Tuomas Pilhman

So what's up with this guy? I haven't heard of him ever since the end of the season.. Any word on him??

Went back to Europe.

He signed a I think it was 2 year deal with some Finnish team.

He signed 1+1 year contract with JYP.
Have made 7 points (2+5) in 7 seven games this far.

So much for the next Tomas Holmstrom. :shakehead

Can't win them all. :amazed:

So what was the story with him? Why didn't we sign him? He looked to be a good prospect.

Also, slightly off topic, I was wondering where all the top prospects went from the devils, and saw a list of top prospects in 2004 :

why did we trade Suglobov? We traded him for Ken Klee right? Why didn't we keep Klee?

What about Ahonen? Why did he get away?

Why did we trade away Voros ?

So much for the next Tomas Holmstrom. :shakehead

Can't win them all. :amazed:

We still retain the rights to Pilhman. Although he was never likely going to be anything more then an occasional 4th line call up and a career AHL'er.
He will have more opportunity to play and develop his game in Europe.

So what was the story with him? Why didn't we sign him? He looked to be a good prospect.

Also, slightly off topic, I was wondering where all the top prospects went from the devils, and saw a list of top prospects in 2004 :

why did we trade Suglobov? We traded him for Ken Klee right? Why didn't we keep Klee?

What about Ahonen? Why did he get away?

Why did we trade away Voros ?

Pihlman was a decent 4th liner in his intermittent call ups, but he does not seem like one that can progress his game at an average rate. He is more or less a career AHL'er who might be able to land a one year deal with an NHL team if he can develop his game quicker and better overseas like he is for the next 2 seasons in front of scouts.

Ahonen was a joke and never had a future. He was one of those rare first round busts with Lance Ward and Adrian Foster. Brodeur was 29 when we drafted Ahonen. what was Conte thiking in that move? HConte is the head of the best Scouting staff in the league imo and recent drafts are a good example of why, but Ahonen was one of the worst picks this team ever selected.

Klee unlike what some people will say played a role in the Devils winning 15 consecutive games 2 seasons ago that included a 4 game ***** slap of the Rags. He made one stupid play of trying to carry the puck out of the zone in Game 2 that season against Carloina and got a bad rap imo. While Klee was not one of the top d-men at the time and would have been welcomed 3 years earlier, he did not suck like people say he did. However no loss in his departure. Need room for the youngies developing on the blueline. Klee was very physical for the Devils in hios short tenure but he did have some brain farts. I had no problem with him.


Voros was traded to Minnesota and it might be either because they saw no future in him or due to an issue. I think he was involved ina fight in the game before and was suspended by the league but I might have it wrong. Not sure if that was a reason he was let go or just coincidence. But he was down to low on the prospect depth chart.

why did we trade Suglobov?

Um....because he SUCKED!

Ahh, thanks for the info. It was just strange Voros was ranked in the top 5 on Devil's prospects in 2004 and Suglovov was ranked #2

Pihlman was a decent 4th liner in his intermittent call ups, but he does not seem like one that can progress his game at an average rate. He is more or less a career AHL'er who might be able to land a one year deal with an NHL team if he can develop his game quicker and better overseas like he is for the next 2 seasons in front of scouts.

Ahonen was a joke and never had a future. He was one of those rare first round busts with Lance Ward and Adrian Foster. Brodeur was 29 when we drafted Ahonen. what was Conte thiking in that move? HConte is the head of the best Scouting staff in the league imo and recent drafts are a good example of why, but Ahonen was one of the worst picks this team ever selected.

Klee unlike what some people will say played a role in the Devils winning 15 consecutive games 2 seasons ago that included a 4 game ***** slap of the Rags. He made one stupid play of trying to carry the puck out of the zone in Game 2 that season against Carloina and got a bad rap imo. While Klee was not one of the top d-men at the time and would have been welcomed 3 years earlier, he did not suck like people say he did. However no loss in his departure. Need room for the youngies developing on the blueline. Klee was very physical for the Devils in hios short tenure but he did have some brain farts. I had no problem with him.


Voros was traded to Minnesota and it might be either because they saw no future in him or due to an issue. I think he was involved ina fight in the game before and was suspended by the league but I might have it wrong. Not sure if that was a reason he was let go or just coincidence. But he was down to low on the prospect depth chart.

This is a quite spectacularly crass assessment of Ari Ahonen and his development (or non-development) in the system. Even for a forum on which I have recently had to read that Jay Pandolfo is a turd, Colin White is worthless and Patrik Elias lacks balls (and that's from Devils fans).

