It may be bold to say, and it's impossible to say just how well he will develop, but at this point in his career Chabot is better than even Karlsson was.
- forbetterorWORSE

So?

The junior record books are littered with people who did "better" than guys who eventually became NHL stars.

If you are projecting him to be better than the current best Dman in the league and one of the top 5 players overall in the league, you are pretty likely to end up severely disappointed.

If you are smart enough to not be making than kind of projection then your point above is meaningless.

Maybe this kid is the real deal and maybe he jumps right into a 1st pairing position. The odds of that are pretty slim, especially for a Dman. In fact, the odds of even sticking in the NHL in year 1 are slim for a Dman.

We will be fine, we also have Claesson. Worry about your own defence (the rest of your team is awesome).
- DutchSenators

Oh trust me, most of us are terrified of the Leafs defense.

Gotta agree with Spatso and 'the leaf troll' a bit.

There is a lot of negativity on this site. PD was up for GM of the year and has an awesome background in finding talent. If he thinks Chabot is ready... he is more qualified than anyone on this site to say so.

Personally, I think Chabot gets a few games to start the year and ends up in Belleville until Xmas.... Claesson is good enough to hold down the fort.

As for the owner being cheap.... he spent near the cap last year and will be again this year. with the contracts coming, you need to leave some room to maneuver.

Summer funtime on these sites lead to a lot of criticism, just due to lack of anything else to do.
- SensnRBs

True.

Stahlberg signs with Swiss League

Stahlberg signs with Swiss League
- JACMAN

Beat me to it, oh well, mahbe this means a player from within can be promoted.

I'm hoping Paul can finally make the jump.

Not sure why people can't post their opinions of improving a team one goal away from the final. Isn't it logical to try and improve on that result? Not doing anything to add and losing a top 4 d-man and replacing him with nothing is eye brow raising to some.

No one is saying things like "tank", "blow it up", "we suck", etc. Fans just want the good momentum to continue.

Regarding Chabot and since he regarded as the next big thing, I'm surprised no one has brought up Karlsson's rookie year. That season he played isolated minutes and even had a stint in the AHL. I'm not sure why anyone (in the organization) thinks Chabot will provide more than that. To me, that's a little risky and could be cause for concern.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

I actually mentioned that in the very first post of this blog...

So?

The junior record books are littered with people who did "better" than guys who eventually became NHL stars.

If you are projecting him to be better than the current best Dman in the league and one of the top 5 players overall in the league, you are pretty likely to end up severely disappointed.

If you are smart enough to not be making than kind of projection then your point above is meaningless.

Maybe this kid is the real deal and maybe he jumps right into a 1st pairing position. The odds of that are pretty slim, especially for a Dman. In fact, the odds of even sticking in the NHL in year 1 are slim for a Dman.
- Aetherial

Only point I was trying to make is that if Doiron is going to rely on Chabot this year, it might not be the worst thing in the world. Personally I want to see him play a year at least in Belleville first. And no ,I am not expecting him to be better than Karlsson.

Stahlberg signs with Swiss League
- JACMAN

Stalberg was a decent playoff rental and certainly had good speed, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a 6'3/210 player get so frequently pasted with big hits. Maybe he had no peripheral vision or a weird centre of gravity, but he just seemed to get thrown around like he was in an old-school EA NHL game. Regardless, for my money the combination of Dzingel and Pyatt cover off his role without much problem, and hopefully by the end of year one or both of Paul or McCormick will eliminate the need to pay trade deadline prices for depth wingers.