For the Komets
Round 1: Kevin Watters, forward, from Adirondack
Round 2: Mario Larocque, defense, from Danbury
Round 3: Mike Berry, forward, from Adirondack
Round 4: Drew Omicioli, center, from Danbury|
Round 5: Mike Boudreau, goaltender, from Adirondack
Comments
Interesting picks the K's grabbed, I'm okay with Watters, Omicoili and Larocque. Berry will probably be okay, I think the other goaltender will be in camp and that's it for him.
Another thing I find intereting is the K's had three opportunities to grab Danny Stewart and didn't. DAB was nabbed before the K's had a chance.
I know the Frankes said they would pick the best player possible, but I thought the focus on this draft was to be defense. That's now one defenseman in 10 picks. I thought defense was a problem last year. Are the Frankes thinking of trying to outscore their opponents?
Greg, we're not even halfway through June yet. Deep breath, relax. Let's face it though, if they can sign Duhart, Omicioli and Elich, they might just out-score everyone. Remember, there are probably going to be an awful lot of signings in August and September thisyear.
Greg, much of the problems on defence last year was they had forwards who either did not get back and cover the back end or they looked lost once they got there.
When that happens everyone says the defence is bad and blame the 6 guys who play that position on the scoresheet. The fact is, if you don't have forwards who are willing to put in the work to cover their own end, you could have 6 Bobby Orr clones ( Orrs) on D and still not look good.
Points well taken to both Blake and Tony.
I agree with you Blake that we're early yet for sigings, but that makes me kind of wonder how's out there.
Makes me more wonder what will happen when they decide on a coach and what direction the team will take.
I know you've talked to Marks, Blake. Did he give any indication on what he thought of the Frankes picks in the first draft?
Omicioli = Italy
Duhart = Virus
Elich - I don't know much about him
I don't see Chaulk and Duhart playing on the same team, and if I had to chose I pick Chaulk any day of the week.
For those that didn't follow the UHL close enough...I'm in a UHL fantasy league with some buddies of mine. Watters is a stud in this league, as is Mike Berry. Both guys are extremely young...I'll see if I can pull up there stats from last season...
Ok here they are..
Mike Berry 27-26-53
Kevin Watters(who was on my fantasy team)36-35-71...
boy would those guys look good in the orange and black..
Kevin Watters stands at 6 ft 4 and is a rock solid 225
Mike Berry is smaller at 5 ft 11 and 180..
Shawn,
I hope you aren't getting your info from ITB, most of those people are just blowing smoke..as I said on there, I won't believe a word that is said on there until I see it for myself.
I like the picks for the most part. The K's got that big forward(Watters 6-4 225) with good hands that we need, a big defenseman with some snarl that we have sorely needed. and if what shawn says is true and the "family" is calling Omincoli back to Italy then oh well...
Mark, I think Shuan has a point where it comes to Duhart and Chaulk and it doesn't come from ITB. That's another reason I think Chaulk may not be back, but you never know. There's no saying how many if any of these draft picks will actually play for the Komets.
That is what I love about the "rumors" on ITB. The people who know the least have the most to say.
Yeah, it's the ultimate in every opinion is the right opinion.
all the picks were pretty smart. 10 players and only three are vets the rest are tweeners with the sole rookie the goalie from adirondak. other than falco and macmillan they all could be 30 g0al scorers. chaulk probably wont be back unless he likes taking a pay cut but none of this means anything cause no ones signed and no ones shown up with his gear. so we should have a good summer of blogging in the hot stove league, or is that the air conditioned league???
Kevin Watters is a great pickup. He's just what the Komet franchise needs-a young, strong player that puts up points. Larocque is another great choice. I can't remember Mike Berry at all so I can't comment on him. I'm very excited about Drew Omicioli. For both brothers to be picked up by teams in the fourth round bothers me a little. Maybe the rumors of the brothers going back to Europe might have some merit. I ONLY say this because I figured they'd both be picked up no later than the second round. All in all, great pickups. A few other teams did well in the draft also (Chicago and Rockford.)
I don't want to add to any Chaulk rumors but has anyone else noticed that already this summer we've picked up 3 players who can play center? Thats assuming that those players want to play for the Komets and that they weren't picked up by Franke as trading bait for someone from a different team.
Final question for everyone---It's been a lot of fun seeing all these new names coming up to Ft Wayne (possibly) but thinking back on last season's Komets, who is one vet, one tweener, and one rookie you'd like to see back? For me it would be vet-Chaulk tweener-Dombkiewicz rookie-Bozoian (he will still have his rookie status for this coming season.)
