Bringing Dea along should be a priority this year. Likely trade an older D for a quality setup man.
Rookie
Bringing Dea along should be a priority this year. Likely trade an older D for a quality setup man.
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No one has Corbin projected to come back at all ? have i missed something is he going pro not coming back or no intrest ? i guess he can be a defensive liability at times but he can be a good power play specialist
All-Star
Corbin caused 2 goals for every one he scored...hopefully he's traded during camp. On a team that had a horrible defense he was one of the main causes and I won't be sad to see him go no matter how good an offensive threat he is.Originally Posted by lordstanley
-Wapitikev
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From a outsiders view i thought the same thing and Yaworski was the same way with less offense and took to many dumb penalty's hopefully you guy's can land a good 20 year old for your back end
4th Liner
Douglas would be better served taking up minutes elsewhere, have watched this kid for a long time and he has come a long ways, but not ready for the dub in my opinion this year.
Neither Corbin or Hart should be back on this team, hopefully Bruno can get some nice water bottles or pucks for practice for them and save the team some money this year.
If Yaworski plays the way he did last year Tim Leonard will personally drive him to the airport even if their is no flight booked,of that I guarantee you, he doesn't live with undisciplined players, so we will see very early on what say Leonard has on the bench.
I am not sold on both Gardiner and Vanstone being in the lineup this season, Vanstone just may go back to AAA for one more season. The coaching staff in place generally speaking likes older players more than a tonne of youth especially in such a big season for the team. Not that i would be shocked if they were both here, just saying don't be surprised if Vanstone goes back to AAA depending on moves made this year in off season or at start of season.
Quinney will not sign with the Raiders, which is very surprising as why would he bother coming to the spring camp only to then have his Dad tell Bruno that he won't sign to play here??
Bourhis will be gone, can't keep a 20 with very limited skills, i feel sorry for him that with this terrible group of D we had he never was given a chance to play his true position.
I still think given appropriate ice time Berry-Lamontange could help this group on the PP, i don't mind his puck moving skills, but I doubt he is here as that ship sailed last year.
Miller is a basket case that the raiders will have a publicity nightmares with if he ever plays here, the kid really needs to straighten out his life before he worries about hockey.
Tim Leonard is a defense first coach, offence builds from defence and turnovers, positioning means everything and absolutely no slack for any dumb penalties what so ever, hopefully he gets the reigns on those issues as we clearly saw last year Steve Young seems to think taking 4 or 5 dumb penalties a night is ok for players like Yaworski.
This team "should" be around 4th place, anything less than that and the season will be a failure in my opinion, and no more excuses for the organization or Bruno or anyone else, this is their team it is that simple!!
All-Star
Bruno has stated publicly that he is here to win a cup. He's smart enough to know that doesn't happen by playing older players that have mediocre talent in favour of kids that have potential to be far better, come playoff time, than the current veterans. That's not the approach they took with Morrissey and he knows that's NOT how to get kids drafted to the NHL from your team...which is critical from both a "come and play here" advertising standpoint (for kids like Gage Quinney and Brendan Guhle) and also from a NHL-payments for drafted-prospects standpoint.
When did this become official?
As late as Friday I was hearing from my sources that Gage would rather be in PA than Arizona this fall.
Quinney has a lot more to consider than a younger draft-pick like Guhle does...it's far easier and cheaper for dad to drive from Vegas to Arizona to watch sonny play than to come to PA, plus NCAA eligibility after his last year of high-school, etc. Just because there's no contract yet doesn't mean there won't be one before camp.
Agreed.
May get a camp invite...didn't look any better than Corbin or Yaworski when he was re-assigned last season.
Thankfully (for all parties) Miller's still over a year away from being eligible to play here as a 16yo...far more likely that he'll be given 2 years to get his shnike together for 14/15...assuming he even plays hockey this fall. Hope, for his sake that he fixes himself.
Miller strikes me as one of the "projects" that Bruno likes to have going on. We saw McCallum and Parker succeed in 2010 and 2011. Unfortunately the Constant and Fiddler projects failed in 2012. All you can do is give the kids a chance...if they succeed or not, that's up to them.
