http://phoenixcoyotes.com/news/story_details.php?op=details&ID=4115
Stories & Features
COYOTES ARE BEEFING UP
By John McGourty - NHL.com
The Phoenix Coyotes have a wealth of talent rising through the ranks and it is a nice mix of the type of athletes a team needs to win. General Manager Mike Barnett is monitoring a crop that includes a highly regarded college goalie getting the needed pro experience, several strong defensemen, a group of scorers and some good defensive forwards.
If there is a common theme, it's size. Reviewing the Coyotes' prospects, you'll come to realize that this is going to be a very difficult team to oppose in the years to come. Credit goes to the scouting staff for finding big men who can skate.
Barnett is very high on former Cornell goalie David Leneveu, who has looked good in his two American Hockey League seasons, while playing on a losing team. Barnett sees a silver lining for a young goalie who is seeing a lot of rubber.
"David entered the professional ranks with a heralded college past, having broken many NCAA records dating back to Ken Dryden, another great Cornell goaltender. Clearly, he's someone who has a bright future. He has now played two years in the AHL on teams that have let him see a lot of shots. That's probably the silver lining in the clouds we've experienced as a team in the AHL the past two years."
"It appears that this has strengthened his mental makeup. He is physically dealing with being out-shot many nights and mentally dealing with the effects of a losing record, while at the same time trying to get ready for the next night. It's all part of the building of the mental strength and stability a goaltender has to have. We're very pleased to have Grant Fuhr working with him this season. Grant epitomizes the goalie that never lets the highs get too high and the lows too low. He's working extensively with David in both his on- and off-ice preparation. We are seeing the rewards in David's play as each month goes by. Grant works with him twice a month, five or six days at a time usually, and sees a couple of games. He also works a couple practices."
Defenseman Keith Ballard, who won the USHL Clark Cup with the Omaha Lancers in 2001 and the NCAA championship in 2002 and 2003 with the University of Minnesota, had his rights held by three NHL teams before he ever played professionally. Ballard was drafted by Buffalo with the 11th overall pick in 2002 and was traded to Colorado in the Steven Reinprecht deal in 2003. Colorado packaged him to Phoenix with Derek Morris for Chris Gratton, Ossi Vaananen and a second-round selection in 2005.
Ballard had 18 assists and 20 points for AHL Utah this season.
"We wouldn't have made the Colorado trade if Ballard hadn't been included," Barnett said. "We took note of him before he was drafted when he was playing in Minnesota with Jeff Taffe, another of our young prospects. He was a dominant player on a championship team as a sophomore. What made him stand out was his competitiveness and aggressiveness. He has a pro-active style whether he had the puck or was seeking to remove someone from it. He impacted on the game on nearly every shift. When it became a possibility he could be included in the Gratton deal, we became very interested. We knew we were giving up a good one in Vaananen, who would play many more years, but we thought we were getting a power-play quarterback in Morris and a young defenseman in Ballard that we feel can be a Vaananen-type player and perhaps even as good as Morris.
"Keith is learning the game at the pro level. He was a bit of a risk taker in college where, in most cases, it worked out well. With the speed and skill of the AHL, he's had to dial back a little on the gambling and learn to play a little smarter, particularly in his own end. He's making the transition from college to pro hockey in terms of his aggressiveness. He hasn't taken a step backward in the pros. We're very pleased to see that. Keith leads by example with his aggression. It's a contact game, he doesn't shy away from that aspect."
Left wing Randall Gelech was named to the 2004 Memorial Cup All-Star team when his 10 goals and four assists helped lead the Kelowna Rockets to the Canadian junior championship. He had a solid season with AHL Utah this season, continuing to crash and bang and finding ways to score.
"Randall was perhaps our most pleasant surprise among forwards in the AHL," Barnett said. "He provided a lot of offense in the Memorial Cup championship for Kelowna and played a very prominent role. We knew he had size and is solid on his skates, but he's proved, down low, to be a formidable player to deal with when he has the puck in his possession. This was the most competitive and skilled AHL season in several decades, if not ever, and for a player coming out of junior to an average AHL team to play at the level he played at was very satisfying and pleasing to us. He understands the game well and he's very capable of playing a pro-style game without the puck. With the puck, he's fearless in taking it to the net. Added experience will give him a real good opportunity to play in the NHL."
Right wing Blake Wheeler, the fifth pick overall in 2004, has 19 goals and 28 assists for the USHL Green Bay Gamblers. He was 6-foot-4, 185 pounds on draft day and destined to get much bigger.
"I saw Wheeler play last week and as expected he was the best player on the ice for both teams," Barnett said. "That came as no surprise based on where we selected him and the youthfulness of the USHL. We've seen considerable improvement in all aspects of his game since the start of the season. This is his first year outside high-school hockey. I was particularly pleased to see his big game against Indiana where they were competing for a final playoff spot. He had the puck a lot of the night and made smart decisions in handling the puck on breakouts and on coverage in his own zone. We didn't see as much of his overall aggressiveness early in the year as I saw that night. Reflecting back on the aspects of why we drafted him so high was that he was the state MVP in hockey and football and it was duly noted he was a tight end. This night, he played with the aggressiveness of a tight end against Indiana, in finishing his checks and disengaging people from the puck. He responded well when challenged.
