agree to disagree on Schwartz.

Brule was also a 1st round pick. That means nothing.

[johnnyradiant]

Just proves St. Louis picks dub goalies like the Giants pick imports

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Tvrdon is a 20, so the Giants would have to dump either Thrower (no chance), Franson (no chance, Don likes him) or Traber (no chance, we need his muscle).

I'd be disgusted if Tvrdon ends up back here.

[Priceisright]

Just proves St. Louis picks dub goalies like the Giants pick imports

So sad. :(

[Giantsfan]

Tvrdon is a 20, so the Giants would have to dump either Thrower (no chance), Franson (no chance, Don likes him) or Traber (no chance, we need his muscle).

I'd be disgusted if Tvrdon ends up back here.

You don't have to worry, Tvrdon isn't coming back.

[Lucic]

Tvrdon is a 20, so the Giants would have to dump either Thrower (no chance), Franson (no chance, Don likes him) or Traber (no chance, we need his muscle).

I'd be disgusted if Tvrdon ends up back here.

Agreed on all accounts.

[Giantsfan]

I agree as well, although, I won't be surprised when/if Traber is traded.

[johnnyradiant]

Out of all the giants players from start to today I can think of no other player that can step on the ice for a shift and raise my blood pressure. All an opposition player has to do to carry a puck past him is skate about an inch from his comfortable reach unless he thinks checking could get him the puck with minimal effort that leads to a scoring chance for him.

His 'give a damn meter' as referenced by Ewen is not an up down thing based on the game it is truly based on every shift - if he has possession or can easily get possession to lead to his goal chances he gives a damn, if no possession or no chance for a goal he don't give. If he wants to play hockey for $ and doesn't want to give a damn he should at least take some acting lessons to like like he does.

[johnnyradiant]

Franson or Traber can be traded for an upgrade if one exists though I like them and wouldn't mind if they stayed but to move them out for Tvrdon is asking me to consider staying home.

He may score some goals but how many does he allow the other way? I'd rather have a good 2-way player score a dozen goals than 30 of his.

[dondo]

I was not aware that we could send a euro player down/back and keep his rights. I don't think getting Tvrdon back as a two spotter is the best idea, but he can put the puck in the back of the net. Losing Eder really is no loss, but he should be, have been, a better player from the outset.

I was watching the Super Series the other day and I can't help but see a Russian like Zaramov (his dominance and power) and wonder why we didn't get a player like that with our very high euro pick. Is it that Osipov is still too young to get it, or are we that bad or that ill-thought of by agents who handle the hihg-level talent to get the really good players?

Osipov should be another Meszaros, but he looks more like Gordichuk out there. I mean w t f? seriously. Our scouts have got to pick better than that. We should be watching a D-man who demolishes the opponent at every level with the pick we earned by being so crappy and yet we keep getting also-rans and soft as butter players from the euro ranks

Hay is a big problem with regard to euro players for sure and could be the major reason we cannot acquire a dominant elite international player. Hay didn't seem to like Repik early on either and Bliznak just played his style of hockey, unimaginative shut-down hockey.

I have to say that having Hay as a coach has some great upside, but in the end he has got to get over his attitude toward skill players and allow them to play their best game. Shutting down a free-wheeling scoring forward and putting them in a box, helps neither the player nor the team in the end. Pair them with a responsible checker and play-makers as other teams do.

[dondo]

Franson or Traber can be traded for an upgrade if one exists though I like them and wouldn't mind if they stayed but to move them out for Tvrdon is asking me to consider staying home.

He may score some goals but how many does he allow the other way? I'd rather have a good 2-way player score a dozen goals than 30 of his.

That's the team we have had for years now and really I want a player that can consistently pot 30 goals. Put him with two responsible two-way playmakers, let him learn the whole game, but coming from his strengths.

Hay has hampered far too many elite skill players from being creative for my liking and now I feel that the agents of these really elite players just won't consent to them coming here.

As far as I understand it you can only draft import players who are willing to consent to come to your team. Diplomacy and negotiation play a bigger part than how high your pick is in the draft. I know that's not how it should be, but that is what it is. So was Eder not fitting in because he didn't have the skill/hunger or was it because he was being hampered doing what it is he does best?

We currently have plumbers coughing up the puck. I'd prefer to see a few turnovers from a player that can get that back and more than having a team laden with under-skilled workers who have a hard time finding the back of the net. We need those guys of course, but it's about time we had some real elite skill as well and this most recent euro draft should have garnered us two seriously elite players.

We also can't have project players, when Hay isn't willing to give them the chance to become better. Lamoureux for me was one the most useless forwards we have had in recent memory and yet Hay gave him years of chances, which he will not seem to give to a euro player. if you're an import you start in the doghouse and have to work your way out. How does that help the team, the player or the future?

