Reid Boucher

[MadCaptain]

henrique is solid but lets face it he was a 3rd round pick which is still pretty high. he was also playing on a line with taylor hall. hell i would've been more worried that albany was going to fuck him up rather then albany teaching him.

gionta fayne and greene are all solid and good examples of what i want from a solid farm team. but lets get real they are a 3-4th line center. 2 fringe top 4 d men. i get that not every pick will turn out but i'm not asking for that...i'm just asking for them to produce something of nhl quality players.

Greene is our #1 and Fayne is a solid mid pairing. Neither of them really care from Albany, with Fayne playing less than 20 games and Greene about half a year.

 

[nj_cup]

Devilish sums it up perfectly.
Albany's job is to serve the NJ Devils. Winning is second.
Preparing players for NHL level and doing what New Jersey tells them is the number 1 priority.
Thats it.

Chicago's AHL team didnt make the playoffs last season. Albany wasn't terrible, they missed the playoffs by few games. Rangers AHL team also missed the playoffs.
Montreal's team were the worst in the league.

Now questioning our draft picks, thats a different story.
Being the GM of a minor league team is not the same. You don't make a trades to get better. The parent club takes care of that.

i'm fine with everything you said. it just seems that when we call our players up they are HORRIBLE. whats the problem? is it the coaching down in lowell or is it the players getting drafted?

 

[nj_cup]

looking back since 93 the ahl team had made the playoffs from 93-00

they missed it 01-09.

mac lead them back to the playoffs in 10. since then they have missed it 3 times in a row.


simply put is the horrible development of our prospects a direct result of this? or is it the other way around?


greene is our #1 but a #3 or 4 on another team imo

 

[rp2five]

i'm fine with everything you said. it just seems that when we call our players up they are HORRIBLE. whats the problem? is it the coaching down in lowell or is it the players getting drafted?

I would think you have to point to the drafting. Few exceptions (jury still out on guys like Larsson and Henrique), but typically they aren't bringing up any flashy players the past few years.
It seems to be mostly the Rod Pelleys or Tim Sestitos.
Its guys who will cover somebody's injury or slump and make the least amount of mistakes.

I do see what you are saying. I just think you can't really blame Albany. They have to deal with the players they got, with the additional overhead of listening to the instructions the parent club gives them.

 

[MCDevils]

The real question is how many of our top tier prospects, regardless of current opinion played in Albany.

Merrill
Severson
Matteau
Boucher
None of these guys have logged any substantial minutes down there. Santini won't since he's going to BC.

JJ and Tedenby did a little bit, but both have had substantial injuries, played in SWE, both have spent substantial time at the NHL level so haven't really played there.

The big question will be how Urbom and Gelinas do up here. I reserve judgement until we see what they can do since they've both played A TON of games for Albany.

 

[MadCaptain]

looking back since 93 the ahl team had made the playoffs from 93-00

they missed it 01-09.

mac lead them back to the playoffs in 10. since then they have missed it 3 times in a row.


simply put is the horrible development of our prospects a direct result of this? or is it the other way around?


greene is our #1 but a #3 or 4 on another team imo

Thats what I think of when Devilish brings up the Rangers and the team being used to develop. We haven't won any cups with a bad Albany team. The AHL team back then was highly successful and winning the Calder Cup or going very far. All the players called up from the three cups came from those very successful Albany teams. Those teams had good coaches in Ftorek, Constantine, etc. Since 2005 the only coach to win down there was MacLean and we all saw how terrible he was when he finally got brought up.

The players that have come out of other development leagues have fared MUCH better than the players coming out of Albany. Larsson, Greene, Fayne, Zajac, and Martin are products of NCAA/NHL/Sweden Development. Henrique, Halischuk, and Parise are the only guys that played atleast a year in Albany. Parise shouldn't even count though since he played in the lockout year when the AHL was basically all NHL pros.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

The real question is how many of our top tier prospects, regardless of current opinion played in Albany.

Merrill
Severson
Matteau
Boucher
None of these guys have logged any substantial minutes down there. Santini won't since he's going to BC.

