Deadline Approaching for Draft Picks

DP · Oct 24, 2010

Before the season started, Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford had this to say to NHL.com about rookie forward Jeff Skinner, the No. 7 pick of the 2010 Entry Draft: "Certainly based on his skill level and his hockey sense, I would be surprised if he's not here all year."

It's almost time for Rutherford, as well as five other GMs, to make more concrete decisions on their 2010 Entry Draft picks currently playing in the NHL.

This season, the special six who remain with their teams are the Oilers' Taylor Hall (No. 1 pick), the Bruins' Tyler Seguin (No. 2), the Islanders' Nino Niederreiter (No. 5), Skinner (No. 7), the Thrashers' Alexander Burmistrov (No. 8) and the Ducks' Cam Fowler (No. 12).

Teams can return their teenage prospects to their junior team at any time, but doing so before they play in their 10th game delays the start of their entry-level contract. The last player to skate in more than nine games and still be returned to his junior club was defenseman Luca Sbisa, the No. 19 pick of the 2008 Draft who played 39 games with the Flyers before being sent back to WHL.

The decision to keep an 18-year-old in the NHL is a big one, and one team executives don't take lightly.

"I think anytime you're in the evaluation process, especially with an 18-year-old, you're looking at can they keep pace with established NHL players," Colorado Avalanche General Manager Greg Sherman told NHL.com. "These are difficult decisions and you want to do what's right for the franchise and you also want to do what's right for the player. You don't want to put a player, especially an 18-year-old player, in a position where he's not able to perform at that level."

Sherman had maybe the toughest decisions to make last season, when he had a pair of 18-year-olds -- Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly -- who made the Avalanche's opening-night roster. Sherman opted to keep both, and each played a big role in the Avs making the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.

Ducks GM Bob Murray will be the first GM to have to make that decision this season.

His team will play its ninth game Saturday in Detroit, and after that he'll have to decide if Fowler stays in Anaheim or returns to his junior team, the Windsor Spitfires. Fowler has 3 points and a minus-1 rating in six games, but he's played at least 21 minutes in every game except one -- Sunday's game against the Coyotes, when he was knocked out of the game shortly after scoring his first NHL goal when Shane Doan hit him into the boards. He suffered a broken nose on the play, has missed the last two games and remains questionable for Saturday's game in Detroit.

While Murray has the final say, coach Randy Carlyle will have input in the decision. And while Carlyle wouldn't reveal which way he was leaning, listening to him assess Fowler's play this season, combined with the solid ice time he's given Fowler, allows for a pretty decent guess.

"For a young player he's made a huge impression," said Carlyle. "You're correct in the statement that when coaches like players, it's based upon they trust players, and when you trust people they get more ice time. In the situation he's been presented, we've had a defenseman go down with an injury in (Andy) Sutton and we didn't expect to have to use a young player that many minutes in the early going of the season, but that's what happened. Injuries do occur and he seems to be able to handle the 20 minutes-plus. Did we plan on using Cam Fowler for 20 minutes each game of the year? Probably not, that's not the master plan, but if the kid can handle it, why not?"

That's the same debate going on in a few different GM offices.

Some seemingly have easier calls than others.

In Edmonton, GM Steve Tambellini and coach Tom Renney have been unequivocal in saying that despite Hall's perceived struggles -- the rookie left wing has just 1 assist and a minus-2 rating in five games and has been shifted to the third line -- he will be with the team all season.

They don't have to formally make the decision until after their ninth game, Oct. 29 at the Blackhawks, but it doesn't sound like that day is circled on anyone's calendar.

"He's going to be here all year unless somebody tells me otherwise," Renney told the Calgary Herald. "I think he'll just get better (and) that's an assimilation we're prepared to work with."

Rutherford is just as concise in his decision to keep Skinner in Carolina all season. He has 4 points in six games, and scored a dazzling game-deciding shootout goal to beat the Wild in the Hurricanes' second game of the season. Skinner won't play his ninth game until Oct. 28 at the Rangers, but Rutherford said there's no chance he returns to junior hockey.