[johnnyradiant]

I agree that Lamoureux was not a player to have had so many chances. For me at least it was more of a disappointment or is he gonna connect this shift. With Tvrdon I just have an instantaneous bp jump 'cause of his care least of all of you defensive or even team play, and I guess when he does care and gives a 100% you see what he is capable of.

[Priceisright]

Do you think the giants will send Osipov back as well? He hardly ever plays right? Why keep him if Hay refuses to have him in the stands on many nights.

Bad scouting.

I feel bad for the russian to be honest. Young guy wanting to play.

Granted i cant really comment on his play so far.

[Giantsfan]

Wouldn't surprise me if Osipov was gone after Xmas. I'm surprised he's still here to be honest. Obviously Hay doesn't like him & Hay is the problem.
The import player the Giants wanted the most was told by (I believe) Kevin Epp that his client wanted to play in the OHL so that tells you something.
Just another kid that doesn't want to play for Don Hay.

[SectionNDeserter]

I was not aware that we could send a euro player down/back and keep his rights.I think that you can do it, but it doesn't happen that often because it uses up a spot on the protected list. If you are Eder, what would be your thoughts on leaving Germany and showing up at training camp next season?

[Giantsfan]

Correct, Eder is still Giant's property but he needed playing time & he needed his confidence back.

I don't know why they didn't send him to jr.A. Maybe he was homesick. Either way, the way he was playing, he won't be missed.

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Any way you slice it, it's clear that the Euro draft is not a very big deal anymore, even if you select first overall like the Giants did this year. Euros seem be nothing more than experiments. Some work, some don't. What I don't understand is why you bother drafting one who is so soft, like Eder. He clearly has puck skill, but if he doesn't come here at the outset that he has to be fully-prepared to at least try to assimilate to the more physical North American game, then it's a waste of time for all involved.
CHL teams, and especially WHL teams, would be much better off selecting players who have the propensity to welcome a physical style of play. Maybe there aren't many of them at this young age scattered throughout Europe, but at least the ones that do have a fighting chance to play effectively early on, instead of struggling for a year or two and having their confidence plummet the way so many do now simply by the fact they're not ready for the grinding style here. It's time to start ignoring skill and go for more physical and mental toughness.
That said, I have no idea where Osipov stands, but I'd be surprised if he returns after Christmas...and Don will be holding the door for him on the way out.

[dondo]

Knuckles watch some of the Super Series and the dominant Russian players already playing in the CHL and you can see that we got shafted with our pick. We should have got a Yakupov or Ovechkin or at the very least a young Meszaros, but it's pretty clear the Giants euro scouting is broken, completely and entirely. I don't know if this can be laid just on Hay's tough-love style of coaching it has got to be much deeper than that.

The thing is that if Osipov was a top-rated euro and was indeed the first over-all pick for the KHL -- which I highly doubt - might have been first over-all at some level, but not the KHL. If that was the case he would be on every single prospect pundits list and a player to watch. I am reading more press about our 15 yr old bantam draft than our top or close to top European pick. Also why the project players? If you are really in doubt, then why not pick up a freshly drafted NHL team pick who wants him developed at this level and schooled in the NA game? Why two completely unknown 17 yr olds?

This whole thing stinks at every level and someone needs to lose their job. The more I think about it and angrier I get. That pick does not come around often and it was badly wasted. Why? Not only are our scouts obviously incompetent, but they must be stupid as well. It feels like when the Canucks "go off the boards" in the first round to pick up a project nobody they could have snagged in the 5th round. Somebody sold us a bill of goods or there are kickbacks in the works or something.

With the pick we got we should have gained a true marquee player and not an also-ran pair of unmotivated players. I'm sorry if I am offending anybody in the system, but really compare some of the top talent coming out of Europe and try to tell me that we got the best we could get.

I know agents are a big factor, but seriously we are one of the few teams that have the resources to attract and hold those top level players, yet we have picked crap since the Memorial Cup years - even Repik and Bliznak were projects of a sort. The only decent euro we got was actually not technically an import. Musil.

[Giantsfan]

I don't think Mezaros was going to be here if the NHL didn't have a lockout in 04-05. I'm sure he would have been in the NHL.

Definitely would have been nice to find a Sven Bartschi or a Nino Niederreiter with those two top picks the Giants had. What happened??!!

[patsdude114]

The euro draft is all who you know in the hockey world, sometimes it even comes down to past players as well.

The Giants have a Ripplinger as the head of there scouting staff & believe me I know how that goes being a Pats fan & having a Ripplinger in the past as our Head Scout, they are not very good in what they do but yet they are talked so highly of... don't get it at all.

I am happy with the 2 picks the Pats made this year in the Euro Draft, Sinitsyn has been a welcomed addition to the Pats blueline, he has a lethal shot & most nights is a top 5 player on the ice for both teams combined. At the start of the year at times he seemed not interested during certain points of the game but he is finding his stride now & excelling more and more each game. Maxim Krammerer (from GER) has been a quality player as well, when we drafted him GM Lang said he would be abit of a project, but by no means has he hurt our hockey club at all, he has great offensive instincts he just needs to mature alittle more as a player. He has shown some great flashes of what he can/could be capable of doing with more confidence.