JJ and Tedenby did a little bit, but both have had substantial injuries, played in SWE, both have spent substantial time at the NHL level so haven't really played there.

The big question will be how Urbom and Gelinas do up here. I reserve judgement until we see what they can do since they've both played A TON of games for Albany.

Great points, and I agree we have to see how these guys on D play out.

 

[rp2five]

Great players, typically don't spend much time in the AHL. That leaves you with really young players who are ok prospects, some older prospects, and then the rest are borderline players or people ready to be called up just in case.

 

[TiLoBrown]

Wasn't wanting to keep Stamkos in the AHL what got Melrose fired so fast?

 

[MCDevils]

Thats what I think of when Devilish brings up the Rangers and the team being used to develop. We haven't won any cups with a bad Albany team. The AHL team back then was highly successful and winning the Calder Cup or going very far. All the players called up from the three cups came from those very successful Albany teams. Those teams had good coaches in Ftorek, Constantine, etc. Since 2005 the only coach to win down there was MacLean and we all saw how terrible he was when he finally got brought up.

The players that have come out of other development leagues have fared MUCH better than the players coming out of Albany. Larsson, Greene, Fayne, Zajac, and Martin are products of NCAA/NHL/Sweden Development. Henrique, Halischuk, and Parise are the only guys that played atleast a year in Albany. Parise shouldn't even count though since he played in the lockout year when the AHL was basically all NHL pros.

Clarkson did play 2 seasons in ALB I think. So he's got to count in there somewhere.

 

[MCDevils]

Also things are about to get interesting with Jagr prob resting the next couple of days.

Elias - Zajac - ?????
Clowe-Henrique- Ryder
Zubrus- ????? - ?????

Should be some interesting battles between Loki, JJ, Teds, Boucher, Olesz, Matteau

 

[MadCaptain]

Clarkson did play 2 seasons in ALB I think. So he's got to count in there somewhere.

I went through and looked at the list from 2006-2010.
Lowell Devils all-time player roster at hockeydb.com

There was a bunch of players that I had completely forgotten about. Clemmenson, Fraser, Clarkson, Zharkov, Salmela, Pelley, PL3. None really stand out other than Clemmenson, but it is quite a bit.

The top offense from that time read like a top list of biggest Devils busts. Tallackson, Vrana, and Bergfors. I didn't realize the forward talent at that level was so bad for so long. I guess you guys are right. Can't develop players if you don't have any players to develop.

 

[irishwhip03]

Word out of Detroit is that were 1 of 3 teams still interested in Brunner.

4 mil in cap space and none of the players that will be battling for the open spots have Brunner's talent.

The kid has to land somewhere and the fact that the teams been talking to him all summer plus him not signing overseas makes me think he'll be on our roster eventually.

 

[DevilishWon]

Wasn't wanting to keep Stamkos in the AHL what got Melrose fired so fast?

Well cup wants Lou gone so......

 

[TiLoBrown]

Touché

 

[nj_cup]

Wasn't wanting to keep Stamkos in the AHL what got Melrose fired so fast?

pretty crazy aint it? considering that they were VERY close to trading him to the rangers before melrose got there. crazy no?

 

[TiLoBrown]

pretty crazy aint it? considering that they were VERY close to trading him to the rangers before melrose got there. crazy no?

I dont recall that at all. Especially since he was the #1 pick in 08 and Melrose was fired in November of the same year. As a matter of fact, just did a check, he was never in the AHL. Melrose wanted to send him there though, I think that was the rumor.

 

[nj_cup]

Rangers had done deal for Stamkos | New York Post

your right i'm sorry they were looking to trade him AFTER melrose got fired for wanting to send him to the minors.

 

[DevilishWon]

Rangers had done deal for Stamkos | New York Post

your right i'm sorry they were looking to trade him AFTER melrose got fired for wanting to send him to the minors.

We should all be thankful that fell through. He'd be scoring on us for years. Don't see em as often at TB

 

[TiLoBrown]

Either way, its still stupid on TB's part. Talk about short sightedness. I at least understand Melrose, if they're not getting in to the playoffs, why risk injury/waste a year on an entry contract