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Post by nfld77 on Jan 11, 2021 8:29:02 GMT -5
Those updates are awesome!!
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 11, 2021 8:47:01 GMT -5
Key points:
He asked for a trade during last year, Carolina was interested. Bruins rejected the request.
Team had a problem that Zbořil plays videogames too much. They though he plays until two in the morning. He denies it.
He deleted his social media after people were dicks toward him and Senyshyn and DeBrusk after he didn't pass the run test during his first camp. He was inujed at that time.
He was infected by covid but he should be fine now
They asked a lot of him: "Don't play so many of those video games. You get angry easily and forward you give up, brace yourself. You have to work harder, the media is watching you.” Czech defender Jakub Zbořil has undergone - had to undergo - a game and personality transformation, a strict Boston upbringing. Now 23, he's the closest he's ever come to becoming a hockey player for the famous Bruins.
Five years out of the draft, Zbořil can talk about new hope, signing a new two-year contract with the Bruins a week ago.
Was there something to think about?
Not at all! They gave me a one-way contract, my girlfriend, my dad and everyone else told me right away not to wait for anything, that I should have signed it right away.
You didn't want to say so publicly at the time, but you asked the Bruins to trade last season. That's why I ask.
You know, after Boston dropped out of the playoffs, I had a session with General Manager Don Sweeney. He told me to my face that he was going to make big changes and I would have the best chance of making the team. He said he'd give me an opportunity to settle into the team and play. It's probably going the right way.
So he shouldn't send you to the farm right away?
The one-way contract has the advantage that if they want to send me there, I have to go through the so-called "waiver list," a list of available players from where any other club could take me without compensation. I take that as a kind of insurance policy that I might settle on another team.
Do you have any reports that anyone else is interested in you?
Not really now, but towards the end of last season Carolina wanted me. That was when I requested the trade, but the Bruins rejected it.
It's been five years since your draft. How do you feel about those years?
Positive. They were very heavy on the head, on the other hand they toughened me up. They're very strict in the Boston organization, not like other teams. They wanted to change me - my personality, my life. That was a bit of a problem for me, because I don't like to change, but in that time I've kind of gotten into it.
What did they ask you to do?
In hockey, they taught me to always want to play. If something goes wrong, I don't stop and want to go on the ice again. I used to get mad and the game would end for me after one mistake.
If you don't mind answering: What about in your personal life?
They had problems with that too. (Laughter) I like playing video games. You see, life in the AHL is like, you go on a hibernation at 8:30, you're home at 12, and what are you supposed to do with the day off? On a farm, you form a crew, turn on the xbox, the playstation, and play. The bad thing was the management thought I was playing until 2:00 at night, but that's not true.
How did they find out?
I don't know where they got it. But it stuck. Even now, when the coach from Providence sees me, he immediately jokes, 'Well, did you play again?' I'm a little annoyed, they might let it go, don't get into the boys' business so much, because it's not pleasant. At the same time, I understand that the farm is for the player to develop physically and personally.
Did you mention they're not as strict elsewhere as you know?
I heard from Kempas [Michael Kempny's] that in Chicago they were strict too, they watched the food, the players were on a diet. Well, when he came to Washington, he saw crisps on the table before the first game. So he picked up two. Just a different mentality.
Why is Boston more strict?
Probably because of the pressure of the city, living the sport. People want clubs to win cups, stay on top. When things go wrong, people turn it down and spit a lot. There is also a lot of pressure from the media.
You experienced it?
You know it. Right after the draft. I was suffering from ligaments in my knee, it hurt. And they gave us some sort of running tests at camp... Boston took three first-round picks in 2015. Me (13th), Jake DeBrusk (14th) and Zach Senyshyn (15th), and neither of us made them. It didn't matter at all then that most of the others didn't make them, we were first-round picks, so they ratted us out to the newspapers. And people spit.
How did you take it?
I wiped out my social media to focus on hockey. I don't care who thinks what of strangers.
The three of you have been the talk of the day, with only DeBrusk caught in the NHL so far. Boston had overlooked the stars of Barzal, Connor, or Konecny.
Well, Zach and I are one of the last of what was then a first-round pick who hasn't settled in the NHL yet. We talk about it together, but what we think about it, I couldn't leak to the media. At the same time, it's a huge motivation for me. Seeing how many people have stopped trusting me... I want to show them.
You premiered two games two years ago. Even then, you believed you could handle the league.
I still do. Those first fights are the worst in that you don't know what to expect. To an outsider, hockey seems awfully simple, but then you get on the ice and it's not. You just have to get used to it.
If you're looking at the Bruins' current defense, leader Torey Krug is gone, waiting for Zdeno Chára. Where do you fit in?
The rivalry is going to be huge, the Bruins now have, like, ten defensemen to play in the NHL. My biggest competitor is probably, or should be, Lauzon. I believe I'm better.
But you can't prove it until next year, now you're temporarily with the Kometa Brno.
And even though we only played two games, I loved it. Hopefully there's something else we can do, we weren't in shape against Pilsen, it was much better against Budejovice.
Wasn't it strange when you knew that after a long quarantine, you only had two games to play and the league would stop all over again?
I'm sure we were sorry. If it hadn't stopped, we'd have a great schedule, a game every third day. So, yeah, it was sad. We're waiting now, but none of us are counting on the extras coming up again soon.
How do you keep up?
It was in play to go across the border to Austria and go on the ice there, but it didn't work out, so we're just doing our exercises at home.
You and your brother Adam from Mladá Boleslav have been through covid, how did you manage it?
It wasn't pleasant at all, I had a headache, the fevers lasted maybe three days. My brother had it easier, he only lost his taste, so he just oversalted the food. We both practice and play on playstation together now.
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 11, 2021 8:47:57 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 11, 2021 14:07:11 GMT -5
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Post by madmarx on Jan 11, 2021 15:21:51 GMT -5
The thing about doing a project like this is that one team always has to finish last. This year, that team is the Bruins.
This shouldn’t really surprise anyone. The Bruins’ pool was already thin a year ago, a pair of C-grade defensemen graduated out of my age criteria for a prospect (Jeremy Lauzon and Jakob Zboril are now 23), and they had just four picks in the 2020 draft, the earliest of which was 58th overall.
Some contending teams can stave off this kind of a ranking. For most, though, this becomes an inevitable cost of doing business at some point in their championship window.
2020 prospect pool rank: No. 30 (change: -1)
1. Jack Studnicka, C, 21 (Providence Bruins/Boston Bruins)
I’m not as fond of Studnicka’s skill level as some evaluators are but he had an excellent rookie season at the pro level, exceeding my expectations and becoming a top player in the AHL before earning a well-deserved promotion. I didn’t love what I saw out of him in the bubble. It felt like he was asked to do too much initially and he responded by simplifying his game a little too much, taking some of the talent that is there and muting it. That’s not really a knock on the kid, who was in his first high-stakes NHL hockey under pretty bizarre circumstances, though. Studnicka’s a versatile player with more puck skill than I gave him credit for during his junior days. And I certainly don’t have any problem with the way he plays the game. He’s diligent, there’s detail to his game in all three zones, he fights for his ice in 50/50 battles, he’s probably going to be a useful NHL penalty killer throughout his career, etc. The question has always been whether he’s talented enough to be more than a good third-line center. And while I don’t think he’s a particularly dangerous rush player, and may require the right set of linemates to be effective in a second-line role, I saw enough skill within the offensive zone last year to believe in his Line 2 skill/PP2 upside offensively. It sounds like the Bruins see that, and maybe more, too, going as far as to tinker with him alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in camp (in David Pastrnak’s absence). He does a good job protecting the puck and beating the first layer of pressure to get to his spots and make plays for himself or his linemates. He’s never going to be a dynamic player in traffic but he should be able to manufacture offense in more than a complementary way.