"I've never even considered the nine-game rule when we're looking at Jeff," Rutherford told NHL.com. "We watched him through rookie camp and the main camp. If there was something we saw that he need more work on (he'd be sent back), but we've never considered it."

What impressed Rutherford so much about Skinner was that while the center is just 5-foot-10 and 193 pounds, he committed himself during the summer to get as strong as possible to deal with the rigors of an 82-game NHL schedule.
"This is a player that our staff has liked for a long time," said Rutherford. "When I heard he was working out with Gary Roberts and preparing himself for the long grind and playing with men, I really felt he was going to do everything he could to say here."

While Skinner and Fowler have done good jobs in making their case for full-time NHL employment, the Islanders and Thrashers will have tougher decisions when it comes to Niederreiter and Burmistrov.

Niederreiter, the youngest player in the League, has 1 goal in seven games. He's impressed coach Scott Gordon, and the Islanders have kept their previous two top picks -- Josh Bailey and John Tavares -- as 18-year-olds. However, the club doesn't have to make its decision until after the Isles' ninth game, Oct. 27 at Montreal.

"He's got a good head on his shoulders," Gordon told the New York Post. "I think he's a focused individual. He doesn't just take anything for granted. He works at things. He's a good listener. Those are the things that, as a coach, you can't take for granted because not every 18-year-old is like that."

Burmistrov, who has no points and a plus-2 rating in six games, has impressed his coach. He's been centering the team's fourth line, flanked by Ben Eager and Chris Thorburn, and he's also flourished as one of the team's top penalty killers.

"I think Burmy has played so well with those guys and they are good with him," Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He's got two big, strong boys around him to make sure that nobody is going to try to pick on him or take advantage of him. I don't think you could anyway. In the Anaheim game, after we tied it, I put him out against (Corey) Perry, against (Ryan) Getzlaf and I put him out against (Joe) Thornton late in the San Jose game and he went out and won a little battle with this great big man. He has tremendous courage. It is better for him to play with the same people. It's easy to get that familiarity by playing with people who are good with him. That combination has been very effective."

The decision on whether that effectiveness will be good enough to last all season has to be made following the Thrashers' ninth game, Oct. 27 at the Rangers.

The Bruins won't have to make their call on Seguin until after their ninth game, Nov. 3 at the Sabres. The center has 3 points in five games and is averaging just 13:22 of ice time per game, ninth among the team's forwards. However, that slow development is just what the Bruins' plan has called for.

"We're certainly in a different position than most second-overall picks would be in," Bruins president Cam Neely told Boston's WEEI radio. "They generally are on a team that maybe isn't as deep as what we currently have. We're able to have him ease into this League and get comfortable, learn a little bit more on the defensive side. We expect him to get better and better as time goes on."

The one thing the rookies have in common is their insistence that they're not letting that impending threshold enter into their thoughts.

"Already as an 18-year-old I think I've had a great experience up here and obviously I want to keep that going," said Fowler. "But that's out of my hands. The most I can do is keep playing my game and keep playing well."

Contact Adam Kimelman at akimelman@nhl.com
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I believe Hall will be back in the Juniors, and Segiun will be playing for the Bruins. Nino Niederreiter and Cam Fowler will also be playing in the NHL, or maybe even the AHL. The others listen I think will be on their Junior team.

Shutout · Oct 24, 2010

DPGB said: ↑

I believe Hall will be back in the Juniors, and Segiun will be playing for the Bruins. Nino Niederreiter and Cam Fowler will also be playing in the NHL, or maybe even the AHL. The others listen I think will be on their Junior team.
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Straight from the article, "In Edmonton, GM Steve Tambellini and coach Tom Renney have been unequivocal in saying that despite Hall's perceived struggles -- the rookie left wing has just 1 assist and a minus-2 rating in five games and has been shifted to the third line -- he will be with the team all season."

DP · Oct 24, 2010

Maybe I should of worded that correctly. I believe Hall should be back in the Juniors.

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