BigEd76 wrote:

azrider wrote:So how excited should I get over getting either Nolan or nico or I guess most likely nico? What's his upside? From what I could find, I don't think either is considered elite.

Considering they should be picking 13th, I'll take either one and be happy about it. Nolan compares to Toews, while Nico compares to Datsyuk or Bure

BigEd76 wrote:Bellemare rejects "player of the game" award, felt goalie deserved it more

"You're getting a star and you're getting a star for a long time. You're not getting a second-line center. You're getting a first-line center that's going to lead your team and play lots of minutes and bring you lots of fans in your building because he's just going to be a treat to watch -- he's going to be exciting. If you look at the big games that he's played, that's when he's played his best hockey. He's a competitor, he's a gamer and he'll definitely be a star in the NHL."
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"He was playing as an underage [at under-18s competition], double underage. I was speaking with an agent as we were looking for a European, and he just kind of made a comment and said, 'Look, I don't have this player here, but this is a guy that you want to keep an eye on down the road.' So almost a couple of years ago he caught my eye."
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"We've had some real good hockey players go through our program — (Nathan) MacKinnon, (Jonathan) Drouin, (Nikolaj) Ehlers, (Timo) Meier — but he does everything so well. He's such a conscientious player, he's so concerned about playing good defensive hockey, doing all the little things right. You're watching a guy who is an absolute star and he's your best defensive player at the same time. Obviously he's a guy that jumps off the page and does some incredible things."
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"That'll be determined in training camp [if he's ready to jump to NHL]. It depends on who drafts him, what their plan is for him. The easiest way to put it is time will tell in training camp. I know he's going to be a great hockey player in the NHL. There's potential there that he could be returned to junior, but we'll have to wait and see. I think he's just such a complete hockey player that he can make that step, but we'll just have to wait and see."

"He's just got to get a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger like all 18-year-olds do, but that would be about the only negative thing I can say about him. When I say the one thing, his size, I'm splitting hairs. The reality is, the game has changed so much. You look at Mitch Marner out there, Johnny Gaudreau -- there are so many players that play today that maybe couldn't have played 20 or 30 years ago, but they're exciting, skilled players and they're just so quick and so smart that they have no problems out there."

"He's so aware of what's going on around him that you don't see him get hit with an open-ice hit. He rarely puts himself in a dangerous position, yet he's the first one on the puck all the time."

"He's such a strong offensive player, he's completely fearless -- you cannot intimidate him. If you watch him play closely, you'll see that he's the first one on the puck and I've never seen a player roll off hits like he does in the corner. I can't think of a time when he was run over or contained in the corner, he's just so strong, so quick and so agile with the puck."

"Whoever gets him, he's going to be a real fun player to watch for a long time."

z ipper wrote:i think he'll show he's one of the 6 best forwards and then get sent to the phantoms.

PSUPhilliesPhan wrote:Nolan vs Nico

Squire wrote:Flyers have signed Ghost to a Multi-year contract.