2. John Beecher, C, 19 (University of Michigan)
The appeal of Beecher as a prospect isn’t hard to understand. It’s right there in front of you on most of his shifts. He’s big, he’s supremely athletic, he’s physical, he’s fast, and he’s excellent on retrievals, imposing himself on the cycle or driving to the net. The problem with Beecher’s projection is that he has never driven offense as his primary role at any level. On every team he has played on (from USA Hockey to the University of Michigan now), whenever high-skill players have entered the fold, he has been the one to take a backseat rather than the other way around. And the longer you become “that guy” as a prospect, the more likely the development of your puck skills will lag behind, and the more likely you are to top out as a depth piece. The Bruins’ hope in selecting Beecher as high as they did was likely that the foundation was there and the skills could be refined enough to be the kind of player who’s the ideal third-best player on a top line. I think he’s more likely a bottom-six guy, though. There’s too much give-and-go reliance, too many bobbles of the puck, and too little playmaking. NHL player when he’s done in college? I don’t doubt it. But I wasn’t sold on him at 30th overall in 2019 and I think that holds today.
It was a shame that Beecher couldn’t participate in the world juniors because of what I’ve been told by multiple sources was false-positive test. “It was really goofy,” said one source. “That shouldn’t have been.”
3. Trent Frederic, C, 22 (Providence Bruins)
One of the big challenges with the Bruins’ prospect pool is that Studnicka is set to graduate on talent and four other skaters ranked here, beginning with Frederic, are 22 years old, so if they’re not in the NHL this time next year, they’ll have graduated due to age. As a result, if the Bruins don’t hang onto the bulk of the eight picks they currently have in the 2021 draft, or hit a home run on one or two of the ones they do keep, they could be right back here next year. The other challenge with their pool is that Frederic wouldn’t rank this high within any other team’s system. There is a lot to like about Frederic’s NHL tools, though. He’s a heavy, physically imposing player who makes good decisions with the puck, executes smart little skill plays off the cycle more than you’d expect, and has a better shot than his eight goals in the AHL last year indicated. My biggest harp on Frederic is that his decisions without the puck lack the same detail. There’s a fine line between establishing yourself as a physical presence (which comes with its own defensive benefits) and straying from your defensive responsibilities in an effort to always be on top of the puck. When Frederic focuses on his positioning and staying above the puck, his D-zone instincts are actually a real asset that should make him, in conjunction with some of that hidden O-zone talent, a good depth NHLer. His clock is starting to tick though.
4. Jeremy Swayman, G, 22 (Providence Bruins)
Swayman’s one of those goalies where eventually the results just keep piling up and the stack of good seasons gets high enough that non-believers turn into believers. He has always relied most on his positioning and his control more than his actual technical skill. He just doesn’t stray from his lines, which means he doesn’t end have to make a ton of desperation second-chance saves because he’s swallowed pucks in his chest or he’s covered the bottom half of the net to deflect pucks away from the slot and into the corners. Then, as he has also got physically stronger over time, his game went from consistent to dominant and he was college hockey’s best goalie. He’s not in the goalie prospect stratosphere where you can comfortably say “that’s an NHL starter,” like we’ve been able to with a number of Russians in recent years and with Spencer Knight, but I don’t really see anything that will hold him back from “NHL goalie.”
5. Oskar Steen, C/W, 22 (Providence Bruins/IF Björklöven)
Steen has become a bit of an enigma for me. He had a fine rookie season in the AHL last year, especially considering his 8.6 shooting percentage (very low by his standards). But given what he looked like in the SHL as a 20-year-old and more recently in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan as a 22-year-old (he was a leading goal-scorer in both), I expected more out of him in the AHL. I would say he met my expectations defensively, proving he could hold his own off the puck and even quietly drive results with his stocky, 5-foot-9 frame and his active, feet-always-moving off-puck effort. But I thought, on a Providence roster that lacked pop offensively, that he would be given more of a role to impact the game on the power play, and with likeminded linemates at five-on-five, than he got. Steen is one of a small number of Bruins prospects whose skill level actually has some flair to it. He’s a slick puckhandler who can create in small bursts in the offensive zone and excels in particular playing off the puck and rotating to the weak side to get open.
He’s an agile skater through his crossovers who has a lethal in-motion release:
And though he prefers to shoot (he’s the kind of player who just picks his spot on penalty shots and scores without ever really showing deke) than deke, he also does a nice job reacting to pressure and getting creative in the slot:
I would bet on a big sophomore AHL season, and I wouldn’t bet against him eventually carving out a niche as a complementary scorer in the NHL. There just isn’t another Bruins prospect who can make the above plays.
6. Curtis Hall, C, 20 (Yale University)
After showing promise as a true freshman following his fourth-round selection at the 2018 draft, Hall took another step forward as a sophomore with Yale last season, becoming the team’s leading scorer and challenging for point per game as a 19-year-old for almost the entire year. Hall’s hallmark (pun intended) is his size-skating blend. He’s a fast, up-tempo north-south player who wins races, goes to the net, forechecks hard, and then leverages his 6-foot-3, 200-plus pound frame to go at the team. Those qualities have always been enough to make him an intriguing potential third-line player who can penalty kill and complement more elusive creators on a line. I like his game in transition (where he can turn defenders or drop a shoulder and drive to the front of the net to create for himself) and on the cycle. Now it’s about continuing to develop some of his finesse skills. He has also added weight in each of the last three summers without it having a hugely averse effect on his skating, which is nice.
7. Urho Vaakanainen, LHD, 22 (Providence Bruins/SaiPa)
Evaluating Vaakanainen’s game comes with a caveat: The results and the look are sometimes at odds with one another. Vaakanainen’s game with the puck can look a little sloppy, like he’s just a touch off. The outcome can be mistimed passes, or a bobble under pressure. But the results, in terms of his ability to drive possession, to play big minutes (in the AHL and Liiga at least), and to be on the ice for more goals for and more chances for, than against, has always been there. He’s got decent four-way mobility, his stride is light and fluid, he effectively keeps play to the outside through his gaps, and his offensive mistakes are more about execution than about the way he’s processing the game and making his choice, so you won’t often see him get burned trying to do too much or make an ill-advised play. There is still room for players like that in the 2021 NHL, especially with what we know about what actually matters for defensemen now (which is less about counting stats and more about efficiency). While he only got into two Liiga games at the tail end of November before the league went on its pause, I thought he looked like he was in complete control in both games. He’s not going to be more than a third-pairing guy, but I think he’s capable of playing that role fine.
8. Victor Berglund, RHD, 21 (Luleå HF)
If Berglund keeps developing like he has since the Bruins took him in the seventh round in 2017, he’s going to become a “name” prospect. He was a very good offensive defenseman at the SuperElit level. And then he became one at the HockeyAllsvenskan level, finishing third among under-21 defensemen in points and first in goals last year. Then, on an SHL team for the first time, Berglund stepped into a Lulea lineup that already had two of the best offensive defensemen in the league (Nils Lundkvist and Erik Gustafsson) and still earned power-play time and O-zone starts. He’s got excellent edges on pivots and change of feet, which helps in opening up and changing angles on rotations across the offensive zone blue line. He’s also got a powerful one-timer and a wrister with some pop, which blends well with his quick-decision making with the puck to help him take what’s given to him and involve his teammates when the shot isn’t there, or when opposing teams have to respect it. He’s a player who is always thinking and can do damage from the point. And while I wouldn’t say he’s particularly creative in his facilitation, he’s a heady passer nonetheless. While his defensive game still needs some work, his skill is enough to warrant real consideration as a potential depth piece for the Bruins at some point.
