There are a lot of places that can delve into the details of the draft more thoroughly than I can today, but I think it's safe to say that Montreal upped the ante in the Eastern Conference by trading their first round pick to Calgary for Alex Tanguay and nabbing the exclusive rights to negotiate with Mats Sundin until July 1st.
If Bob Gainey can sign Sundin, the Habs are going to be a powerhouse next year. Don't forget that Carey Price is going to be a year older as well as the vastly underrated Kostitsyn brothers.
Gainey's aggressive moves put a lot of pressure on Ottawa GM Bryan Murray to do something and he made a strong first step by signing Chris Kelly to a four year deal. Losing Kelly would have been a big loss to the penalty kill and now Murray has to go out shopping for skill on both the blueline and the power-play. Getting Cory Stillman back under contract would be a good start.
There's already been some criticism for Ottawa's first round pick in Erik Karlsson but I think fans should trust the scouts who do this for a living. TSN reported that Brian Burke and the Ducks were chasing Karlsson before Murray snagged him.
Ottawa is lacking skilled depth in the organization and Karlsson is a good first step to repairing that imbalance.
"Karlsson has been compared to Detroit blueliner Niklas Kronwall.
Karlsson needs to get bigger, but those who have seen him play say that he "hits like a Mack truck" and has tremendous offensive skills that are going to help the Senators' power play down the road. "
- Ottawa Sun (Bruce Garrioch)
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"He led all defencemen in points at the U-18 Worlds grabbing 7 assists in 6 games. He was selected as the best defenceman in the tournament. In 38 games with his junior club Frolunda, Karlsson averaged almost a point a game scoring 13 goals and adding 24 assists. His 68 PIM showed he may be small but is feisty. He also played seven games in the Swedish elite league where he scored a goal and registered a plus-2 rating. "
- USA Today
2 comments:
It is a little hard to get excited about a kid that is the same height I am but weighs what i did in grade 9...I guess we could pair him with Lee on the blueline and and hope other teams go easy on them cause they feel bad about beating up on a couple of kids and worry about child abuse charges, or they may look at playing them as a chance to take candy from babies. The swede might be awesome down the road but he certainly wont adress the sens perennial need to toughen up, he wont help at all next year, and until he reaches puberty doesnt seem like too much to be excited about. Tiny forwards are one thing in the "new" nhl but tiny defensemen? Dont defensemen need to be able to defend? to clear the net? scoring is great, but making key stops and shutting down opposing teams when it counts is the sens achilles heel, not filling the net.
If he is another defenseman like Kronwall, you are going to love this guy.
Another scout wanted to talk to his team about Kronwall, and they laughed about taking a lightweight, 5' 10" Swedish defenseman and didn't even listen to the scout - Kronwall put on weight as he matured, this young man will no doubt as well. It takes time especially for defensemen to develop - don't throw him out before he has a chance to mature.
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