That's what I was thinking. Imagine the help Markov can give these young guys.

Oh okay, another physical defensman. If we could get him and Emelin over here next season, and their hype is real, then hopefully one of them can be playing a big role in the very near future. I've mentioend in other threads possibly going after Hannan, but if we have these 2 in Hamilton, maybe that's not a big priority. I'd really focus on Brad Stuart now, since we don't really have any offensive defensmen in our system that I know of (Fischer, but he isn't ready).

Anyways, I'm getting off topic, but ya it will be nice to have a guy in Hamilton who has the potentially to be more than a 5th dman with the Habs.

Maybe a year from now we'll see:
Markov - Komi
Stuart - Yemelin
Streit/Gorges - Valentenko
Gorges/O'Bryne

If the hype of the two Russians is real, that could be a pretty nice, yet affordable, defense.

Don't forget Mathieu Carle, same age as Fischer, and already ready to play in Hamilton. He's offensive, eager and he's got his skates on. David Fischer is playing in College, and will do well IMO, but will likely come later to the pros.

Meanwhile, WHOOOHOO, Valentenko has given us something to look forward to since his performance at the world's. Player of the game in the losing cause in Gold Medal game against Canada.

To Graems post since I didnt want to quote it all just for the Fischer part.

Fischer had 5 assists in 42 games with U of M.

Tough, big, and promising for the future! Great news we signed Valentenko.

Well he was drafted as an offensive defensman, although apparanlty he doesn't put up many points (plus he was low on the depth chart in College I believe)

Does Carle have what it takes to be a top four player you think?

He hardly had any playing time ecpecially on the pp. Now that Eric Johnson is gon from the team he'll probably get more ice time so this year will be a better year to determine.

I remember when he was drafted one of the guys (probably Mcguire) said "he's an offensive defensman - but where are the points?"

Valentenko has about an inche on Emelin, and Emelin has a few pounds on Valentenko... their sizes are basically the same, but I think Valentenko will fill out to be bigger. Both play virtually the same style, aswell... I just think that Valentenko will have a better future because he's coming over at a younger age than Emelin.



Yea, pretty much... he wasn't given the chance to be offensive and so played the whole season making the safe play on every rush or break-out, leading to few points. Next year we'll see more of what he's capable of.



He has a habit of being scatterbrained in the defensive zone, but if he improves a bit there he can turn out to be a solid top-four PP specialist... probably a Joe Corvo type, though, who plays 12 minutes a game and half of them on the PP.



Even if they both play a North-American style of game, you can't throw a pair of fresh-from-Russia defenders right into the NHL and hope for them to develop properly. They should both definatly start in Hamilton so they can adapt properly, with a few call ups when we need them... O'Byrne and even Janscevski are more likely to end up on our blue-line long-term than those two.

Oh no I meant either midseason or a year from now (depending on development). I'm hoping if Emelin somehow gets over here, with his pro experience, it won't take too long, but we'll see. I definately want them to at least play a little while in Hamilton to get used to the North American game.

Great signing by the Habs.......more then likely he'll play for Hamilton but I think there might be an outside chance he may play for Montreal, he definately has NHL size and he is quite aggressive too.......oh well, for now I'm just glad he's on his way over here....hope in the near future we can Alexei Emelin over here too

I've seen him play in the juniors last Xmas... I just hope he doesn't turn out to be the next Darius Kasparaitis.

Darius Kasparatis was one of the most effective players in the 90's. He's probably the only player to ever single-handedly shut down Mario Lemieux night-in-night-out. Say what you want about his tactics, but few players got it done like Kaspar. We'd be so lucky as to have Valentenko and Emelin turn out like him.

I have to agree with Hoser on this one. In his prime Kasparitus was one of the most solid and sought after d-men in the NHL. I think saying they're like him is meant as a compliment, not an insult.

Agreed. Kasparitis was a hatchet man, but he was a damn good defenceman too. I wouldn't mind if Yemelin channelled some of that physicality and nastiness.

Agree, but not at the expense of taking stupid penalties. In the new NHL things have changed in the defensive zone.

He's already showing signs like when he crossed-check Evgeny Varlamov. But this is about Valentenko..

Yep kasparitis was great at getting players off their game and he did it very well.He is the type of player every team wishes they had.I really did like him.

According to http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...75-6afafc9f821d

Valentenko is expected to start in Hamilton in the fall which shouldn't surprise too many people.

There's no better way to learn the NHL game than in the "A". The optimist in me would like to see him turn into our answer to Anton Volchenkov.

He is only 19 so it only makes sense as he needs to play the North American game and learn to play in the Habs system.

He's turning heads in training camp......do you think he could crack the lineup this season? I know it's a long shot but we could always use a good backup incase several of our d-men go down.

most likely they will start him in Hamilton and give him time to adapt to the North American style of hockey. H ecould make it to the big team but I honestly see them grooming O'Byrne for a defensive spot for next season. Valentenko will get a call up or two this season though.

Nice little feature on him on tsn.ca broadband this evening, looks good, kid wants to compete and wants to play

Well people have been saying that he already plays the North American style of game.