I do think that Hay's hockey is boring to watch, he for the most part gets the most out of his players just he plays a very bland style of hockey. Hay has never been an offensive style of coach, he wins with defense 1st and nothing else. Im glad he doesn't have anything more to do with Hockey Canada for the WJs was never fun to watch Team Canada when he was HC

[Giantsfan]

Looking back in May 2010, Ripplinger was considered a front runner as a successor to Scott Bonner if he left for the Edmonton Oilers job. At that time, he was also considered a candidate for GM of the Pats. Wow, thank goodness that didn't happen.

[Giantsfan]

Taken from the Leader Post (Regina) May 19th 2006

While head coach Don Hay and GM Scott Bonner have received most of the accolades that go with winning Vancouver's first WHL title, Ripplinger continues to be a key man behind the scenes.

The fruits of his labour are sprinkled throughout Vancouver's championship lineup, including star centre Gilbert Brule, captain Mark Fistric and sniper Tim Kraus. In total, nine of the Giants' top 12 playoff scorers were either drafted or listed by Ripplinger.

"A lot of things just fell into place for us," he noted. "We've made some good picks, we've made good trades, we got some tips on some guys that fell through the cracks and we have some good connections for Europeans. Even some of the guys that haven't really panned out for us, we've turned them into something (by trading them)."

Some of Ripplinger's best finds include high-profile NHL prospects like Brule and Fistric. However, in many cases, the Giants' bread and butter has been late-round bantam draft picks and free-agent pickups like Kraus, Jon Blum, J.D. Watt, Cody Franson and Spencer Machacek.

"(It's satisfying) to look at how much they've matured," Ripplinger said. "A guy like Mark Fistric, we drafted him at 14, and there he is at 19 raising the Cup.

"After the (last game of the WHL final), I had all of them coming up to me. A guy like Brule -- he's a first-round pick (in the NHL) -- for him to come up and say if it wasn't for you ... he wouldn't be here, it's pretty special."

Ripplinger admits the entire experience has been somewhat overwhelming.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," he said. "From Day 1 (Bonner) and (Hay) gave us a chance and I put together a good scouting staff, put good people around me who work hard all the time. It has been great."

There's also the matter of family bragging rights for Ripplinger, whose brother Todd holds the same job with the Regina Pats and enjoyed his moment in the sun during the 2001 Memorial Cup.

Todd was among a group of family and friends who were standing by Jason's side -- some adorned in Giants' colours -- when Vancouver clinched the WHL title on May 9 in Moose Jaw.

"It's unbelievable," Jason said of enjoying the moment with his family. "Todd got me into scouting. He has always been there for us and supporting us.

"And," he added, "I think the Regina Pats will be there in a year or two. I really do."

[dondo]

The euro draft is all who you know in the hockey world, sometimes it even comes down to past players as well.

The Giants have a Ripplinger as the head of there scouting staff & believe me I know how that goes being a Pats fan & having a Ripplinger in the past as our Head Scout, they are not very good in what they do but yet they are talked so highly of... don't get it at all.

I am happy with the 2 picks the Pats made this year in the Euro Draft, Sinitsyn has been a welcomed addition to the Pats blueline, he has a lethal shot & most nights is a top 5 player on the ice for both teams combined. At the start of the year at times he seemed not interested during certain points of the game but he is finding his stride now & excelling more and more each game. Maxim Krammerer (from GER) has been a quality player as well, when we drafted him GM Lang said he would be abit of a project, but by no means has he hurt our hockey club at all, he has great offensive instincts he just needs to mature alittle more as a player. He has shown some great flashes of what he can/could be capable of doing with more confidence.

I do think that Hay's hockey is boring to watch, he for the most part gets the most out of his players just he plays a very bland style of hockey. Hay has never been an offensive style of coach, he wins with defense 1st and nothing else. Im glad he doesn't have anything more to do with Hockey Canada for the WJs was never fun to watch Team Canada when he was HC

Interesting perspective. I was unaware of the Ripplinger history and wonder if he has either lost his touch or more likely a key guy in his team who was actually doing the leg-work quit or was let-go. Bosses taking credit for underlings is a common practice and maybe he was the face, but not the engine. In those heydays our free-agent pick-ups were pretty amazing getting players like Blum and Franson and Lucic among others was a major coup

Several years ago I would not have said that Hay is a defense first kind of coach. Those teams won by forechecking aggressively, taking the puck away and maintaining possession. Lately though he has been blaming lack of skilled guys to play that kind of hockey, but really forechecking does not take skill more than it does heart and effort. The current crop seems to be willing to grind out those forechecks and the games as of late have been entertaining. I personally find we get into trouble when try to sit back and defend a lead. We started the season playing passive hockey and it burned us.