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2021-2022 NHL Thread

WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
Didn't know where to put this.

https://twitter.com/JhanHky/status/1476749878738964499?t=3nxF0-IfakIhZNVZIqCtGg&s=19

Much harder to do on the smaller rink, but watching the evolution of total football in hockey is interesting.

In about 20 years you're going to lose your mind when the goalie is routinely starting the play/breakout from between the face off circles.
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I?ve watched this 10 times and I still have no clue what?s so special about what I just saw.  :-\
 
Bender said:
I don't either... Is it because he back tracks and pulls the Travis Dermott spin-o-rama that actually works?
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Jack Han was probably drinking heavily and thought he saw something innovative there.
 
It's the "total football" approach from soccer in hockey, stretching the ice horizontally and vertically, no player plays a set position, playing into space.

It's becoming more and more common at the tip of the spear on larger ice surfaces.
 
This isn't maybe a real scientific thing here but does anyone else sort of feel like we're in a bit of a low point in terms of talent coming into the league? Like, obviously there haven't been any McDavid types in the last five years but beyond that it feels like we've gotten more busts/disappointments towards the top of the draft than we usually do? Obviously anyone drafted in the last 5 years is young and still has time for their career to take off but it just feels like there's not a ton of young players to be really excited about right now.
 
Nik said:
This isn't maybe a real scientific thing here but does anyone else sort of feel like we're in a bit of a low point in terms of talent coming into the league? Like, obviously there haven't been any McDavid types in the last five years but beyond that it feels like we've gotten more busts/disappointments towards the top of the draft than we usually do? Obviously anyone drafted in the last 5 years is young and still has time for their career to take off but it just feels like there's not a ton of young players to be really excited about right now.
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Part of me thinks that even in the Ovechkin/Crosby era we had those two and the rest, but looking at the last few drafts since Auston was drafted there haven't been many players that have taken the league by storm. In fact most have been pedestrian except for maybe Cale Makar and a couple others. Kappo Kakko, Jack Hughes, Lafreniere, Hischier, Nolan Patrick, Kotkaniemi, Dahlin. They're not bad players but they're not looking like extra special talents out there, even accounting for them not having to be at Matthews/McDavid level. You wonder if Nylander goes top 3 in many of the recent years' drafts.
 
Bender said:
Part of me thinks that even in the Ovechkin/Crosby era we had those two and the rest, but looking at the last few drafts since Auston was drafted there haven't been many players that have taken the league by storm. In fact most have been pedestrian except for maybe Cale Makar and a couple others. Kappo Kakko, Jack Hughes, Lafreniere, Hischier, Nolan Patrick, Kotkaniemi, Dahlin. They're not bad players but they're not looking like extra special talents out there, even accounting for them not having to be at Matthews/McDavid level. You wonder if Nylander goes top 3 in many of the recent years' drafts.
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Yeah I was going to say that the three best guys to come into the league in the last five years so far are Makar, Quinn Hughes and Svechnikov in Carolina. I think there are a lot of other good players out there but it does feel like a bit of a dry patch.
 
Reminds me of this post from when the NHL announced players wouldn't be going to the Olympics, and how Canada specifically has been lagging a little in producing elite players post-McDavid:

https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1473747622963912713
 
Nik said:
This isn't maybe a real scientific thing here but does anyone else sort of feel like we're in a bit of a low point in terms of talent coming into the league? Like, obviously there haven't been any McDavid types in the last five years but beyond that it feels like we've gotten more busts/disappointments towards the top of the draft than we usually do? Obviously anyone drafted in the last 5 years is young and still has time for their career to take off but it just feels like there's not a ton of young players to be really excited about right now.
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This draft doesn?t do it for me either.  Next year should be one of those drafts though.
 
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