SB Nation - Garth Murray

Kris Chucko's dwindling opportunity

Kent Wilson — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:29:30 -0000

With Flames prospect camp opening this weekend, there's plenty of narratives to focus on. One minor, potentially overlooked issue, is the ever shrinking window of opportunity for former first rounder Kris Chucko. As he ages and the organization continues to stockpile capable players around him, Chucko's status will soon change from "project" to "bust"

I haven't written about Chucko much in the past, mainly because I never thought much of him as a prospect. Aside from a single season in the BCHL, his results have been underwhelming and he's almost never impressed me when I've viewed him live. From what I've seen, Chucko is slow, awkward, poor with the puck in open ice and lacks the type of intelligence and awareness a player would need to overcome those kinds of limitations. He doesn't even strike me as a balls-to-the-wall kind of guy like, say, Eric Nystrom. The best thing I can say about him is he's pretty big.

Chucko is significant to the Flames because of the opportunity he represents. For those unaware, Kris was the second first round pick of the Sutter regime after Dion Phaneuf. He was chosen 24th overall in the 2004 entry draft and was the only Calgary draft choice inside the top 65. Ironically, of the Flames first 3 picks in that draft year, Chucko is thus far the least successful (Prust and Boyd were chosen in the 3rd round in 2004).

Described as a "project pick" with size and leadership qualities, Chucko was chosen right out of the BCHL. He was dominant in his draft year, scoring 32 goals and 87 points in 53 games for Salmon Arm. Unfortunately, his offensive totals were probably inflated by his line mate - one Travis Zajac, now of the New Jersey Devils. That same season, Zajac centered Chucko and collected 43 goals and 112 points. The fact that Chucko never approached that level of offensive potency before or since that year can probably lead us to conclude that Kris road coattails to his first round selection. I hope he bought Travis a beer or two.

There's no question that Chucko has been surpassed by most of his cohort. Of the thirty 2004 first rounders, only three have played less NHL games (Aj Thelen, Devon Dubnyk and Andy Rogers). Chosen after Chucko that same year was Mike Green, Dave Bolland, David Booth, Nicklas Grossman, Brandon Dubinsky, Alex Goligoski and David Krejci. Many of these guys are impact players at the NHL level at this point, while Chucko is still struggling to dominate the AHL.

Some small glimmers of light appeared for Chucko supporters last year, however. In his third pro season, Chucko was second on the QC Flames in terms of goal scoring with 28 and he actually led all skaters in terms of ES goals with 18. He played some of the tougher competition amongst forwards on the team and actually managed to grab a cup of coffee with the big club (although, for my money, he was probably the least impressive of all the call-ups).

Significant challenges beset Chucko's NHL aspirations going forward:

First, Sutter has gone about stocking the farm with similar (if not superior) players this season, all of whom have pro contracts. Chucko will not only have to battle with the incumbents on the big quad (Nystrom, Sjostrom, Prust, McGrattan, Boyd, Conroy), but also other capable players including Jamie Lundmark, Kyle Greentree, David Van Der Gulik, Riley Armstrong, Jason Jaffray and Garth Murray. That's a lot of depth to have to climb over, especially for a guy whose progress can be described as "glacial".

Second, the Calgary prospect ranks are poised to swell further after this year. Mikael Backlund is making the leap to pro this season and he will be joined by Mitch Wahl, Greg Nemisz, Lance Bouma and Aaron Marvin in 2010. Not to mention the continued development of dark horse John Armstrong.

It's probably fair to say that Chucko will never be a significant contributor at the NHL level. The question now is whether he will be an NHL player at all. How long he sticks around training camp this fall will go a long way to giving us an answer.

Cory Schneider's 2008-09 NHL Performance

Sean Zandberg — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:03:45 -0000

Not much good has been said about Schneider's performance when he was called upon to play for the Canucks last season. He finished with a 2-4-1 record, a 3.38 GAA and a .877 save percentage. Check out his game-by-game stats from ESPN:

But let's take a bit of a closer look at those games:

Each link goes to the game's video highlights.

November 29, 2008. 3-1 loss to Calgary.

How many 2-on 1's did the Canucks give up there? Cory looked a bit weak on the Tyler Moss goal, but the others he had no chance on.