Here’s that one-timer (No. 9 in red) bar down and in:
Here’s that wrister:
And here’s that quick decision-making I talked about when opposing players get out on him:
I’m looking forward to seeing what he looks like in a full AHL season because like Steen has has tools that the rest of their pool lacks. He’s not a lockdown type but I could see him excelling in sheltered usage with the right partner in the NHL someday.
9. Trevor Kuntar, LW, 19 (Boston College)
Kuntar is a strong, physically mature kid whose game is built on three things: finish every check, go the home plate area, shoot. Normally in that order. When he’s got the time and space to lean on his man, or lean into his shot, he’s a powerful player. My main concern, which kept him outside of my top 100 for the 2020 draft, is that in the college level (where he has looked fine!) and beyond, he’s not going to have the skill level to consistently get into those spots, nor the playmaking ability needed to be more than two-dimensional as a physical scorer. I wouldn’t count on big counting stats as a freshman or sophomore in college, but he’s the kind of player who could really come into his own as an upper-classman once he’s used in a more prominent role.
10. Mason Lohrei, LHD, 19 (Green Bay Gamblers)
After leading all USHL defensemen in assists last season, on his way to a second All-Star team nod, Lohrei has looked like a force this season. Part of that is to be expected, considering he turns 20 in a few days, he plays a ton, and he’s got a clear size advantage over just about everyone else. Because of his delayed entry into college hockey — and, frankly, the time it’s going to take to refine some of his game — Lohrei may not be leaving college until he’s 23 or 24 years old. That put some teams off at the draft. His package of tools, though, is really interesting. He’s a 6-foot-4 left-shot defender who is comfortable with the puck on his stick attacking in transition. He doesn’t play the physical, reserved style you might expect out of a player who looks like he does.
11. Dan Vladar, G, 23 (Providence Bruins/HC Dynamo Pardubice)
My evaluation of Vladar’s game has typically settled somewhere around “he’s huge and he’s not terrible.” I don’t think he moves particularly well in the net. He can stray off his angles and get beat. I’ve seen a lot of pucks squeak through his body. And when he does start to scramble, I don’t think he recovers particularly well. But when he condenses his movements and stays compact, he can really begin to fill the net, giving little to opposing shooters. And goalies his size (6-foot-5) don’t always have to be as polished as their peers. He was really good last year in the AHL. I’m not sure it’s the kind of game that will translate against NHL shooters, but he might become a fine backup.
12. Jakub Lauko, C/RW, 20 (Providence Bruins/HC Energy Karlovy Vary)
Lauko, at basically every level he has ever played at, has always just been a good player. I’ve typically settled a little lower on him than most others because of that though — because he’s never really been a great player, nor a dominant one. Some of that, some of his ordinariness, is a byproduct of an advanced development which thrust him into the pro ranks early, not allowing him to develop some of his finer skills. The problem with that kind of path (as has also been the case for the Ducks’ Isac Lundestrom) is that it thrusts you into depth roles in perpetuity. Then injuries creep in (like they have for him) and suddenly the growth is stunted. Lauko’s a smart, driven player with a decent shot and a pro frame. I’m just not sure what he looks like as an NHLer beyond becoming a tweener/role player.
13. Matias Mantykivi, C, 19 (SaiPa)
One of the challenges prospect evaluation in hockey presents is that there aren’t measurable things at lower levels that you know will translate to the pro game. In baseball, pitch speed is a tangible thing that matters. In basketball, things like wingspan have real impacts on a player’s ability to rebound and, most of all, on their ability to stretch out and guard defensively. It’s more difficult to find those linear lines in hockey. As a result, two prospects can look equally as good in junior and project in completely different ways in pro. Mantykivi is a kid who, when he’s playing against his peers, usually looks really good. He’s patient, hanging onto pucks and baiting defenders as a pass-first playmaker. But his game also lacks some of the qualities needed to do that, and look that good, against pros. That’s because he’s not overtly strong on the puck, nor is he powerful as a skater, nor does his shot overwhelm goalies. And because he doesn’t have those skills and he’s not a real threat to get to the middle of the ice, some of that poise that makes him so good against teenagers disappears.
14. Joona Koppanen, C/LW, 22 (Providence Bruins/KOOVEE/Ilves)
Koppanen is a unit, the kind of player who looks even bigger than 6-foot-5 when he’s out there, and skates like it from a standstill too. When you watch him, it’s easy for your first instinct to be something along the lines of “that guy’s a slug.” And while that’s true of parts of his game and the role he’s often asked to play, I’ll argue all day long that he has sneaky skill and that he moves just fine once he gets moving. His ceiling probably tops out as an injury filler who plays a handful of games a year in the NHL but is otherwise a fan favourite.
Look at the touch off of the backhand on this pass from the big man though!
15. Quinn Olson, LW, 19 (University of Minnesota-Duluth)
Olson got better as his freshman year progressed, earning his way into the worth-a-mention-tier of this ranking. He’s a pesky, agile winger who impacts a game just by staying involved in it. He was always going to be a good role player at the college level. But you have to be more than a good role player at the college level to become a role player at the NHL level, and I’ve seen enough glimpses of skill to suggest he may become a dominant college player by the time he graduates. Now we wait to see.
16. Roman Bychkov, LHD, 19, (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
When you’re a 5-foot-11 defenseman and your numbers have never really popped against your peers, your NHL odds sit somewhere near zero. I didn’t particularly like him at the world juniors, either. But Bychkov’s game isn’t built to be dynamic, it’s built to be efficient. His head is always up, he makes the right play on outlets and bumps, he skates well, he plays a tight gap (sometimes too tight but more often disruptive), and he’s physical for his size. With the puck, though I wouldn’t say he’s highly skilled he’s definitely highly comfortable, with his head always up and a no-panic mindset. I suspect he’ll become a good AHL/KHL player in time. He’s a project worth knowing about, at the very least.
The Tiers
Each of my prospect pool rankings will be broken down into team-specific tiers in order to give you a better sense of the talent proximity from one player to the next (a gap which is sometimes minute and in other cases quite pronounced).
The Bruins’ tiers break down into four groups: Studnicka, a 2-7 tier of prospects I think have a chance of being everyday NHLers, an 8-12 group of players who are interesting enough that they could potentially join that other tier, and then four guys who are some degree of interesting (even if it kind of ends there).
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Post by madmarx on Jan 11, 2021 15:27:46 GMT -5
Babcock joins NBC as a studio analyst
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Post by fforr on Jan 11, 2021 15:48:27 GMT -5
“You know, after Boston dropped out of the playoffs, I had a session with General Manager Don Sweeney. He told me to my face that he was going to make big changes and I would have the best chance of making the team. He said he'd give me an opportunity to settle into the team and play. It's probably going the right way.“
So it seems that Don knew at the time, early September say, that there was going to be gapping hole on the left side on D.
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Post by madmarx on Jan 11, 2021 16:18:05 GMT -5
“You know, after Boston dropped out of the playoffs, I had a session with General Manager Don Sweeney. He told me to my face that he was going to make big changes and I would have the best chance of making the team. He said he'd give me an opportunity to settle into the team and play. It's probably going the right way.“ So it seems that Don knew at the time, early September say, that there was going to be gapping hole on the left side on D. Who is talking in this quote ? I see it above
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Post by fforr on Jan 11, 2021 17:36:40 GMT -5
“You know, after Boston dropped out of the playoffs, I had a session with General Manager Don Sweeney. He told me to my face that he was going to make big changes and I would have the best chance of making the team. He said he'd give me an opportunity to settle into the team and play. It's probably going the right way.“ So it seems that Don knew at the time, early September say, that there was going to be gapping hole on the left side on D. Who is talking in this quote ? I see it above That was Zboril.
