Byfield

RagBone said:
Kinda what you'd expect from a 21 year old #2 overall pick.
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That’s simply not true!

When going thru the NHL drafts from 2005 and 15 years forward to the Byfield draft year (yes, I have no life…) you clearly see that it isn’t a sure thing that 2nd overall picks play like Byfield is doing right now when they just have turned 21:

-2005, Bobby Ryan, did but quickly dropped of badly.
-2006, Jordan Staal, never did.
-2007, James Van Riemsdyk, never did.
-2008, Drew Doughty, did and still do!
-2009, Victor Hedman, did not yet but later on.
-2010, Tyler Seguin, did and continued to be good but maybe not great.
-2011, Gabriel Landeskog, did and still do.
-2012, Ryan Murray, never did.
-2013, Aleksander Barkov, did not yet but later on.
-2014, Sam Reinhart, did not until his 9th season.
-2015, Jack Eichel, did and still do.
-2016, Patrik Laine, did and still do.
-2017, Nolan Patrick, did not and likely will never do.
-2018, Andrei Svechnikov, did and still do.
-2019, Kaapo Kakko, did not.

So of the 15 second overall picks only 7 (less than half) played as good or better than Byfield does right now at this stage of his career.

So no, you shouldn’t ”expect” this kind of play from a just turned 21 year old. You can hope for it, but if you get it consider yourself lucky! As we are right now and it’s great seeing Byfield putting it all together!
 
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emsomaso said:
That’s simply not true!

When going thru the NHL drafts from 2005 and 15 years forward to the Byfield draft year (yes, I have no life…) you clearly see that it isn’t a sure thing that 2nd overall picks play like Byfield is doing right now when they just have turned 21:

-2005, Bobby Ryan, did but quickly dropped of badly.
-2006, Jordan Staal, never did.
-2007, James Van Riemsdyk, never did.
-2008, Drew Doughty, did and still do!
-2009, Victor Hedman, did not yet but later on.
-2010, Tyler Seguin, did and continued to be good but maybe not great.
-2011, Gabriel Landeskog, did and still do.
-2012, Ryan Murray, never did.
-2013, Aleksander Barkov, did not yet but later on.
-2014, Sam Reinhart, did not until his 9th season.
-2015, Jack Eichel, did and still do.
-2016, Patrik Laine, did and still do.
-2017, Nolan Patrick, did not and likely will never do.
-2018, Andrei Svechnikov, did and still do.
-2019, Kaapo Kakko, did not.

So of the 15 second overall picks only 7 (less than half) played as good or better than Byfield does right now at this stage of his career.

So no, you shouldn’t ”expect” this kind of play from a just turned 21 year old. You can hope for it, but if you get it consider yourself lucky! As we are right now and it’s great seeing Byfield putting it all together!
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Although I understand your thinking behind this, you are completely missing the mark with Jordan Staal. By the time Staal was 22 years old, he’d played 3 seasons in the NHL, scored 60+ goals, and 120 points, was a key cog in the lineup playing behind Crosby and Malik, and was the arguably the best 3C in the league. He had 2 Finals appearances, won a Stanley Cup, and was nominated for a Selke the following year.

It’s not always about Goals and making flashy plays.
 
Birdman said:
Although I understand your thinking behind this, you are completely missing the mark with Jordan Staal. By the time Staal was 22 years old, he’d played 3 seasons in the NHL, scored 60+ goals, and 120 points, was a key cog in the lineup playing behind Crosby and Malik, and was the arguably the best 3C in the league. He had 2 Finals appearances, won a Stanley Cup, and was nominated for a Selke the following year.

It’s not always about Goals and making flashy plays.
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You have some fair points, without a doubt.

I personally love heart and soul players like that, the LA Kings version of Mike Richards is one of my favorite Kings players of all time! But my main point was that many times members here have written that it isn’t good enough if Byfield developed in to a big, solid and defensive sound complement to Kopitar and Kempe that puts up good underlying statistics while scoring 20 goals and 30 assists (like Jordan Staal does).

That’s why I didn’t include Staal on my list, because he never developed into the flashy superstar that some here seem to think is the only measure stick a 2nd overall pick should be judged by!

I personally would have been 100% happy if Byfield ”just” became a new Jordan Staal, you would be stupid not too! But sometimes it sounds here that if you don’t produce 80-100 points/season you’re a wasted 2nd overall pick and that was the criteria in my previous post when I sorted the drafted players.

