The Next Chris Pronger? Or Brad Stuart? Or Mike Mottau?
It looks like Erik Johnson will be living with the "Pronger" label for the next six-to-eight-to-ten years, or however long it takes to define himself as an adult hockey player.
Everyone seems to agree that the hulking defenseman from Bloomington, Minnesota will be the first pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Whether he'll log over 30 minutes per night in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs is another matter.
"Erik Johnson is further along in his development right now than Chris Pronger was when Pronger was an 18-year-old," says one scout, as quoted by Bob McKenzie at TSN.
Then again, it's only been a few years since Brad Stuart was "the next Chris Pronger" and Mike Mottau was a "Brian Leetch look-alike." If there's one draft-day commodity more plentiful than young talent, it's hot air.
For all you draft junkies out there...
Is the European Pipeline Running Dry?
This year's draft will be "decidedly less continental" says the Columbus Dispatch:
It used to be that a team could draft a European player, leave him unsigned and let him sit in Sweden, Finland or wherever. NHL teams maintained rights to these players until the players turned age 31. League GMs could keep tabs on the player. When he was deemed ready, or needed, he was signed and brought to North America...
The new agreement calls for teams to sign European draft picks within a span of two years. Any unsigned players re-enter the draft pool. Put another way: European draft picks are now treated exactly like North American picks.
There's also a new system of transfer fees, which means it costs money every time an NHL team coaxes a European player across the pond. Russia has yet to sign on to that tranfer agreement, so the costs of drafting and signing a Russian kid are unknown.
Sounds like a sensible new system. The NHL still gets its pick of the top teens, but there will be no strip-mining of European prospects. A player stays home until an NHL team is ready to make an investment in him. It's better for the European leagues and certainly better for the players over there, who previously saw their NHL rights tied to one team for virtually their entire careers.
Comments
Zero comments? More likely “zero undeleted” comments. I’d take Stuart on my team any day.