December 1, 2008. 3-2 loss to Columbus.

-Fredrick Modin goal. Powerplay, nice setup from Nash.

-Garth Murray goal. Schneider trips over his own feet on this play.

-Kristian Huselius goal. Another nice setup by Nash. No chance for Schneider here.

12 minutes played but no goals allowed against in a 6-5 loss to Detroit on December 4.

December 5. 2-1 win over the Wild. Schneider has a great game. Not much chance on the Mikko Koivu goal as he was interfered with and screened.

December 7. 5-4 loss to Colorado in the shootout. The Avalanche were tipping the puck in off Ryan Smyth and Canucks defenders' stick, but that weak Tjarnqvist goal late in the 3rd to tie it up for the Avs was just that...weak. Then it's Marek Svatos in a shootout. Yeah...good luck.

December 14. 5-3 win over Florida. Trouble for Schneider behind his net as he coughs it up on the Frolik goal to make it 5-3, but otherwise Schneider looked great here. Not much chance on the other 2 Panthers goals.

December 23. 5-0 loss to the Sharks on Hockey Night in Canada. The Sharks were picking corners in this one, and the Canucks as a team really shit the bed. Schneider was pulled early in the 2nd period after the 5th goal (on 15 shots.) Merry effing Christmas! Sanford was stellar replacing Schneider.

December 30. 3-2 loss to Philadelphia. I can't remember why AV replaced Curtis Sanford after the first period, but it was wise of him. Schneider only let in 1 goal off a bing-bing play and then shut the door, amazingly after that. The Canucks couldn't score the goals to come back though. Happy effing New Years!

Schneider loves to go down into that butterfly position, sometimes too early. Sometimes he overplays the slide across. But there is no doubt that he is a quick goalie in every form of the word. He doesn't give up on plays. His record for last season doesn't do him much justice, as the stinker by the team against the Sharks really damaged his stats. If you erase the Sharks game and the Wings game where he only played 12:00, Schneider had a 2.16 GAA and a .895 save percentage. If I add the 12:00 played against Detroit his numbers get even better.

Just something to think about.

Flames Sign Murray and Armstrong

Kent Wilson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:55:39 -0000

TSN is reporting that Sutter has inked a couple of minor leaguers in Garth Murray and Riley Armstrong today. The latter was Sharks property last season, scoring 25 goals and 42 points for Worcester of the AHL. Murray has more NHL experience with 116 games, but spent most of last season plying his trade for San Antonio. Neither player figures into the big clubs plans, meaning these are moves to firm up the Abbotsford's ranks.

Coyotes Extend Qualifying Offers to a Dozen Players

OdinMercer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:07:31 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

Phoenix Coyotes left winger Scottie Upshall, right, was given a qualifying offer on Tuesday.

Browse more photos »

The Coyotes today extended qualifying offers to twelve Restricted Free Agents ahead of the July 1st start of free agency. Details of the offer sheets have not yet been released, but here are the players we made offers to:

Scottie Upshall: Yay! No way we let him go after how he performed for us after the trade from Philly.

Keith Yandle: No question he would be staying with how weak we are on D.

Enver Lisin: Kept the speedster around. We really need to work on his defensive skill set, but the kid can flat out fly.

Daniel Winnik: Solid 3rd line center but needs to pick up his game to what it was a couple seasons back if he wants to stay in Phoenix instead of riding the bus.

Nigel Dawes: From what I heard from the team they hadn't been all that impressed with him, but maybe this is just to keep an asset rather than getting noting for him.

Dave Spina: A locally grown kid who could finally be the first native Arizonan to play in the NHL. The fans here love him and he's a solid guy.

Josh Tordjman: He can compete with Al Montoya for either the Starting spot in San Antonio or possibly the backup spot if we can't find someone to backup Bryzgalov.

Alexander Nikulin: Protecting an asset as I think we've already heard rumors of him going to the KHL.

Stefan Meyer, Shaun Hushka, Sami Lepisto: The new guys we aquired in the Reinprecht deal and trading picks at the draft.

The Coyotes did not extend qualifying offers to the following restricted free agents:

Alex Bourret, Garth Murray and Joakim Lindstrom.