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Post by KSJ08 on Jan 11, 2021 19:20:30 GMT -5
Milbury was great he spoke his mind & the truth! Babcock SUCKS!!! Condensing control PRICK!!! I hate Hate listening to Kenny Alberts!
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Post by kjc2 on Jan 11, 2021 20:15:42 GMT -5
Key points: He asked for a trade during last year, Carolina was interested. Bruins rejected the request. Team had a problem that Zbořil plays videogames too much. They though he plays until two in the morning. He denies it. He deleted his social media after people were dicks toward him and Senyshyn and DeBrusk after he didn't pass the run test during his first camp. He was inujed at that time. He was infected by covid but he should be fine now They asked a lot of him: "Don't play so many of those video games. You get angry easily and forward you give up, brace yourself. You have to work harder, the media is watching you.” Czech defender Jakub Zbořil has undergone - had to undergo - a game and personality transformation, a strict Boston upbringing. Now 23, he's the closest he's ever come to becoming a hockey player for the famous Bruins. Five years out of the draft, Zbořil can talk about new hope, signing a new two-year contract with the Bruins a week ago. Was there something to think about? Not at all! They gave me a one-way contract, my girlfriend, my dad and everyone else told me right away not to wait for anything, that I should have signed it right away. You didn't want to say so publicly at the time, but you asked the Bruins to trade last season. That's why I ask. You know, after Boston dropped out of the playoffs, I had a session with General Manager Don Sweeney. He told me to my face that he was going to make big changes and I would have the best chance of making the team. He said he'd give me an opportunity to settle into the team and play. It's probably going the right way. So he shouldn't send you to the farm right away? The one-way contract has the advantage that if they want to send me there, I have to go through the so-called "waiver list," a list of available players from where any other club could take me without compensation. I take that as a kind of insurance policy that I might settle on another team. Do you have any reports that anyone else is interested in you? Not really now, but towards the end of last season Carolina wanted me. That was when I requested the trade, but the Bruins rejected it. It's been five years since your draft. How do you feel about those years? Positive. They were very heavy on the head, on the other hand they toughened me up. They're very strict in the Boston organization, not like other teams. They wanted to change me - my personality, my life. That was a bit of a problem for me, because I don't like to change, but in that time I've kind of gotten into it. What did they ask you to do? In hockey, they taught me to always want to play. If something goes wrong, I don't stop and want to go on the ice again. I used to get mad and the game would end for me after one mistake. If you don't mind answering: What about in your personal life? They had problems with that too. (Laughter) I like playing video games. You see, life in the AHL is like, you go on a hibernation at 8:30, you're home at 12, and what are you supposed to do with the day off? On a farm, you form a crew, turn on the xbox, the playstation, and play. The bad thing was the management thought I was playing until 2:00 at night, but that's not true. How did they find out? I don't know where they got it. But it stuck. Even now, when the coach from Providence sees me, he immediately jokes, 'Well, did you play again?' I'm a little annoyed, they might let it go, don't get into the boys' business so much, because it's not pleasant. At the same time, I understand that the farm is for the player to develop physically and personally. Did you mention they're not as strict elsewhere as you know? I heard from Kempas [Michael Kempny's] that in Chicago they were strict too, they watched the food, the players were on a diet. Well, when he came to Washington, he saw crisps on the table before the first game. So he picked up two. Just a different mentality. Why is Boston more strict? Probably because of the pressure of the city, living the sport. People want clubs to win cups, stay on top. When things go wrong, people turn it down and spit a lot. There is also a lot of pressure from the media. You experienced it? You know it. Right after the draft. I was suffering from ligaments in my knee, it hurt. And they gave us some sort of running tests at camp... Boston took three first-round picks in 2015. Me (13th), Jake DeBrusk (14th) and Zach Senyshyn (15th), and neither of us made them. It didn't matter at all then that most of the others didn't make them, we were first-round picks, so they ratted us out to the newspapers. And people spit. How did you take it? I wiped out my social media to focus on hockey. I don't care who thinks what of strangers. The three of you have been the talk of the day, with only DeBrusk caught in the NHL so far. Boston had overlooked the stars of Barzal, Connor, or Konecny. Well, Zach and I are one of the last of what was then a first-round pick who hasn't settled in the NHL yet. We talk about it together, but what we think about it, I couldn't leak to the media. At the same time, it's a huge motivation for me. Seeing how many people have stopped trusting me... I want to show them. You premiered two games two years ago. Even then, you believed you could handle the league. I still do. Those first fights are the worst in that you don't know what to expect. To an outsider, hockey seems awfully simple, but then you get on the ice and it's not. You just have to get used to it. If you're looking at the Bruins' current defense, leader Torey Krug is gone, waiting for Zdeno Chára. Where do you fit in? The rivalry is going to be huge, the Bruins now have, like, ten defensemen to play in the NHL. My biggest competitor is probably, or should be, Lauzon. I believe I'm better. But you can't prove it until next year, now you're temporarily with the Kometa Brno. And even though we only played two games, I loved it. Hopefully there's something else we can do, we weren't in shape against Pilsen, it was much better against Budejovice. Wasn't it strange when you knew that after a long quarantine, you only had two games to play and the league would stop all over again? I'm sure we were sorry. If it hadn't stopped, we'd have a great schedule, a game every third day. So, yeah, it was sad. We're waiting now, but none of us are counting on the extras coming up again soon. How do you keep up? It was in play to go across the border to Austria and go on the ice there, but it didn't work out, so we're just doing our exercises at home. You and your brother Adam from Mladá Boleslav have been through covid, how did you manage it? It wasn't pleasant at all, I had a headache, the fevers lasted maybe three days. My brother had it easier, he only lost his taste, so he just oversalted the food. We both practice and play on playstation together now. He comes off as having a bit of a shitty attitude but with that said it’s probably lost in translation, It reads like it was an interview from Czech land.
