From the Hamilton Spectator (Steve Milton):
Other than the implosion by the Americans, it’s been a very good world junior tournament for Montreal Canadiens and, by extension, Hamilton Bulldogs.
Two of their defence prospects, Sweden’s Nichlas Torp and Canada’s PK Subban, were involved in last night’s gold-medal game.
And while two more prospects, defenceman Ryan McDonagh and forward Danny Kristo, were out of the medals after Team USA was upset by Slovakia in the quarter-final, McDonagh registered an assist on the OT goal against the Czechs which gave them fifth place. Kristo, a fourth-liner, was used regularly when the U.S. fell behind and needed a goal, although he scored only once in the tournament.
Kristo has yet to enter college, so is two or three years from a professional career. McDonagh, a sophomore at University of Wisconsin, hasn’t decided whether he’ll leave college at season’s end, but the betting among hockey people is that he will. First-rounders — he was drafted 12th overall in 2007 — don’t usually complete their four-year college eligibility.
“We don’t push them,” said Habs’ assistant GM Pierre Gauthier. “It’s their choice what they do with their careers. (Max) Pacioretty, (Ryan) O’Byrne, those type of guys, they decided when they’d turn pro, we didn’t.”
If McDonagh does turn pro, he’d likely spend at least part of next year in Hamilton, where Subban is almost sure to be, and where Torp would like to be.
“I want to make Montreal but if I have to, then I’d play in Hamilton, that’s what I want to do,” Torp said. “PK is a really good player, and I hope we’ll play on the same team next year. I just need to play a lot of games. I was injured last year and didn’t play any games. So I want to come to North America, play a lot of games, and from that I think I can jump to the bigs.”
Torp reminds Gauthier and other team execs of Francis Bouillon, a former Bulldog and like Torp an undersized, muscular defenceman with a good shot.
“I don’t watch the NHL as much as I want because the games are in the middle of the night in Sweden,” Torp noted.
“But I try to follow the Canadiens as much as possible and he’s (Bouillon) a very good player and I could learn a lot from him.”
Gauthier considers Torp, taken 163rd in the same draft as McDonagh and Subban, “a prospect,” and said that bringing him to Canada next year “is something we’ll have to talk about.”
Subban, meanwhile, went into last night’s game with a plus-12 ranking, by far the best in the tournament. He’s still raw in a number of areas and the Canadiens expect he’ll be in Hamilton next year.
“That’s the normal progression,” Gauthier said. “He’s a guy who comes to play every night, that’s one of his qualities, and those type of people improve. He’s such an enthusiastic guy he’ll be a leader on any team he plays on.
“His skating style goes with his personality: he’s a jumpy guy. He’s really improved over the two years. I think our scouts did a very good job of projecting a guy like that who was really green but had a lot of upside. It’s starting to really show now.”
Gauthier said of the three defencemen, all of whom could be in Hamilton next year: “They’re all progressing which is the important thing. And getting their experience. When they get to the pros, they’ll adjust and it’s not necessarily the adjustments they’re making now.
“Don Lever and Ron Wilson (Bulldog coaches) do a great job in helping these kids make the adjustment in Hamilton. They do it year after year, we see it with the guys who have been up this year.”
Habster:
Trevor Timmins and his entire scouting staff are finally enjoying a well deserved off day after attending all the U-20 WJC games in Ottawa and the 2009 U-17 World Challenge tournament being held in Port Alberni, BC the last 10 days or so.
Timmins and his staff have been very busy writing evaluation reports on draft eligible players for the 2009 NHL draft (2010 and 2011 drafts as well) and their own prospects for future reference.
I would imagine when they meet again to have a de-briefing in the near future (if it hasn’t already happened), there will be a whole lot of smiles around the table.
The Canadiens organization has to be thrilled with the performances of their prospects at this year’s tournament and will be looking for their next draft gems in future drafts.
Needless to say, player evaluation is a very unexact science at the best of times. Amateur scouts have to not only evaluate a young player’s on ice performance, but also have to know what he’s like in the locker room, at home and with his friends. Basically, a scout has to analyse everything a young player does simply because their employer is investing so much time and money into the process of evaluating, drafting and developing these young players.
The Detriot Red Wings are the masters of player evaluation with such late-mid round gems as Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Valtteri Filppula, Tomas Holmstrom and Mikael Samuelsson to name quite a few.
The Montreal Canadiens are starting to gain a similar reputation with their draft success the last five years. Trevor Timmins and the Habs have late round gems of their own in Sergei Kostitsyn, Matt D’Agostini,Jaroslav Halak and Tomas Plekanec. Not yet in the same category as Zetterberg and Datsyuk but going in the right direction.
The solid performances of P.K Subban (named to the WJC media All-Star team, 9 points (G-3 A-6) +12), Ryan McDonagh (solid two way play with tons of top four minutes), Nicholas Torp (another Francis Bouillon) and Danny Kristo ( PK duties in limited TOI) have Timmins brimming with pride and great hope for the future of the Canadiens.