Dave, Tim and Kelly will have a positive effect on the team...I'm sure they'll put up with no b/s from the vetrans...I sincerely hope that Steve lets his coaches coach.
If Yaworski and Corbin are not lights-out better, born-again defensive machines at camp this fall, then punch their ticket when camp is finished.
Time to cut bait and give the younger guys a chance to suck, less.
Except for the three players that will be 20 this year (players Bruno has had to barter for using the complete talent wasteland that was the Raider's 2007 draft), yes, this is now Bruno's team.
I won't go as far as 4th = failure; my fail cut-off is 80 points, wherever that leaves us in the Conference standings.
-Wapitikev
All-Star
Every 2 years (for at least the last 6, I didn't check further than that.) the amount of points needed to make the playoffs in the WHL has followed an up/down trend. For example the points needed to make the playoffs in 2007,2009 & 2011 averaged 67.78, but the amount needed in 2008, 2010, and 2012 was 82.7.
This year should be a down-swing year, if the trend continues as it has.
That would mean that the points needed to get 4th, this year, averages out to be 89.3, whereas 5th should be 81.7.
So, back to my expectations and predictions. I posted (numerous times since February) that I expected at least 80 points and predicted that we would end up at 85.
In 2007, 85 points was enough for 4th in the conference and in 2009 86 was required...there was a spike in 2011 that dragged the average up to 89.
So at 85 points, 4th is a possibility...but not a guarantee...if past trends continue.
...but 90 points would be better.
Heh.
-Wapitikev
Last edited by Wapitikev; 06-10-2012 at 08:21 AM.
4th Liner
I will not get into it on every post with you all year long again other than to say this.
Quinney is jockeying for something, I will say that, but so far has told Bruno he will not sign here as of yet.......hopefully that changes and he gives the Raiders a chance.
Young players getting drafted from your team etc etc means nothing anymore cash wise(it certainly does publicity wise)the money from the drafted players is dispersed via league not via team anymore as far as I am aware. So having a first round choice to the NHL doesn't get you 50K from that team anymore like it used to.
And time to stop blaming the 2007 draft for all our problems, I am so f'ing sick of hearing how that is the problem.....many other teams totally turn it around in 2 years it has been 5 years since that draft, and if that draft was any good those players would be gone to the pro ranks anyways, so forget about the 2007 draft!!
heres to hoping they can have a good year and turn this ship around!!
All-Star
I agreed with virtually everything you said in your original post...even that it is now Bruno's team.
I've said for months that the coming season (not the last one) signals the end of the rebuild. I haven't changed my mind.
So, yes, the time for excuses is over. We can now forget about the fact that there were important reasons why we sucked for the last 4 years and begin giving Bruno 100% of the blame for the team's success or failure this season.
87% of Bruno's players, this fall, are from the ages where Bruno was GM...and he's done as much as he can over the last 4 years (and is likely still working) to make those other three 20yo positions as good as they possibly can be.
What I don't understand is: As a scout, knowing how badly that WHL teams need to draft well, why would it make you angry to discuss that blowing draft after a draft (like the Raiders did from 2003 to 2007) affected our team's ability to compete for the last 4 years?
Yes, if the 2007 draft was "Bruno-good" then one or more of our best players would likely be in the AHL or NHL @ 20 this year...but who wouldn't like a team full of Brandon Herrods? The decent 20s we have this year is via trade only.
I'd be happy to discuss a team that prospered sooner than PA and also did NOT have prospects in 2008 who have since grown to lead their team in the past few years. This discussion has taken place here at least once in the last 6 months and not a single team mentioned had an empty cupboard in 2008.
I'm as frustrated as everyone else about what happened in the past and how the team did as a result.
It seems we both hope they have a good year to turn the ship around.
-Wapitikev
Last edited by Wapitikev; 06-10-2012 at 01:21 PM.
All-Star
And thanx for correcting me regarding the payments to the teams for NHL pdrafted prospects...I didn't know it had changed.
-Wapitikev
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