Based on this season I honestly think Byfield can be even better than Staal, but that’s just icing on the cake if so…
 
I’m not doubting that he can’t. Frankly, Staals game went south when he left for Carolina to play with his brother.
 
if you want a perfect example of what line chemistry looks like check out the assist by QB. It’s a no-look behind the back tip pass to exactly where Kempe should be based on the o-zone cycle.

Also Nick is correct, Philly bottled the 1st line up all game. And this play shows exactly how dangerous they are. All it took was one good shift for them to score a goal.

 
symbology said:
Um, what? Are you watching the same game that I am? He is top 7 in the league. Is that not fast enough for you?

This is from the NHL Edge sight.

View attachment 6778
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But that proves my point albeit it's a very slight difference he was probably the fastest player in the OHL and now he's not the fastest player on his line with that being Kempe. My point wasn't saying he's not fast(he is)but I don't think he's used to guys catching up with him as that didn't happen to him in the OHL. I remember a play last year where he was taking the puck out of the zone and Macdavid was probably 5 strides behind him and in literally 2 Macdavid strides caught up to him and stripped him and I think it's taken him till this season to realize that there are other fast players in the league too. I realize in that example I used the best player in the game catching up with him very quickly but you know in the OHL he never had a player 5 strides behind him catch him in 2. I think our patience will pay off with him and although Stutzle is the better player now I think Byfield in 10 years has the potential to be better than he and Lafreniere.
 
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DryKing said:
He's still on the upper end of the skaters, in terms of speed, within the NHL so I don't fully agree with the first point, but definitely agree with strength holding him back. He looked strong and dominate the first two games of the season but has taken a step back since. The cross check after the whistle last night also indicates that he wants to play tough and defend his linemates but doesn't yet fully comprehend how to do so. It was almost as though one could see the delay between him processing what he wanted to do and then doing it. That said, his biggest challenge regarding moving from the OHL to NHL appears to be within the mental game.
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I'm not saying he's slow as he's very fast but I think this is the first time in his junior to NHL career that he's played against guys and some of his own teammates who are as fast as he is or close to it. It's a very small difference but Kempe is actually the fastest skater on his line and that's never happened to Byfield before to have a player on his own line be faster than he is albeit a small difference I think it's taken him awhile to not only get used to a pace he's never played at before but also teammates and opponents who are also fast.

In terms of the physical play I think he'll get stronger almost year to year as he's so young and he'll adjust to playing against men instead of teenagers. I think playing a full year in the AHL was good for him in that regard as that league has probably 5-6 older players in the league on each team who are physically mature and that probably opened his eyes going into corners and the front of the net with them.
 
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Earl said:
But that proves my point albeit it's a very slight difference he was probably the fastest player in the OHL and now he's not the fastest player on his line with that being Kempe. My point wasn't saying he's not fast(he is)but I don't think he's used to guys catching up with him as that didn't happen to him in the OHL. I remember a play last year where he was taking the puck out of the zone and Macdavid was probably 5 strides behind him and in literally 2 Macdavid strides caught up to him and stripped him and I think it's taken him till this season to realize that there are other fast players in the league too. I realize in that example I used the best player in the game catching up with him very quickly but you know in the OHL he never had a player 5 strides behind him catch him in 2. I think our patience will pay off with him and although Stutzle is the better player now I think Byfield in 10 years has the potential to be better than he and Lafreniere.
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You cannot go wrong with Stutzle. I don't know if there are more than a half dozen players in the NHL who could have scored the "walk off home run" goal that he got yesterday. That was pure skill. But Byfield has taken his play the next level this season as well. He is the combination of skill, speed, and size that is pretty much a unicorn and the reason why he was #2 overall. His point share of 1.3 is behind Stutzle's 1.7 so far this season but he's been amazing.
 
Stutzle's biggest issue going forward is going to be forever "great you got all these points, but can you win, and if he does win something it will be, but without a Tkachuk" Just something for the grass is always greener crowd.
 
IMG_3662.jpeg
 
Just some stats for us Kings fans.

LA Kings (2020 2nd Overall Draft Pick) QB: 18GP, 4G - 12A = 16P +/- +11

NY Rangers (2019 2nd Overall Draft Pick KK: 18GP, 2G - 1A = 3P +/- +1

NY Rangers (2020 1st Overall Draft Pick AL: 18GP, 8G - 4A = 12P +/- +1

So far this year QB is outscoring and outplaying the Rangers 2019 2nd overall and their 2020 1st overall draft picks combined.
 
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