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 11, 2021 20:32:13 GMT -5
Key points: He asked for a trade during last year, Carolina was interested. Bruins rejected the request. Team had a problem that Zbořil plays videogames too much. They though he plays until two in the morning. He denies it. He deleted his social media after people were dicks toward him and Senyshyn and DeBrusk after he didn't pass the run test during his first camp. He was inujed at that time. He was infected by covid but he should be fine now They asked a lot of him: "Don't play so many of those video games. You get angry easily and forward you give up, brace yourself. You have to work harder, the media is watching you.” Czech defender Jakub Zbořil has undergone - had to undergo - a game and personality transformation, a strict Boston upbringing. Now 23, he's the closest he's ever come to becoming a hockey player for the famous Bruins. Five years out of the draft, Zbořil can talk about new hope, signing a new two-year contract with the Bruins a week ago. Was there something to think about? Not at all! They gave me a one-way contract, my girlfriend, my dad and everyone else told me right away not to wait for anything, that I should have signed it right away. You didn't want to say so publicly at the time, but you asked the Bruins to trade last season. That's why I ask. You know, after Boston dropped out of the playoffs, I had a session with General Manager Don Sweeney. He told me to my face that he was going to make big changes and I would have the best chance of making the team. He said he'd give me an opportunity to settle into the team and play. It's probably going the right way. So he shouldn't send you to the farm right away? The one-way contract has the advantage that if they want to send me there, I have to go through the so-called "waiver list," a list of available players from where any other club could take me without compensation. I take that as a kind of insurance policy that I might settle on another team. Do you have any reports that anyone else is interested in you? Not really now, but towards the end of last season Carolina wanted me. That was when I requested the trade, but the Bruins rejected it. It's been five years since your draft. How do you feel about those years? Positive. They were very heavy on the head, on the other hand they toughened me up. They're very strict in the Boston organization, not like other teams. They wanted to change me - my personality, my life. That was a bit of a problem for me, because I don't like to change, but in that time I've kind of gotten into it. What did they ask you to do? In hockey, they taught me to always want to play. If something goes wrong, I don't stop and want to go on the ice again. I used to get mad and the game would end for me after one mistake. If you don't mind answering: What about in your personal life? They had problems with that too. (Laughter) I like playing video games. You see, life in the AHL is like, you go on a hibernation at 8:30, you're home at 12, and what are you supposed to do with the day off? On a farm, you form a crew, turn on the xbox, the playstation, and play. The bad thing was the management thought I was playing until 2:00 at night, but that's not true. How did they find out? I don't know where they got it. But it stuck. Even now, when the coach from Providence sees me, he immediately jokes, 'Well, did you play again?' I'm a little annoyed, they might let it go, don't get into the boys' business so much, because it's not pleasant. At the same time, I understand that the farm is for the player to develop physically and personally. Did you mention they're not as strict elsewhere as you know? I heard from Kempas [Michael Kempny's] that in Chicago they were strict too, they watched the food, the players were on a diet. Well, when he came to Washington, he saw crisps on the table before the first game. So he picked up two. Just a different mentality. Why is Boston more strict? Probably because of the pressure of the city, living the sport. People want clubs to win cups, stay on top. When things go wrong, people turn it down and spit a lot. There is also a lot of pressure from the media. You experienced it? You know it. Right after the draft. I was suffering from ligaments in my knee, it hurt. And they gave us some sort of running tests at camp... Boston took three first-round picks in 2015. Me (13th), Jake DeBrusk (14th) and Zach Senyshyn (15th), and neither of us made them. It didn't matter at all then that most of the others didn't make them, we were first-round picks, so they ratted us out to the newspapers. And people spit. How did you take it? I wiped out my social media to focus on hockey. I don't care who thinks what of strangers. The three of you have been the talk of the day, with only DeBrusk caught in the NHL so far. Boston had overlooked the stars of Barzal, Connor, or Konecny. Well, Zach and I are one of the last of what was then a first-round pick who hasn't settled in the NHL yet. We talk about it together, but what we think about it, I couldn't leak to the media. At the same time, it's a huge motivation for me. Seeing how many people have stopped trusting me... I want to show them. You premiered two games two years ago. Even then, you believed you could handle the league. I still do. Those first fights are the worst in that you don't know what to expect. To an outsider, hockey seems awfully simple, but then you get on the ice and it's not. You just have to get used to it. If you're looking at the Bruins' current defense, leader Torey Krug is gone, waiting for Zdeno Chára. Where do you fit in? The rivalry is going to be huge, the Bruins now have, like, ten defensemen to play in the NHL. My biggest competitor is probably, or should be, Lauzon. I believe I'm better. But you can't prove it until next year, now you're temporarily with the Kometa Brno. And even though we only played two games, I loved it. Hopefully there's something else we can do, we weren't in shape against Pilsen, it was much better against Budejovice. Wasn't it strange when you knew that after a long quarantine, you only had two games to play and the league would stop all over again? I'm sure we were sorry. If it hadn't stopped, we'd have a great schedule, a game every third day. So, yeah, it was sad. We're waiting now, but none of us are counting on the extras coming up again soon. How do you keep up? It was in play to go across the border to Austria and go on the ice there, but it didn't work out, so we're just doing our exercises at home. You and your brother Adam from Mladá Boleslav have been through covid, how did you manage it? It wasn't pleasant at all, I had a headache, the fevers lasted maybe three days. My brother had it easier, he only lost his taste, so he just oversalted the food. We both practice and play on playstation together now. He comes off as having a bit of a shitty attitude but with that said it’s probably lost in translation, It reads like it was an interview from Czech land. Yes it was a Czech interview.
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 11, 2021 20:34:44 GMT -5
The thing about doing a project like this is that one team always has to finish last. This year, that team is the Bruins. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone. The Bruins’ pool was already thin a year ago, a pair of C-grade defensemen graduated out of my age criteria for a prospect (Jeremy Lauzon and Jakob Zboril are now 23), and they had just four picks in the 2020 draft, the earliest of which was 58th overall. Some contending teams can stave off this kind of a ranking. For most, though, this becomes an inevitable cost of doing business at some point in their championship window. 2020 prospect pool rank: No. 30 (change: -1) 1. Jack Studnicka, C, 21 (Providence Bruins/Boston Bruins) I’m not as fond of Studnicka’s skill level as some evaluators are but he had an excellent rookie season at the pro level, exceeding my expectations and becoming a top player in the AHL before earning a well-deserved promotion. I didn’t love what I saw out of him in the bubble. It felt like he was asked to do too much initially and he responded by simplifying his game a little too much, taking some of the talent that is there and muting it. That’s not really a knock on the kid, who was in his first high-stakes NHL hockey under pretty bizarre circumstances, though. Studnicka’s a versatile player with more puck skill than I gave him credit for during his junior days. And I certainly don’t have any problem with the way he plays the game. He’s diligent, there’s detail to his game in all three zones, he fights for his ice in 50/50 battles, he’s probably going to be a useful NHL penalty killer throughout his career, etc. The question has always been whether he’s talented enough to be more than a good third-line center. And while I don’t think he’s a particularly dangerous rush player, and may require the right set of linemates to be effective in a second-line role, I saw enough skill within the offensive zone last year to believe in his Line 2 skill/PP2 upside offensively. It sounds like the Bruins see that, and maybe more, too, going as far as to tinker with him alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in camp (in David Pastrnak’s absence). He does a good job protecting the puck and beating the first layer of pressure to get to his spots and make plays for himself or his linemates. He’s never going to be a dynamic player in traffic but he should be able to manufacture offense in more than a complementary way. 2. John Beecher, C, 19 (University of Michigan) The appeal of Beecher as a prospect isn’t hard to understand. It’s right there in front of you on most of his shifts. He’s big, he’s