Flyers Prospect Travis Konecny, Ryan Johansen And Jonathan Drouin Are Your 3 Stars Of The Night
After returning home from the 2016 World Juniors in Helsinki, Travis Konecny was able to just keep all of his belongings in his suitcase. Because the Ottawa 67’s traded their captain to the Sarnia Sting and last night was Konecny’s first game with his new team. And how did that game go for the 2015 1st round draft pick, you ask? Well Sarnia lost 5-4 in overtime. But Travis Konecny notched himself a hat trick and that’s really all that matters. And holy fucking tits these were a bunch of beauties.
This kid is insane. The closest comparison I can make for his game would be a Zach Parise type of player. He was the captain in Ottawa at 17 years old, played a huge role on Canada’s World Junior team (despite how disappointing they were) and he has hands for days. You throw him in the top 6 with Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, Couturier and Schenn, and all of a sudden the Flyers are scoring a bazillion goals every night.
Speaking of players making a great first impression with new teams… Ryan Johansen.
Chief wrote up a great post laying out the RyJo/Seth Jones trade the other day. I will say this, however. As much as I believe that Seth Jones will be a Norris candidate type of defenseman, I still think the Predators made out like a bunch of bandits in this trade. At least for right now. Because you look at Johansens’s value now and you look at Seth Jones’ value now, and Columbus could have easily gotten themselves a pick or a prospect to come back in return with Jones on this one. The fact that it was a 1-for-1 deal was pretty astonishing. Now if you ask the question “Who won the Ryan Johansen/Seth Jones trade” 2 years from now, well then I don’t think you can possibly have an answer for that one. But right now it was obviously a huge win for the Preds. They get a legitimate #1 center and now they have the pieces they need to make a playoff run. Strong up the middle, they still have a shit ton of talent on the blue line and then they have Pekka Rinne. Not a bad situation to be in right now if you’re Nashville. Both teams addressed serious concerns that they needed to address with this trade and it was a great deal on both ends.
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And finally moving on to our final star of the night making an impact with a new team… Jonathan Drouin.
It seemed like the majority of GMs in the NHL thought that this past week was the trade deadline because deals on top of deals on top of deals went down. Lecavalier and Schenn to the Kings, Mike Richards signed with the Caps, Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen, yesterday the New York Rangers shit their pants and traded away Emerson Etem for Nick Fucking Jensen and a 2017 7th round pick. So now the only name left on the board who hasn’t been traded yet is Jonathan Drouin, the 3rd overall draft pick in 2013. The kid has requested a trade out of Tampa and last night in front of 16 different NHL teams in attendance, he had himself a 2 goal first period.
I’m still pretty convinced that the return Steve Yzerman gets for Drouin will be underwhelming. I know that he has a ton of talent, you know he has a ton of talent, pretty much everybody knows he has a ton of talent. But with that said, his value is just so low right now and I can’t see anything more than a Kyle Turris type of deal going down for him. A decent roster player and a prospect for a kid whose potential is through the roof. Not a great spot to be in if you’re Stevie Y. But maybe if he keeps having himself more games like this one from last night, that value will jump back up again by the February 29th deadline.