Silver Nuggets: The Future of Pageau
It is important when young players play well in short stretches to not overhype them. With some, this can be very difficult. especially for a blogger in the summertime. Today, I try.
Paaaageauuu-Pageau Pageau Pageau- Paaaaageauuuu Paaaaageauuuu!
Jean-Gabriel Pageau. The kind of kid that legends are made of, or at least hilariously awesome arena chants.
When he was selected in the 4th round of the 2011 draft, Pierre Dorion was giddy. While Pageau hadn't been ranked by central scouting, and even though his team had made THREE first round selections, Pierre was unashamedly pumped up to grab a little guy from Gatineau, going as far as to call JGP his "favourite player in the draft".
Since then, those who saw him in rookie camps (like me), or those who watched him in Bingo were all about him. In this FanPost (before I was a writer), I described my first viewing of Pageau as such:
Jean-Gabriel Pageau: I love this kid. He isn't very big, was one of the smallest guys on the ice, but holy moly, does he ever have game. Really deadly off the rush, and in a one-on-one situation, made Wideman look like a pylon he went by him so fast.
Ottawa fans are quite taken with the kid, and for good reason. While we should put the breaks on the idea that he could be a Calder winner next year scoring 70 goals, it is fair to assume that he will make a serious push for an opening day roster spot.
But where does he go? He's shown amazing chemistry with Erik Condra and also looked good with Colin Greening and Cory Conacher. The issue is, with a healthy Jason Spezza as well as Kyle Turris, Mika Zibanejad and Zack Smith, the Senators are loaded up on centres.
Now, there has been some talk of Zibanejad playing the wing, but he's looked most effective centring a line with Jakob Silfverberg. Zack Smith has played the wing in his career as well, but he's one of the stronger faceoff men on the team.
But what about Pageau on the wing? A big comparison for JGP is Danny Briere, his summer training partner. Briere has played centre for a chunk of his career, but also looked great as a winger on an offensive line. Could be an option.
Where does JGP fit into your opening day lineup?
Sens Links
- Big talking piece (and I expect much debated article), Adnan asks the Sergei Gonchar question. [SSS]
- While Ryan looks at the rest of the impending UFAs. [SSS]
- New boss in town. [SSS]
- Roger's House is holding their annual Walk, Roll and Run on June 16th! I will be there running with my dad and brother, maybe I'll see some of you there! [Sens]
- Rookie Tournament for Sens in early September in London ON. Hawks, Leafs, Pens the other teams involved. [SE]
- Wondered when this article would be written: Should the Sens sign Bryan Bickell? [6thSens]
- Both goalies drafted by the Sens last summer were invited to Canada's WJC summer camp. [Sens]
- Cody Ceci and Robin Lehner recently received some digital ink about their respective seasons. [6thSens]
- Lastly, a brilliant post for sure worth 17:14 of your time. Chet Sellers Year in Review. [RBM]