supremely athletic, he’s physical, he’s fast, and he’s excellent on retrievals, imposing himself on the cycle or driving to the net. The problem with Beecher’s projection is that he has never driven offense as his primary role at any level. On every team he has played on (from USA Hockey to the University of Michigan now), whenever high-skill players have entered the fold, he has been the one to take a backseat rather than the other way around. And the longer you become “that guy” as a prospect, the more likely the development of your puck skills will lag behind, and the more likely you are to top out as a depth piece. The Bruins’ hope in selecting Beecher as high as they did was likely that the foundation was there and the skills could be refined enough to be the kind of player who’s the ideal third-best player on a top line. I think he’s more likely a bottom-six guy, though. There’s too much give-and-go reliance, too many bobbles of the puck, and too little playmaking. NHL player when he’s done in college? I don’t doubt it. But I wasn’t sold on him at 30th overall in 2019 and I think that holds today. It was a shame that Beecher couldn’t participate in the world juniors because of what I’ve been told by multiple sources was false-positive test. “It was really goofy,” said one source. “That shouldn’t have been.” 3. Trent Frederic, C, 22 (Providence Bruins) One of the big challenges with the Bruins’ prospect pool is that Studnicka is set to graduate on talent and four other skaters ranked here, beginning with Frederic, are 22 years old, so if they’re not in the NHL this time next year, they’ll have graduated due to age. As a result, if the Bruins don’t hang onto the bulk of the eight picks they currently have in the 2021 draft, or hit a home run on one or two of the ones they do keep, they could be right back here next year. The other challenge with their pool is that Frederic wouldn’t rank this high within any other team’s system. There is a lot to like about Frederic’s NHL tools, though. He’s a heavy, physically imposing player who makes good decisions with the puck, executes smart little skill plays off the cycle more than you’d expect, and has a better shot than his eight goals in the AHL last year indicated. My biggest harp on Frederic is that his decisions without the puck lack the same detail. There’s a fine line between establishing yourself as a physical presence (which comes with its own defensive benefits) and straying from your defensive responsibilities in an effort to always be on top of the puck. When Frederic focuses on his positioning and staying above the puck, his D-zone instincts are actually a real asset that should make him, in conjunction with some of that hidden O-zone talent, a good depth NHLer. His clock is starting to tick though. 4. Jeremy Swayman, G, 22 (Providence Bruins) Swayman’s one of those goalies where eventually the results just keep piling up and the stack of good seasons gets high enough that non-believers turn into believers. He has always relied most on his positioning and his control more than his actual technical skill. He just doesn’t stray from his lines, which means he doesn’t end have to make a ton of desperation second-chance saves because he’s swallowed pucks in his chest or he’s covered the bottom half of the net to deflect pucks away from the slot and into the corners. Then, as he has also got physically stronger over time, his game went from consistent to dominant and he was college hockey’s best goalie. He’s not in the goalie prospect stratosphere where you can comfortably say “that’s an NHL starter,” like we’ve been able to with a number of Russians in recent years and with Spencer Knight, but I don’t really see anything that will hold him back from “NHL goalie.” 5. Oskar Steen, C/W, 22 (Providence Bruins/IF Björklöven) Steen has become a bit of an enigma for me. He had a fine rookie season in the AHL last year, especially considering his 8.6 shooting percentage (very low by his standards). But given what he looked like in the SHL as a 20-year-old and more recently in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan as a 22-year-old (he was a leading goal-scorer in both), I expected more out of him in the AHL. I would say he met my expectations defensively, proving he could hold his own off the puck and even quietly drive results with his stocky, 5-foot-9 frame and his active, feet-always-moving off-puck effort. But I thought, on a Providence roster that lacked pop offensively, that he would be given more of a role to impact the game on the power play, and with likeminded linemates at five-on-five, than he got. Steen is one of a small number of Bruins prospects whose skill level actually has some flair to it. He’s a slick puckhandler who can create in small bursts in the offensive zone and excels in particular playing off the puck and rotating to the weak side to get open. He’s an agile skater through his crossovers who has a lethal in-motion release: And though he prefers to shoot (he’s the kind of player who just picks his spot on penalty shots and scores without ever really showing deke) than deke, he also does a nice job reacting to pressure and getting creative in the slot: I would bet on a big sophomore AHL season, and I wouldn’t bet against him eventually carving out a niche as a complementary scorer in the NHL. There just isn’t another Bruins prospect who can make the above plays. 6. Curtis Hall, C, 20 (Yale University) After showing promise as a true freshman following his fourth-round selection at the 2018 draft, Hall took another step forward as a sophomore with Yale last season, becoming the team’s leading scorer and challenging for point per game as a 19-year-old for almost the entire year. Hall’s hallmark (pun intended) is his size-skating blend. He’s a fast, up-tempo north-south player who wins races, goes to the net, forechecks hard, and then leverages his 6-foot-3, 200-plus pound frame to go at the team. Those qualities have always been enough to make him an intriguing potential third-line player who can penalty kill and complement more elusive creators on a line. I like his game in transition (where he can turn defenders or drop a shoulder and drive to the front of the net to create for himself) and on the cycle. Now it’s about continuing to develop some of his finesse skills. He has also added weight in each of the last three summers without it having a hugely averse effect on his skating, which is nice. 7. Urho Vaakanainen, LHD, 22 (Providence Bruins/SaiPa) Evaluating Vaakanainen’s game comes with a caveat: The results and the look are sometimes at odds with one another. Vaakanainen’s game with the puck can look a little sloppy, like he’s just a touch off. The outcome can be mistimed passes, or a bobble under pressure. But the results, in terms of his ability to drive possession, to play big minutes (in the AHL and Liiga at least), and to be on the ice for more goals for and more chances for, than against, has always been there. He’s got decent four-way mobility, his stride is light and fluid, he effectively keeps play to the outside through his gaps, and his offensive mistakes are more about execution than about the way he’s processing the game and making his choice, so you won’t often see him get burned trying to do too much or make an ill-advised play. There is still room for players like that in the 2021 NHL, especially with what we know about what actually matters for defensemen now (which is less about counting stats and more about efficiency). While he only got into two Liiga games at the tail end of November before the league went on its pause, I thought he looked like he was in complete control in both games. He’s not going to be more than a third-pairing guy, but I think he’s capable of playing that role fine. 8. Victor Berglund, RHD, 21 (Luleå HF) If Berglund keeps developing like he has since the Bruins took him in the seventh round in 2017, he’s going to become a “name” prospect. He was a very good offensive defenseman at the SuperElit level. And then he became one at the HockeyAllsvenskan level, finishing third among under-21 defensemen in points and first in goals last year. Then, on an SHL team for the first time, Berglund stepped into a Lulea lineup that already had two of the best offensive defensemen in the league (Nils Lundkvist and Erik Gustafsson) and still earned power-play time and O-zone starts. He’s got excellent edges on pivots and change of feet, which helps in opening up and changing angles on rotations across the offensive zone blue line. He’s also got a powerful one-timer and a wrister with some pop, which blends well with his quick-decision making with the puck to help him take what’s given to him and involve his teammates when the shot isn’t there, or when opposing teams have to respect it. He’s a player who is always thinking and can do damage from the point. And while I wouldn’t say he’s particularly creative in his facilitation, he’s a heady passer nonetheless. While his defensive game still needs some work, his skill is enough to warrant real consideration as a potential depth piece for the Bruins at some point. Here’s that one-timer (No. 9 in red) bar down and in: Here’s that wrister: And here’s that quick decision-making I talked about when opposing players get out on him: I’m looking forward to seeing what he looks like in a full AHL season because like Steen has has tools that the rest of their pool lacks. He’s not a lockdown type but I could see him excelling in sheltered usage with the right partner in the NHL someday. 