Hello Wizard \'et al\'

I would go with Staal. I not only like him as a player but I like what he brings to the team. He is \'the guy\' in Carolina. The other thing I really value about him is that he is Canadian. Why do I say that? Beside the patriotic reason, I think the North American born players have more value than the European players. With the development of the Europeon leagues we are seeing more of the players going back to Europe. I could see Kopitar returning to Europe whereas Staal loves the NHL. You will have Staal longer than you will have Kopitar.

My thoughts.

hockeylifer wrote:
WoW! This is exactly what I was going to say. The greater possibility of Kopitar returning to Europe gives Staal the edge.

I am impressed that someone else thought of the same thing. It seems there are very knowledgable hockey fans around here. It\'s refreshing...bye bye hockeybuzz.

__________________
My pool
Goals = 1 point, Assists = 1/2 point, Goals Against = -1/2 point

Fowards: S. Stamkos, M. Hossa, A. Hemsky, J. Neal, M. Grabovski, M. Read, J. Jokinen, P. Berglund, M. Hanzal, N. Foligno, B. Wheeler, S. Matthias, G. Latendresse, L. Stempniak

D-men: S. Weber, PK Subban, D. Phaneuf, D. Hamhuis, T. Gilbert, M. Staal, A. Sekera, M. Niskanen, TJ Brodie, N. Prosser, C. Tanev, K. Cumiskey, M. Flood

Goalies: Nashville, Chicago, Boston

Farm: D. Rundblad, D. Orlov, B. Smith (DET), J. Muzzin, MA Bourdon, R. Smith, C. Emmerton, A. Lander, M. Reinhart, M. Mayorov, I. Makarov, P. Maroon

digitalmonkey wrote:I don\'t know that\'s an issue with a player of Kopitar\'s quality (maybe as a tie breaker) but it\'s definitely something I kept in mind while looking at prospects and \"breakout\" candidates.

Post edited by: YearOfTheFish, at: 2007/08/18 16:05

I\'m gonna throw my support behind Kopitar. I think he is going to be a very special player.

He\'s a complete player with great size, oodles of natural talent and he busts his ass at both ends of the rink on every shift. Oh yeah, and he\'s still a teenager. A Slovenian teenager. (For six more days anyways.)

Consider the line from his very first NHL game:

2 G, 0 A, 2 Pts, +1, 7 shots, 22:16 TOI (including 7:21 on the PP, & 1:57 SH), 1 blocked shot

Now consider that that game was against the soon-to-be Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, his linemates at even strength were Brian Willsie and, I believe, Scott Thornton and his coach (Marc Crawford) is notorious for keeping his rookies glued to the pine. (Oh yeah, see if you can find some video of his first goal in that game where he absolutely undressed Chris Pronger and J.S. Giguere).

Crawford loved this kid from the word go. He led all Kings forwards in ice-time nearly every single night, played the power play and killed penalties; which is not exactly common for a 19-year-old rookie forward. He hardly saw any time with the teams\' top wingers yet still put up very good offensive numbers. With the responsibility and ice-time that Crawford gives him, combined with his terrific work ethic and increased exposure to offensively talented linemates I think it won\'t be very long until he is one of the very top players in the league.