"Blake is going to Don Lucia's Minnesota program in what looks to be an exceptional freshman group. It's one of the elite programs in college hockey. Blake is right where we hoped he would be. Unlike most drafted players, he was only an 11th grader. But he was the best player in Minnesota hockey and another year at that level would not have served him as well as this year in Green Bay. "
The Coyotes made a deal to move up to the 50th selection, in the second round, and chose Russian right wing Enver Lisin. He stayed in Russian this season and proved he can hold his own with more experienced players.
"At the World Under-18 tournament last year in Belarus, Lisin, on more than one occasion, had the entire section of NHL scouts buzzing with his acceleration and overall turbo speed. He reminds you in his takeoff of young Russians Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny. He's learning now how to use that speed to find himself and find out what type of player he is best suited to become.
"He has good size and plays comfortably in traffic. He understands how to best use his speed and that will be an ongoing process. Speed can work to your disadvantage in our game. Enver is learning how to slow things down to make the best use of his acceleration when he finds an open lane or open ice to jump into. We were blessed with a nice bonus in that he played on a regular line with Ak Bars Kazan, which brought in eight or nine proven veterans that he practiced and played with every day. His learning curve could only be accelerated being in the presence of those types of players, not just in game situations but even more so in practice. With that type of roster, he still played on a regular shift and enhanced our belief that we stole him where we did in the second round. He was rated in the middle of the first round up to the last month then seemed to fall."
Giant center Kiel McLeod -- 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds -- still had two years of junior eligibility when the Coyotes drafted him in the second round in 2001. He played those two years with Kelowna and now has two seasons of AHL experience.
"Kiel has progressed this year from his rookie year in the AHL," Barnett said. "He's learning to not only use the formidable size to his advantage while arriving into the play earlier. He's using his legs more. He's a big man and he's dropped some weight. In his rookie year, the tendency was to stand around more than the coaches wanted. He's learning to keep moving and use that big stride, a good skating stride. His problem is that he is 240 pounds with nine-percent body fat. If it was 20 percent, it would be easy to lose 20 pounds. He's learning and we're learning to find a weight that gives him the best opportunity to skate at the next level and to play effectively. Some of his skills are already NHL-level skills. We had him playing on the wing last month to give him a better chance to come out of his zone and get a pass while moving through the neutral zone. He's difficult to deal with because he has good hands and if he is moving it's not easy for a defenseman to play against someone with that size, skill and strength."
Defenseman Logan Stephenson was taken in the second round last summer and is concluding his third full season in the WHL.
"I saw him play two nights ago. He's logging a lot of minutes with Tri City, playing in every situation, power plays and penalty kills. He's a good strong skater with leadership capabilities. He takes an aggressive approach to the game. We think when he's 25, having risen to playing at the level we think he will play, that opponents will look to find the other side of the ice. He has a meanness to him that if channeled properly will serve him well. His approach to the game may be his biggest challenge. He needs to put on the needed body mass and muscle to withstand the physical wear and tear he places on his body each and every night. He will probably have to play around 220 pounds. That means adding 20 pounds of upper-body strength over the next three or four years. We think he will do that. His hunger and passion evidences itself every night he goes on the ice."
Center Jakub Koreis built a strong reputation playing on Czech teen national teams. Thus, it was a surprise, and a pleasant one, when he left his Plzen club to play a year of Canadian junior hockey with the Guelph Storm. He played this season with the Utah Grizzlies. Koreis didn't score much this season, but Barnett sees the rest of his game improving.
"Koreis is evolving into the type of player every NHL team that goes deep into playoffs relishes and utilizes more in April and May than October and November. He has size and is very competent defensively. He's strong in the faceoff circle and dishes the puck well. He makes good use of linemates and is effective grinding along the wall. He's excellent at moving the puck into the offensive zone, gaining possession and controlling the cycle. He may not be a prolific scorer. His skating is certainly strong enough that if he continues to improve his overall skills he could enjoy a long NHL career as a valuable third-line center iceman.
Matt Jones is a member of the impressive University of North Dakota defense. The Fighting Sioux defenseman had six goals and 10 assists in 43 games as his team qualified for the Frozen Four.
"Matt is in another stellar collegiate program where he has had a leadership role the past two years," Barnett said. "He's a very hungry young athlete but not big by NHL standards. He has made himself into a very solid pro candidate by addressing his overall strength and mobility and his understanding of the game. He is very solid defensively and plays a very heady game for a young defenseman, whether it is supporting the rush or dealing with odd-man attacks. We think he has a bright future."
Barnett believes a couple other young players have the ability to crack the Coyotes' lineup within a season or two.
"Center Martin Podlesak, at 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, had an outstanding rookie camp with us a year ago and was with us at the start of the season. He suffered a series of concussions in the AHL last season and then this year badly separated his shoulder. He was arguably one of our top two forwards at Utah. We love his personality. He's a big, happy, confident, flamboyant young man. We're not sure if he'll stay at center or play wing. He's been successful at both positions.
"Defenseman Joe Callahan is playing a lot of minutes in Utah. He comes with a good assortment of skills. He skates well, shoots well and is very capable defensively. He only lacks experience. One of the key traits we saw at draft time is that he is a hungry, aggressive athlete with good size."