9. Trevor Kuntar, LW, 19 (Boston College) Kuntar is a strong, physically mature kid whose game is built on three things: finish every check, go the home plate area, shoot. Normally in that order. When he’s got the time and space to lean on his man, or lean into his shot, he’s a powerful player. My main concern, which kept him outside of my top 100 for the 2020 draft, is that in the college level (where he has looked fine!) and beyond, he’s not going to have the skill level to consistently get into those spots, nor the playmaking ability needed to be more than two-dimensional as a physical scorer. I wouldn’t count on big counting stats as a freshman or sophomore in college, but he’s the kind of player who could really come into his own as an upper-classman once he’s used in a more prominent role. 10. Mason Lohrei, LHD, 19 (Green Bay Gamblers) After leading all USHL defensemen in assists last season, on his way to a second All-Star team nod, Lohrei has looked like a force this season. Part of that is to be expected, considering he turns 20 in a few days, he plays a ton, and he’s got a clear size advantage over just about everyone else. Because of his delayed entry into college hockey — and, frankly, the time it’s going to take to refine some of his game — Lohrei may not be leaving college until he’s 23 or 24 years old. That put some teams off at the draft. His package of tools, though, is really interesting. He’s a 6-foot-4 left-shot defender who is comfortable with the puck on his stick attacking in transition. He doesn’t play the physical, reserved style you might expect out of a player who looks like he does. 11. Dan Vladar, G, 23 (Providence Bruins/HC Dynamo Pardubice) My evaluation of Vladar’s game has typically settled somewhere around “he’s huge and he’s not terrible.” I don’t think he moves particularly well in the net. He can stray off his angles and get beat. I’ve seen a lot of pucks squeak through his body. And when he does start to scramble, I don’t think he recovers particularly well. But when he condenses his movements and stays compact, he can really begin to fill the net, giving little to opposing shooters. And goalies his size (6-foot-5) don’t always have to be as polished as their peers. He was really good last year in the AHL. I’m not sure it’s the kind of game that will translate against NHL shooters, but he might become a fine backup. 12. Jakub Lauko, C/RW, 20 (Providence Bruins/HC Energy Karlovy Vary) Lauko, at basically every level he has ever played at, has always just been a good player. I’ve typically settled a little lower on him than most others because of that though — because he’s never really been a great player, nor a dominant one. Some of that, some of his ordinariness, is a byproduct of an advanced development which thrust him into the pro ranks early, not allowing him to develop some of his finer skills. The problem with that kind of path (as has also been the case for the Ducks’ Isac Lundestrom) is that it thrusts you into depth roles in perpetuity. Then injuries creep in (like they have for him) and suddenly the growth is stunted. Lauko’s a smart, driven player with a decent shot and a pro frame. I’m just not sure what he looks like as an NHLer beyond becoming a tweener/role player. 13. Matias Mantykivi, C, 19 (SaiPa) One of the challenges prospect evaluation in hockey presents is that there aren’t measurable things at lower levels that you know will translate to the pro game. In baseball, pitch speed is a tangible thing that matters. In basketball, things like wingspan have real impacts on a player’s ability to rebound and, most of all, on their ability to stretch out and guard defensively. It’s more difficult to find those linear lines in hockey. As a result, two prospects can look equally as good in junior and project in completely different ways in pro. Mantykivi is a kid who, when he’s playing against his peers, usually looks really good. He’s patient, hanging onto pucks and baiting defenders as a pass-first playmaker. But his game also lacks some of the qualities needed to do that, and look that good, against pros. That’s because he’s not overtly strong on the puck, nor is he powerful as a skater, nor does his shot overwhelm goalies. And because he doesn’t have those skills and he’s not a real threat to get to the middle of the ice, some of that poise that makes him so good against teenagers disappears. 14. Joona Koppanen, C/LW, 22 (Providence Bruins/KOOVEE/Ilves) Koppanen is a unit, the kind of player who looks even bigger than 6-foot-5 when he’s out there, and skates like it from a standstill too. When you watch him, it’s easy for your first instinct to be something along the lines of “that guy’s a slug.” And while that’s true of parts of his game and the role he’s often asked to play, I’ll argue all day long that he has sneaky skill and that he moves just fine once he gets moving. His ceiling probably tops out as an injury filler who plays a handful of games a year in the NHL but is otherwise a fan favourite. Look at the touch off of the backhand on this pass from the big man though! 15. Quinn Olson, LW, 19 (University of Minnesota-Duluth) Olson got better as his freshman year progressed, earning his way into the worth-a-mention-tier of this ranking. He’s a pesky, agile winger who impacts a game just by staying involved in it. He was always going to be a good role player at the college level. But you have to be more than a good role player at the college level to become a role player at the NHL level, and I’ve seen enough glimpses of skill to suggest he may become a dominant college player by the time he graduates. Now we wait to see. 16. Roman Bychkov, LHD, 19, (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) When you’re a 5-foot-11 defenseman and your numbers have never really popped against your peers, your NHL odds sit somewhere near zero. I didn’t particularly like him at the world juniors, either. But Bychkov’s game isn’t built to be dynamic, it’s built to be efficient. His head is always up, he makes the right play on outlets and bumps, he skates well, he plays a tight gap (sometimes too tight but more often disruptive), and he’s physical for his size. With the puck, though I wouldn’t say he’s highly skilled he’s definitely highly comfortable, with his head always up and a no-panic mindset. I suspect he’ll become a good AHL/KHL player in time. He’s a project worth knowing about, at the very least. The Tiers Each of my prospect pool rankings will be broken down into team-specific tiers in order to give you a better sense of the talent proximity from one player to the next (a gap which is sometimes minute and in other cases quite pronounced). The Bruins’ tiers break down into four groups: Studnicka, a 2-7 tier of prospects I think have a chance of being everyday NHLers, an 8-12 group of players who are interesting enough that they could potentially join that other tier, and then four guys who are some degree of interesting (even if it kind of ends there). Teams that draft in the high 20’s for years in a row are going to be on the bottom. I think TB is 29th. Pittsburgh was bad too.
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Post by madmarx on Jan 11, 2021 21:13:15 GMT -5
The lengthy list of athletes who squandered millions of dollars only to file for bankruptcy has a new member, San Jose Sharks left winger Evander Kane. Despite signing a seven-year, $49 million contract extension in 2018, Kane filed for Chapter 7 in the federal bankruptcy court in the California city of his team.
The filling detailed liabilities of $26.8 million and assets — largely three homes — of $10.2 million. And the filing included a note that warns he may not even play this year.
“Debtor may terminate his contract and he may opt out of the season, as allowed under current rules, because of health concerns given the recent birth of his first child,” the bankruptcy petition said. “Should he terminate his contract or opt out at a point in the season, Debtor will not receive his salary.”
The NHL opt-out deadline for the COVID-19-shortened season, which starts this week, was Dec. 24, and the bankruptcy petition is dated Jan. 9. Kane’s lawyer, Stephen Finestone, did not immediately reply for comment to clarify how Kane, who has been practicing with his team, could still opt out.
The complaint listed nine lawsuits, court actions, and administrative proceedings with lenders, six of which are active. The largest is with Centennial Bank, which filed a lawsuit last week against Kane and the Sharks seeking $8.3 million.
“The Team is complacent in the Borrower’s breach of the Security Agreement, and either refuses or is unwilling to directly deposit the Pledged Payments into the Designated Account as required under the Security Agreement,” Centennial charged in its complaint. The team declined to comment.
Athletes filing for bankruptcy is an unfortunate trend in professional sports. High-profile names include Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Michael Vick, Vince Young, Warren Sapp, Antoine Walker, Kenny Anderson, Lenny Dykstra; and in the NHL Jack Johnson, Darren McCarty and Bryan Trottier.
Many athletes are overwhelmed with newfound wealth, investing in businesses and funding friends and family. They quickly plow through their earnings (Kane in his petition lists his income as negative $91.131.13 a month).
It’s unclear how the 29-year-old Kane, who has earned $52.9 million in team pay during his 11-year career, according to capfriendly.com, lost his money, but there are a few clues in the petition. Last year, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas settled a lawsuit against Kane for unpaid gambling bills. According to the Chapter 7 petition, in the last 12 months, he lost $1.5 million gambling.
The petition also listed seven dependents, all as living with him: his 6-month-old daughter, his sister, 27, his uncle, 54, his mother, 55, another uncle, 59, his father, 60, and his grandmother, 77.
