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Les Habitants Prospects Thread

Gotta love the 8 points and +6 in three games for Lapierre.

Yeah, but in closely reading the game footnotes, half those points were gimme's.

I'm not so impressed by the points, as I am by his dedication and work ethic, and by the wisdom of Habs management to convert him to a winger. I like the thought of a hard working scrappy Lapierre as a fixture on 4th line Wing.

Also very pleased to see Lever work Sergei at the point, and Valentenko hitting hard.
 
But no love for the Calder champs? That is what we question.

Yeah, doesn't really make a lot of sense unless they did it thinking you guys were going to lose more players to the big club than you did. I know before you signed Brisebois a lot of people had O'Byrne pencilled into the lineup, and maybe they thought Lapierre would be up as well.

That's the only reason that makes sense, anyway.
 
True. Again, I didn't make them.

But the Marlies look to be much improved. Not sure about 1st, but certainly a lot better.
 
It's just a matter of time for O'Byrne
Canadiens prospect working hard. 'All I can do is wait for my chance and hope that I'm ready,' hulking defenceman says

JOHN MEAGHER, The Gazette
Published: 21 hours ago

Ryan O'Byrne admits he was disappointed to be the last defenceman cut by the Canadiens at last month's training camp. But the hulking 6-foot-6, 228-pound defenceman is determined to make the best of his situation with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League.

O'Byrne is off to a promising start with three assists in three games. He is also a solid plus-4 for the Bulldogs, who have posted a 2-0-0-1 record. Ryan O'Byrne is logging more than 20 minutes per game with the Hamilton Bulldogs this season. More importantly, from a developmental standpoint, he is logging more than 20 minutes per game.

"It's been great so far," he said. "I'm playing in all situations, power play and penalty killing. I came down with a ton of confidence, being one of the last cuts.

"Obviously, the AHL is not the NHL, in terms of calibre, but it's still a great league."

O'Byrne has a two-way contract that facilitated his return to the AHL. He accepted the Canadiens' verdict to go with veteran rearguards like Patrice Brisebois.

"The Canadiens have a lot of proven defenders up there who've played 100-plus or a 1,000-plus NHL games," O'Byrne said. "I'm only in my second year of pro, out of college.

"It's one of these things where it's not going to hurt me coming back to the AHL and playing a lot of minutes."

Canadiens brass told O'Byrne to work on his overall game in Hamilton.

"The Canadiens just told me to go back there and work on all facets of my game," he said. "They told me I had a good camp and looked strong, but they said just to work on moving the puck quicker, make sure you never get beat one-on-one, and just try to dominate games. Basically, try to be the best player on the ice some nights. Get the experience. ... Make a good first pass. Every team needs one of those guys."

O'Byrne, 23, has meshed well with defence partner Pavel

Valentenko, a 6-foot-2, 208-pound Russian who turns 20 Saturday.

"Pavel's got lots of skill and talent," O'Byrne said. "He's a big kid and he hits hard. He's going to be a good player, a very good player.

"I think we play similar styles. We're both physical players. He doesn't speak English really well, but he understands the game of hockey."

O'Byrne leads the Bulldogs in penalty minutes with 10 - all minors. Last season, he picked up seven fighting majors among his 129 penalty minutes. He said he'll fight when necessary.

"They don't talk to me about dropping the gloves, but it's part of the game," O'Byrne said. "Sometimes you've got to stand up for teammates. I've got no problem fighting. It's something I do once in a while."

O'Byrne, who had 12 assists in 80 AHL games last season, said he felt comfortable rejoining the Bulldogs, the defending AHL Calder Cup champions.

"We have a lot of returning guys, so everybody knows each other," he said.

"We all get along. Even though it's only been three games, the team is playing well."

As for the possibility of getting recalled by the Canadiens this season, O'Byrne says time is on his side.

"All I can do is wait for my chance and hope that I'm ready."

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=e72e9068-d4bd-45b7-bd75-c2ce41a08ef4
 
Send help quick.

Nope, our defense is fine, won't be better with OB yet, in the future it will, as he improves, or we have injuries.

Him playing 20+ minutes a game, further developing skills, maturity and confidence, is perfect.

Remember what worked well for Komo.
Reminder, he's only 2 years out of college hockey.
 
Hamilton lost 2-1 to Syracuse tonight.

Lahti had the only goal, Lemieux and Manlow with the assists.

Danis was in net again and stopped 18 of 20 shots.
 
Final Score:
Hamilton 2 Hartford 1
1. HFD Korpikoski, (2) (Jessiman, Moore), 12:35
2. HAM Milroy, (2) (Degon), 11:48
3. HAM Locke, (1) (Ferland), 8:57

Division Standings:
TOR 4 4 0 0 0 8
HAM 5 3 1 0 1 7
MTB 6 3 2 1 0 7
GRA 4 3 1 0 0 6
RCH 9 2 5 1 1 6
SYR 6 2 4 0 0 4
LEM 7 1 6 0 0 2

Next Game:
Tomorrow vs. Manitoba Moose @ 4:00 pm
 
I was on the AHL site anyway so I thought I'd grab the other games' results.

It looks like the Marlies might actually put up a fight against the defending champs this year. Well, it's still early. But it'll be interesting to see the first matchup between the two clubs.
 
I was on the AHL site anyway so I thought I'd grab the other games' results.

It looks like the Marlies might actually put up a fight against the defending champs this year. Well, it's still early. But it'll be interesting to see the first matchup between the two clubs.

Yes, I understand you were pimping your hotshot 4-0 Marlies. Kudo's for Junior.

:smilewinkgrin:
 
Yes, it is comforting to know that while he can't GM an NHL team for shit, the Marlies are good... oh wait, no it's not.

:frown2:

But no, I am really big on prospects of any team so I thought I'd update it. Really, I'm over here to pimp my Prospect Discussion Thread on the Leafs board because I'll be updating it all year with ISS Draft Rankings, not just Leaf stuff! Come visit.
 
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