I'd love to see us flip Bouillon so we could make room for Valentenko on our roster this season, but I suppose I shouldn't hold my breath.

Hey guys GREAT news. TSN just had a thing on valentenko. He said, and i quote once again " I want to play in this town and I want to play for this team." WOW. ISn't that good to hear for a change? Contrary to what most people said, they were saying they wouldn't be surprised to see him make the jump straight to NHL. He's got hustle and the coaches seem to really like him. I'm happy, maybe he can drag emelin's sorry but over here

edit: And apparently he's got a rocket of a shot too, that came from timmins.

I knew that Valentenko would turn heads this development camp because he looked so good on the ice at the WJC. He's the full package that you need on the blueline.

Just for the record, he said "I want to play in this team."

Oh fine, storm on my parade

Here's a video of Pavel on TSN.

http://broadband.tsn.ca/tsn/?id=348&vid=9631

Valentenko also gave his russian club notice so he'll be playing in montreal or hamilton me thinks...

True, and as a matter of fact he's already signed here, so he will be playing in MTL or Hamilton.

If he makes the Habs do you think they'll pair him with Hamrlik?

IF he does, then yes, almost certainly. If he is the best fit for the empty habs D spot, then he'll get it, but I suspect he'll more than likely start the season in Hamilton.

O'Bryne will be the guy in a Habs jersey some Oct 3.
But I really can't wait to see Valentenko in the line-up.

I have a feeling that we will have a rookie defenceman starting the season with us.

Markov-Komisarek
Hamrlik-Dandenault
Bouillon-???

Streit will probably be playing forward for the most part, and he will play defence on the PP. Some games we will see him playing defence.
Gorges isn't signed yet. Will he be coming back?

I think the ??? will be O'Byrne or Valentenko, depending on how things progress in training camp, of course.

anybody know what current NHL player he plays like?

Yemelin is compared to kaspiritus, just wondering about valentenko.

Trevor Timmins in a TSN interview desribed Valentenko as a russian d-man who plays a North American game. Hope that helps.

That also sounds a little bit like Kaspiritus.

a french reporter on ckac this morning said that he played like Anton Volchenkov

That would be awesome! Volchenkov is one of the best Ottawa Seantors defenders. He plays a simple game, blocks a ton of shots, and can play physical. He looked pretty stupid on one Andy McDonald goal during the play-offs, but what're you going to do? Chris Phillips looked worse on the behind the net, opps, "I just put that in my own goal" moment. If Valentenko turns out like Volchenkov, Montreal can be happy to have an affordable, hard-nosed, hard-working defender.

He also said that they wanted to get Valentenko over to North America so he could adjust to the North American game. I see Valentenko in Hamilton next year not Montreal. If he does really well in the AHL then he may be on the team the following year

It's my opinion that O'Byrne has a better shot at being the rookie D-man this year. He played over 100 games in total last year getting stronger with each game. He was very strong in the Calder Cup playoffs when matched against the top scoring lines of the opposing teams.

I don't see why we can't bring up two rookie d-men.
If we got rid of dandouillon's salary, we could easily afford getting a 5/6th d-man, or we could just use streit.

Markov/komisarek
hamrlik/o'byrne
streit/ufa/traded dude - valentenko

Just lemme explain. We know that both of these rookies have ten times more potential than either dandeneault,bouillon or streit. They're both big defenseman who play gritty, they play the way we want them to play, they're defensively responsible (up to this point), and they won't cost us much. AND THEY'RE BIG. Why waste time and money on two guys we don't need? If these two guys are so close in camp that they really need to sweat to pick one, pick both. Don't hinder the progress of two potentially great d-men for the likes of dandouillon.

I would somewhat agree with you if Valentenko could communicate better in english or even french.

However I also feel he should play in Hamilton to learn the Habs system and play in the North American game.

Boullion and Dandenault coming to the end of their contracts soon (I think one if not both after this season) opens the door for him if he does well in the AHL this year.

I guess we will see what transpires when training camp and the pre-season are finished.

You Guys that are all knocking Bouilion I don't understand ! As far as I'm concerned,other than Markov,he is our best dman on the team.Not even Komisarek hits like Bouilion does!He Didn't really take all that long to come back after his return from injury either .My wish is that he would stay with the Habs for a long,long time!He is certainly a hell of a lot better than Janne Ninny Ma that's for sure!!!

Dont you just wish you were GM sometimes?

No offense, but what team were you watching? Dandeneault and Bouillon are bad defensively. Sure bouillon can hit, but he's still bad defensively. He's no more than a 7th d-man.

I'd also love to see Valentenko up with the Habs sometime this year, but that will only happen if he proves he has no business being in the AHL. They won't let him come straight from Russia to the NHL...not unless he changes his name to Ovechkin or Malkin. He'll have some adjustments to make, plus they'll want to have him get familiar with the system, so he'll spend at least half the season in Hamilton, but I'd be surprised if he saw NHL time this year. Frankly there are guys like Cote and Biron who should be ahead of him on the depth chart simply for the fact that they've paid their dues in the AHL already and both have NHL experience.

Valentenko is at least one season away, maybe two. When he gets up here he'll be awesome though. Can't wait to see him play in Hamilton this year.