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Senators Prospect: Ryan Potulny

On Monday, the Ottawa Senators acquired forward prospect Ryan Potulny and a 2nd round draft pick in 2011 to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defenceman Chris Campoli and a conditional 7th round pick on 2011. The 7th round draft pick is on the condition that Potunlny re-signs with the Senators. Ryan Potunlny’s older brother, Grant, was drafted in the 5th round by the Senators in 2000 and played 4 seasons with the Binghamton Senators before moving on to another organization.

SCOUTING REPORT

Strengths
Shooting
Versatile - can play either center or wing
Two way player
Faceoffs

Areas For Improvement
Passing
Strength
Skating

Skill
Potulny is an offensive player who works hard and can play at both ends of the ice. He likes to shoot and has a knack for finding open ice to get into a scoring position. Potulny is a very versatile player as he can plan both center and wing – though he is a natural center with a good success at the faceoff circle. While he has good hands in the offensive zone, he is also responsible in his own end.

Potulny does a lot of things well, but only a few things really well. One of his weaknesses is the delivery of his passes, they could be more crisp and lead his man. Potulny is a good skater – good lateral movement – but he is not a great skater. To help take his game to the pro level, adding more weight and strength to his 6’ frame would be beneficial. Injuries have also been an issue at least twice in his career: He suffered a knee injury in his freshman year with University of Minnesota that limited to 15 games that season and later he suffered a less serious injury in his first season as pro.

NHL Potential
Depth forward

Career Notes

Ottawa 67's Prospect: Robert Farmer

Courtesy of www.prohockeynews.com

With the 44th pick overall in the 2010 CHL Import Draft, the Ottawa 67’s have selected Robert Farmer of the Sheffield Steelers in the EIHL.  Farmer is described as big power forward with a great attitude. 

Earlier this year, Farmer was signed by the Manchester Phoenix of the EPL.  With permission from coach Tony Hand, Farmer traveled to Iowa in the United States to tryout for the Dubuque Fighting Saints, a Tier 1 junior hockey team in the United States Hockey League.

While Farmer did not make the team, Fighting Saints Head Coach, Jim Montgomery, had nothing but good words to say about him.  Montgomery told reporters, “Robert was very good at our camp and progressively got better throughout the week.  He had a goal and two assists in four intra squad games.  He is an outstanding young man who is a team first player with an infectious attitude.  He did not make our team as we can only have a couple of imports but he did impress some NHL scouts that asked me about him.”

In comes the Ottawa 67’s.  Many people might wonder, how in the world did the 67’s think of drafting a player out of the UK has there have been very few in the past?  It was noted that former Ottawa 67’s d-man (1997-2002 season), Jon Zion, told GM Brian Kilrea to take a look at one of his teammates.  This teammate happened to be Robert Farmer of the Sheffield Steelers where Zion had spent a few years playing.

Kilrea saw him during an on-ice workout and was impressed enough with his skating to draft him with their first, and ultimately only, selection in the recent CHL Import Draft.

Here is some information I was able to gather about Farmer’s game a big thanks to the crew at http://fmjblog.blogspot.com/ for some very valuable information…

Born: 21/03/1991 
Birthplace: Nottingham, England
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 195lbs 
Shoots: L 
Position: LW
Previous Clubs: Sheffield Scimitars (EPL), Sheffield Steelers (EIHL)

National Aboriginal Hockey Championship

Wednesday, @msconduct and myself had a chance to take in the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship being held this year at Bell Sensplex in Kanata. The event is held annually in a different venue each year, so this was a great opportunity to take in some great hockey in a town now starving in the off season.

Get the rest of my notes after the jump:

Ryan Martindale: NHL Prospect Profile/Scouting Report

Photo courtesy of Blitzen Photography & Ottawa 67's Fan Blog

Team: Ottawa 67’s
League: Ontario Hockey League
Position: C
Born: October 27, 1991
Hometown: Brooklin, ON
Height: 6.03
Weight: 190

Report Card (Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, Poor)

Ottawa 67's Prospect: Sean Monahan - Mississauga Rebels

With their first round selection in the 2010 OHL Priority Selection (ie draft) & the 16th overall pick, the Ottawa 67’s selected Sean Monahan of the Mississauga Rebels in the GTHL.

SEAN MONAHAN

Photo taken by Steven Der-Garabedian of Mississauga.com

Team: Mississauga Rebels
League: GTHL – Minor Midget AAA
Position: LC
Height: 6.01
Weight: 175 lbs
D.O.B.: 10/12/1994
Hometown: Brampton, ON
Stats: GP 47 / G 46 / A 44 / PTS 90 / PIM 48

I did some research and here is some information and scouting reports on what Ottawa 67’s can look forward to.

Second Round Picks

Since I did so well in my 1st round picks, including my pick of Montreal over Washington, I figured I should probably blog it this time so that there was some more tangible proof besides my conversations with people. So here are my second round picks, with some basic explanations as to why I'm making them.

Pittsburgh vs. Montreal

My pick: Pittsburgh

Why?: Once again, just I said for the Habs series versus the Caps, I'm warning that this is going to be a much more difficult series than people realize. A lot of that is based on the goaltending of Jaroslav Halak, but it's also because of Jacques Martin's ability to create a defensive game plan. In the end though, the Pens will be just too much for the Habs to handle. There are fundamental differences between the Caps and the Pens that makes this series infinitely more difficult for Montreal to win. Chief among those is Pittsburgh's ability to play defense when it matters. Unlike Washington, who has some very subject goaltending, it's very difficult to score on the Pens from the perimeter. That means getting to the front of the net and getting a lot of dirty goals on Fleury. While Fleury hasn't looked stellar so far in these playoffs, it is hard to get clear net drive through the centre lane against the Pens. Their strength is down the middle, and with that strength is both size and speed which will make it much more difficult for Montreal to score goals in this series. Is it likely that Halak can steal a game or two in this series? Absolutely. And if he manages to steal the right one or two, this could become a very interesting series in a real hurry, but in all fairness, and with loads of respect to Halak, I think the Pens get this done.

Boston vs. Philadelphia

My Pick: Boston

Why?: If you look at these two teams on paper, they are actually remarkably similar. Both have oversized forwards, and both have a singular tower of strength on the back end. The biggest difference between these teams is goaltending. Boston has two, and the Flyers have to hope Brian Boucher doesn't falter. The Bruins have the luxury of knowing that Rask is going to hold them in pretty much every game they play. He may manage to steal a game, but in all likelihood, he's not going to lose you game. This series will be incredibly physical though, and that essentially means that neither team, regardless of the winner will survive the Eastern final, no matter who they play. In the end, I'm counting on Boston's goaltending to be just a little bit better than Philly's and get them the win.