Waiting for Nino Niederreiter, on both coasts

For the love of God don’t mention Chyzowski, man what a waste of time he turned out to be! I remember Gillies trying to mentor this kid to no avail.

then removed your comments making my comments look absolutely ridiculous. Did you ever work for Oliver Stone?

Maybe slightly help his skills, slightly help his game, slightly help him getting used to nhl rinks, and slightly help his confidence. BUT, none of that really equates to the development he would get from a real full nhl season.

Why then not let him make these little steps now and give him a real full NHL season in 2011-12. He’ll mature and improve now, get that big development next season and will perhaps be an important piece in two, three years’ time. This coming season can’t determine what kind of a career he’ll have, at least not in the way we hope for… It’s the next three, four years that really set the stage for his career.

As for his last season, he surely had good playoffs, no one doubts that, although the numbers might be slighlty inflated by the fact that particularly one series was very high-scoring in general. Anyway, you can’t take these numbers and argue he’d be an 80-points guy. In fact, he struggled slightly towards the end of the regular season. I know, he recovered and had good playoffs, but he still might have been tired a bit and could need another season that long just for the sake of getting used to it. He’s not used to that from Switzerland, as the juniors play only around 45 games per season (including playoffs) over here. And there’s actually lots of other small things he needs to further adapt to in my opinion. However, yeah, he might dominate in the WHL this season and be the best shooter and amongst the best players, but he’d need to work for it and make this little adjustment or get used to that little thing. Again, it’s very likely he’ll do that well, but let’s actually let him do that and not claim he doesn’t need to do it anymore just because he looks like he has the potential to do it.

As for JT, by saying he wasn’t fully ready I of course didn’t mean it was the wrong decision to keep him with the Islanders. That was obviously always the only possibility and this past season surely helped him more than any additional year in the OHL could have. But to me there’s no doubt his all-around game suffered from a few very big deficits. If you adjust his Corsi for competition faced and zonestarts, he ends up having one of the worst on the team and therefore in the whole league. That’s not a problem, not at all, it helped him a lot going through all this, but it’s a fact that he struggled. Actually, it’s a fact that all rookies struggle, everyone needs to adapt, as you say correctly. And again, I don’t find a comparison between JT and Nino very meaningful, but having seen JT we should know just how much it takes to adapt to the NHL. And Nino is far from being as ready as JT was in my opinion and thus could have a not very helpful time in the NHL indeed.

What really will a year of dominance in the whl do for him other then show he can dominate youngsters and boost his confidence? Maybe slightly help his skills, slightly help his game, slightly help him getting used to nhl rinks, and slightly help his confidence. BUT, none of that really equates to the development he would get from a real full nhl season.

That is pretty much what I was saying too. He will score more, but will his overall game improve enough for him not to be a defensive liability?

Well, I don’t know what the schedule of the rebuild looks like, but I think some people might get a little impatient. It still takes quite some time for the Islanders to be a contender. Their two highest rated D prospects will join the NHL only perhaps later this season (Hamonic) or next season at the earliest (DeHaan). The two talented Russians will need at least one more year to either come over (Petrov) or mature (Kabanov). Maybe DP will be back healthy for years, otherwise Koskinen will get the starting job next season at the earliest. And in order to be a valueable part of a contending team, all these players will then need a couple of seasons to adapt and further mature. That’s not saying that the Isles can’t be a very good team already in one or two years’ time, with JT, Okposo, Streit & Co. leading the way. But the best chances to contend are probably at least three, rather four or even five seasons away, when more prospects will have come through and JT as well as Okposo indeed will be amongst the league’s top players.

So, from that point of view, it really doesn’t matter when to take that hit with Nino. And although it’s tough to tell indeed, I think he’d improve a lot and be less of a liability next season. Also because there will be more protected spots available on the team next season with hopefully JT, Bailey & Co. further maturing into key-roles.

However, I’d anyway guess to maximize the individual’s potential is always the best route to take when you’re rebuilding. So, given where the Isles are right now, all this might not even be considered very much.

Just one more thing I wanted to add, although I’ve mentioned it before… I think Nino’s size has been an enormous advantage in the juniors. He really is one of the strongest guys there and that big body might cover a few deficits in his game. Just like JT’s nose around the net let him dominate down there despite an average all-around game/bad skating. Of course, the body will be an asset of Nino also in the NHL, but obviously not to the same extent and probably not at all in the first year. Only the coaches can tell and it’s speculation from my part, but I think that his game might be not exactly as complete and deep as one could think. And yes, I do think that he could work on these things in Portland.