The 1999 draft is a live contender for worst group of prospects ever available. Pavel Brendl was the consensus pick for best player. Atlanta were smart enough to see through that and took Patrik Stefan first overall. Fewer than ten outstanding NHLers came out of the entire bunch: the Sedins, Tim Connolly, Barret Jackman and Martin Havlat (all taken before Jersey's choice), Mike Comrie in the third round, Ryan Miller in the fifth and Henrik Zetterberg in the seventh.

Other than Miller the goalies were even worse than the average: Brian Finley and Maxime Ouellet went ahead of Ahonen. Others ranked around their level were Simon Lajeunesse, Evgeny Konstantinov, Jan Lasak and Alex Auld.

Jersey did well to get Mike Commodore out of the entire draft and even better to sign Brian Rafalski later that summer having been impressed by him while scouting Ahonen.

As goalies are difficult to spot at a younger age a weak draft makes perfect sense as the time to take one you think has a chance, with a higher pick. Within two or three years Ahonen was considered one of the best prospects from the whole draft.

The real problem was arriving in Albany at the time that team became a waste ground. The career minor-leaguers that kept the team afloat were dealt (Brule, Bertrand, Kelly, Kinnear even Mitchell) and the team was allowed to sink with a preponderance of youngsters, eventually leading Rats ownership to give the Devils the boot. The goalies suffered more than anyone for obvious reasons. That is where Ahonen's future went missing.

Maybe you should take a look at this year's first rounders and pick out the "jokes" with no future. If you can you have a great future advising central scouting on the prospects in drafts yet to come.

This is a quite spectacularly crass assessment of Ari Ahonen and his development (or non-development) in the system. Even for a forum on which I have recently had to read that Jay Pandolfo is a turd, Colin White is worthless and Patrik Elias lacks balls (and that's from Devils fans).

The 1999 draft is a live con......

pandolfo is a turd

pandolfo is a turd

Does that mean the same thing with you as it does here; a small piece of excrement?

Ahonen was a joke and never had a future.

There was a time where The Hockey News' "independent" scouts had Ahonen as the 5th or 6th best prospect in the entire NHL. It's a shame we were never able to use him as a trade chip when he peaked in value around 2000/01.

Although maybe we can take solace in that Ahonen indirectly led to Brian Rafalski. I remember either Lou or Conte saying they were in Finland scouting a prospect [presumably Ahonen] and ended up seeing Rafalski play a few times. They liked what they saw, so they offered Rafalski a free agent contract in '99.

Does that mean the same thing with you as it does here; a small piece of excrement?

wow

wow

No, sorry, I meant that sincerely, because I don't come from the States and I'm afraid I may have misunderstood.

This is a quite spectacularly crass assessment of Ari Ahonen and his development (or non-development) in the system. Even for a forum on which I have recently had to read that Jay Pandolfo is a turd, Colin White is worthless and Patrik Elias lacks balls (and that's from Devils fans).

The 1999 draft is a live contender for worst group of prospects ever available. Pavel Brendl was the consensus pick for best player. Atlanta were smart enough to see through that and took Patrik Stefan first overall. Fewer than ten outstanding NHLers came out of the entire bunch: the Sedins, Tim Connolly, Barret Jackman and Martin Havlat (all taken before Jersey's choice), Mike Comrie in the third round, Ryan Miller in the fifth and Henrik Zetterberg in the seventh.

Other than Miller the goalies were even worse than the average: Brian Finley and Maxime Ouellet went ahead of Ahonen. Others ranked around their level were Simon Lajeunesse, Evgeny Konstantinov, Jan Lasak and Alex Auld.

Jersey did well to get Mike Commodore out of the entire draft and even better to sign Brian Rafalski later that summer having been impressed by him while scouting Ahonen.

As goalies are difficult to spot at a younger age a weak draft makes perfect sense as the time to take one you think has a chance, with a higher pick. Within two or three years Ahonen was considered one of the best prospects from the whole draft.

The real problem was arriving in Albany at the time that team became a waste ground. The career minor-leaguers that kept the team afloat were dealt (Brule, Bertrand, Kelly, Kinnear even Mitchell) and the team was allowed to sink with a preponderance of youngsters, eventually leading Rats ownership to give the Devils the boot. The goalies suffered more than anyone for obvious reasons. That is where Ahonen's future went missing.

Maybe you should take a look at this year's first rounders and pick out the "jokes" with no future. If you can you have a great future advising central scouting on the prospects in drafts yet to come.

THis is not an argument as to whether the Devils had a good draft based on it being weak with talent, who was already selected and who was available. No doubt the Devils and thier scouting staff no how to find gems in the draft. I just was stating that AHonen did not work out. He will never play an NHL game.

So I take it if we had the Lowell team back then, Ahonen may have turned out ok?
Its a shame we couldn't have traded him for some good D or a nice forward. Plenty of NHL teams with terrible goalies right now who could have used him.