Domber is a good choice, I like Milam for the rookie and Dupuis for the vet spot.
I choose Dupuis simply because the Komets only drafted one defenseman in the dispersal draft. You could sway me with Bozoian for the rookie, I just liked the way Milam played.
I'd like to see Chaulk, Lance, and Lindsay back. A neighbor of Colin's talked to him the other day and he said that Colin never intimated that he wouldn't be back with us. It would be a huge loss. Of course, I've heard that there is no love loss between Colin and Duhart. If I had to make a choice, Colin all the way. Most of the draft choices didn't seem bad. Let's wait and see who ends up wearing the uniforms.
I had also forgotten to add PC to that list. I know PC had a rough playoffs, but he had a good year. I have heard that he is going to Europe. He also would be a loss.
Your right Greg, I forgot all about Milam. Heck keep both, there is 2 rookies spots right there!
Now you're talkin dnlkomets;-)
The hockey market needs X amount of players.
how many teams in the USA have folded and how much has that shrunk the amount of players needed.
Keeping in mind that a lot of indicators are saying economically things are slowing and becoming more expensive -- so companies are going to cut down on expenses.
i kind of read into this that it will be an owners market this year and the players that do get offered contracts will be fortunate and should probably take them, especially in the U.
Just with everything going on in the league (teams folding), other leagues (teams folding), the economy - it will certainly maintain a lot of excitement until the puck drops for game 1.
3 of the names in the draft were familiar with me so that must mean they showed up somewhere in the league stats, which is a good thing.
All in All it is going to make for an exciting summer and a lot of traffic for blakes blog.
Burgee you are exactly correct. There are approximately 140 extra players out there looking for jobs because so many teams folded. That's going to hurt the players' market value because there will be so many fewer places to play.
Also, I don't think a team has ever signed all of its draft picks. If the Komets can get half of these guys, that will be very significant.
I also heard PC was going to play in England, but I have not talked to him yet.
Mark,
I do look at ITB, as well as both of the local blogs, but those are not my only sources on why I made my comments. The Omicioli brothers where two of the best players available in the draft, so why did they fall all the way to the 4th round? Prior to this season Drew only played 6 pro games in the United States before leaving for the big bucks of Europe. With the inpending "hard cap" there is no reason Drew would not go back to Italy. Don't get me wrong I would love it if he were to play for us, but I do not want another Mark Smith, I want a player that will be here for all 76 games and the playoffs.
My comments about Duhart are no secret in this league, every team he has been on is worse off for it. I don't want to even take the chance that Chaulk would leave because of him.
My picks for the returners would be:
Vet - Chaulk
Tweener - Galbraith
Rookie - Milam
Here's a couple of things I thought were interesting about the draft. The Komets had a chance to pick Daigle in the first round and passed, which leads me to believe they must have something else up their sleeve for a goaltender. Stewie going to Muskegon could be a lot of fun because we'll get to see him more than once a season. Even if Omiciolo goes to Europe, it would still be nice to hold his rights in case he decides to come back at midseason. There's a possibility the fourth round was the most talented of the draft.
Yeah, Blake,
I don't think the Komets want to use a vet at the goaltending position. I think a Scott Hay or Tom Lawson is on thier radar...its gonna be interesting to see what happens.
I can't wait for Stewie to come visit wearing a Fury sweater. I'm not suprised that the Komets didn't pick Danny. It would take alot of guts to pick him after that smear job after he was traded.
They K's had a chance to put up some toughness and bypass once again. Rockford got tougher with the pic up Benefield. We could have had a chance at him but choose not to pick him up. IMO disappointment. We can have all the scorers we want but if we do not have anyone to police the ice then we will get run over again.
Benefeild isn't the enforcer I would want. LeBlond is tough as nails. We should have made a run at him.
I'm not to worried about the toughness dept. Just because they didn't pick a tough guy in the draft today, doesn't mean they won't sign one. Heck if Bingham is the coach, I'm pretty sure he might have a tough guy in mind.
So lets not get our panties in an uproar..it is however only June 15
Oh, I forgot. I talked to Marks while he was on the golf course, so I didn't get a ton of time. He's still the same guy I remember from the IHL. This is still the same guy who coached Enrico Ciccone, Link Gaetz, Kevin Evans and Kerry Toporowski.