What could lead to $26.8 million of debt was not spelled out in the petition for Chapter 7, a process which protects individuals or companies from creditors and provides for liquidation of certain assets to pay debts. Kane listed 47 creditors, ranging from a host of individuals to banks like Centennial and Scotiabank, to his former agency Newport.
The petition also disclosed he has a claim against Sure Sports, the loan broker that arranged the Centennial credit. “Claims against Leon McKenzie and Sure Sports LLC related to business advice and obtaining loans for Debtor,” the petition noted, referring to the CEO of the loan broker. “This includes violation of the Florida Broker’s Act, Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practice, Fraud, Breach of Fiduciary Duty.”
Sure Sports is listed in the petition as having an American Arbitration Association proceeding against Kane, and as a creditor for $1.2 million. McKenzie did not reply for comment.
The petition also shows he is valuing at $1.88 million a counterclaim against Rachel Keuchele, a woman who in 2016 sued him alleging battery. The case still is live in Erie County Supreme Court in New York, and he countersued her in 2018.
In his note to the bankruptcy petition where he warned he might opt out, Kane painted a grim picture for his creditors of his earnings this year.
“A typical season includes 82 regular season games,” according to the document. “The current season has 56 games scheduled and Debtor understands that even if all scheduled games are played, his salary will be adjusted based upon the reduced number of games. To the extent some of the games do not go forward because of the pandemic (or any other reason), Debtor’s salary will be further reduced. Moreover, Debtor understands that under the current collective bargaining agreement between the players’ union and the owners, 20% of his salary will be withheld and will be released to the owners under the ‘profit sharing’ structure of the agreement due to the anticipated significant reduction in revenues across the league.”
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Post by KSJ08 on Jan 11, 2021 21:39:10 GMT -5
Dumbass!!!
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 7:31:50 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 8:44:06 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 10:21:14 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 10:24:58 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 10:25:38 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 11:04:24 GMT -5
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 12, 2021 11:43:10 GMT -5
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Post by RascalHoudi on Jan 12, 2021 15:40:46 GMT -5
It's a little premature for all of these prediction threads to claim that the B's defence has gone down the shitter. While both Krug and Chara were major presences, they also each had their flaws. Obviously, our replacements will have more speed than Chara. Enough to make up for his defensive skill and overall menacing presence? Of course not - but what postitives will that speed have on getting to the puck in our end first and getting it out? Gryz and Mac should do an adequate job of replacing a lot of Krug's PP offence. Not all of it.... but we hopefully will still have a top 5 PP. As for Krug's percieved defensive flaws... well... he's certainly being replaced by more size - which is always handy on D. And of course, if Kase and Smith do a good job in our own end that just helps team defence even more. I'm looking forward to this new makeup... I really think the team may surprise a lot of the pundits out there.
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Post by kjc2 on Jan 12, 2021 17:16:10 GMT -5
It's a little premature for all of these prediction threads to claim that the B's defence has gone down the shitter. While both Krug and Chara were major presences, they also each had their flaws. Obviously, our replacements will have more speed than Chara. Enough to make up for his defensive skill and overall menacing presence? Of course not - but what postitives will that speed have on getting to the puck in our end first and getting it out? Gryz and Mac should do an adequate job of replacing a lot of Krug's PP offence. Not all of it.... but we hopefully will still have a top 5 PP. As for Krug's percieved defensive flaws... well... he's certainly being replaced by more size - which is always handy on D. And of course, if Kase and Smith do a good job in our own end that just helps team defence even more. I'm looking forward to this new makeup... I really think the team may surprise a lot of the pundits out there. I think our D won’t have a huge drop off. Miller can slide to the right side if we run into trouble with Zboril or Lauzon and they need a game off in the press box. Moore can come out and give us solid 3 pairing minutes and there’s Vaak who turned a few heads in camp. Up front I anticipate we’ll be better than last year. Better from a stand point of more secondary scoring and not depending on the top line to carry us every night. We’ll be fine.
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Post by nfld77 on Jan 12, 2021 18:00:31 GMT -5
It's a little premature for all of these prediction threads to claim that the B's defence has gone down the shitter. While both Krug and Chara were major presences, they also each had their flaws. Obviously, our replacements will have more speed than Chara. Enough to make up for his defensive skill and overall menacing presence? Of course not - but what postitives will that speed have on getting to the puck in our end first and getting it out? Gryz and Mac should do an adequate job of replacing a lot of Krug's PP offence. Not all of it.... but we hopefully will still have a top 5 PP. As for Krug's percieved defensive flaws... well... he's certainly being replaced by more size - which is always handy on D. And of course, if Kase and Smith do a good job in our own end that just helps team defence even more. I'm looking forward to this new makeup... I really think the team may surprise a lot of the pundits out there. I think our D won’t have a huge drop off. Miller can slide to the right side if we run into trouble with Zboril or Lauzon and they need a game off in the press box. Moore can come out and give us solid 3 pairing minutes and there’s Vaak who turned a few heads in camp. Up front I anticipate we’ll be better than last year. Better from a stand point of more secondary scoring and not depending on the top line to carry us every night. We’ll be fine. I like your thinking Kjc and while many are sorta pessimistic{NOT on this board], I also believe the Bruins will be fine..The return of a healthy Miller can be a huge impact, not only for his good defensive play but also for his physical play and having his teammates backs..Add Frederic IF he makes team and if he dont, it'll likely mean Bjork takes his place on 4th line..4th line Physical play versus more offense from that line.. Kase and Ritchie are STILL 2 wildcards..But I really think during the 56 game schedule we'll see a better Kase than what we have seen thus far..While he has shown good solid defense and flashes of good offense, I think once he pots his 1st goal as a Bruin, he'll produce quite well alongside DeBrusk and Krejci.. Ritchie so far hasn't been much better than his brother so far but if Miller and others play physical,maybe it'll get him going..Plus, if he's on the 3rd line with Coyle and Smith, he'll definitely get his opportunities..IF he fails, Butch wont hesitate in moving Bjork back up to 3rd line IF he starts season on 4th..While Pastrnak is irreplaceable, what a golden opportunity for Studnicka..I read somewhere that Bruins top line is still ranked the 3rd best line in the league without Pasta and with Studnicka replacing him..I really hope he holds his own between Bergy and Marshy.. All in all, I think our offense is better, our defense can hold their own and Rask/Halak should again be one of the top duels between the pipes.AND we're only 49 hours away from puck dropping on a new season..GO BRUINS!!!
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Post by KSJ08 on Jan 12, 2021 18:12:32 GMT -5
Yes I paid /signed up for the $15.00 extra to get NESN!! So my Fios bill is back to Pre-Comcast days $245 of triple play BUT I have access to DVR in every room, and a lot of Channels I do NOT care about BUT I do Have NESN the Bruins channel!!!!! YES!!!!!
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 13, 2021 7:42:46 GMT -5
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Post by kjc2 on Jan 13, 2021 8:30:43 GMT -5
Fells like the guy that wrote that is an Avalanche fan. “Chara and Krug defensive stalwarts, really? Graves is a Third pairing D man who might get pushed out of the lineup completely while making room for Byram, I do like his size though. Kaut is a first rounder but hasn’t really proved anything yet. If we move Rask and go with no legit #1 goalie we may as well move Krejci and Bergeron because we’ll be heading for the bottom of the league anyway. Agree, can’t see it happening.
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Post by KSJ08 on Jan 13, 2021 8:31:18 GMT -5
Then like Ranford come back to beat us for the cup! No thanks!!!
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Post by SeaBass on Jan 13, 2021 8:33:37 GMT -5
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