Prospect Info: 2021 Ducks Prospect Rankings #8

[duxfan1101]

I don’t understand why people are using the fact that Tracey struggled in a league no CHL player his age would ever normally play in as some sort of indicator that he isn’t and is never going to develop

Nobody has said that he is a guaranteed bust, but he hasn't done much to prove doubters wrong yet. Yes, he was playing a league that isn't meant for teenagers, but the majority of teenagers who did play in that league last year were superior to him. The difficult thing with Tracey is his draft position. If he were picked in the 3rd round instead of the 1st, I don't think anyone would be complaining about his progress thus far, but at the same time, nobody would really consider him a top prospect for us.

I understand that the WHL teams he's played for haven't been very good, and that he just wasn't ready for the AHL level yet, but he just hasn't given us much of a reason to call him a top prospect since we drafted him. With that being said, he could very easily change that this season.

 

[Son of Gib]

Crazy that Tracey is probably out of the top 10 now.

 

[Boo Boo]

Tracey being out of the top 10 also speaks to the fact that we genuinely did crush the first 3 picks of the 2021 draft

he hasn’t lived up to expectations but in a usual year he wouldn’t be getting bumped by a third rounder of pastujovs calibre

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Nobody has said that he is a guaranteed bust, but he hasn't done much to prove doubters wrong yet. Yes, he was playing a league that isn't meant for teenagers, but the majority of teenagers who did play in that league last year were superior to him. The difficult thing with Tracey is his draft position. If he were picked in the 3rd round instead of the 1st, I don't think anyone would be complaining about his progress thus far, but at the same time, nobody would really consider him a top prospect for us.

I understand that the WHL teams he's played for haven't been very good, and that he just wasn't ready for the AHL level yet, but he just hasn't given us much of a reason to call him a top prospect since we drafted him. With that being said, he could very easily change that this season.

This makes no sense as it feels as though you've moved the goal post on Tracey.

Tracey already has proven doubters wrong by producing on his own without the two overagers in his draft year. In fact, he was producing more without them until he was traded to Victoria. That was the major concern about Tracey - the ability to produce without the overagers. Welp, he's led three different teams in scoring in the two seasons after his draft year. Also, at the WJC-18's, he finished 5th in scoring for team Canada with 7 points, the highest scorer had 10 points.

You're comparing a late blooming, long term project in Tracey with teenagers Zegras, Drysdale, and Perreault. Zegras and Drysdale were top-9 draft picks. Perreault has top-10 elite skills, but was too lazy to play defense, which is why he dropped to 27th overall. Perreault skates faster than Drysdale skating forward as recorded in the OHL draft like combine.

Before this season started and after the 2020 draft, I thought it would be best for Tracey to return to the WHL; Perreault would be served best by going to the AHL. Perreault has a motivation problem and it would be solved by going to his OHL team. I was correct on that assessment. Tracey, imo, wasn't ready for the AHL because he's still physically developing and I thought he'd be returning to the same team he had with Victoria, when they were playoff bound. Victoria went in sell off mode, but kept Tracey. And yet Tracey kept his scoring pace the same, but with even fewer talents on the team. Care for nuance or just like reciting "I understand that the WHL teams he's played for haven't been very good"?

Now, what about 2015 first round Larsson, selected 27th overall? What about the 2016 first rounders in Jones (24th overall) and Steel (30th overall)? How about 2018 Lundy, the 23rd pick overall? Out of those four, Lundy might be the best one, but we're still not sure if he's made it yet. Again, Zegras, Drysdale, and Perreault have skewed what to expect out of late first rounders for Duck fans.

 

[GunnarStahl]

This makes no sense as it feels as though you've moved the goal post on Tracey.

Tracey already has proven doubters wrong by producing on his own without the two overagers in his draft year. In fact, he was producing more without them until he was traded to Victoria. That was the major concern about Tracey - the ability to produce without the overagers. Welp, he's led three different teams in scoring in the two seasons after his draft year. Also, at the WJC-18's, he finished 5th in scoring for team Canada with 7 points, the highest scorer had 10 points.

You're comparing a late blooming, long term project in Tracey with teenagers Zegras, Drysdale, and Perreault. Zegras and Drysdale were top-9 draft picks. Perreault has top-10 elite skills, but was too lazy to play defense, which is why he dropped to 27th overall. Perreault skates faster than Drysdale skating forward as recorded in the OHL draft like combine.

Before this season started and after the 2020 draft, I thought it would be best for Tracey to return to the WHL; Perreault would be served best by going to the AHL. Perreault has a motivation problem and it would be solved by going to his OHL team. I was correct on that assessment. Tracey, imo, wasn't ready for the AHL because he's still physically developing and I thought he'd be returning to the same team he had with Victoria, when they were playoff bound. Victoria went in sell off mode, but kept Tracey. And yet Tracey kept his scoring pace the same, but with even fewer talents on the team. Care for nuance or just like reciting "I understand that the WHL teams he's played for haven't been very good"?

Now, what about 2015 first round Larsson, selected 27th overall? What about the 2016 first rounders in Jones (24th overall) and Steel (30th overall)? How about 2018 Lundy, the 23rd pick overall? Out of those four, Lundy might be the best one, but we're still not sure if he's made it yet. Again, Zegras, Drysdale, and Perreault have skewed what to expect out of late first rounders for Duck fans.

Dude all he did is elaborate on why he and many others may not be as high on Tracey. You make some good and valid points but end up discrediting them with rude remarks like “Care for nuance or just like reciting "I understand that the WHL teams he's played for haven't been very good"?”

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Dude all he did is elaborate on why he and many others may not be as high on Tracey. You make some good and valid points but end up discrediting them with rude remarks like “Care for nuance or just like reciting "I understand that the WHL teams he's played for haven't been very good"?”

Is his post elaborative as you say? Did he explain why are his WHL teams bad? Is Tracey bad on those WHL teams? Was there significant changes in personnel or styles of play? Did Tracey play other positions with his new team? Why did Tracey's point production drop? Why did Tracey's point production stay the same? There are no elaborative ideas presented, as you stated pertaining to your identified quote. In fact, his comment pertaining to WHL teams adds absolutely nothing because he implies Tracey hasn't done anything with those teams, but maybe he can do a 180-degree in his play at the AHL level that he's going to be going to this season where he put up ZERO points last year in 12 games. It's cognitive dissonance on display if he's expecting Tracey to completely change his mind, but not citing any reason why Tracey would. Also, he's implying that Tracey is a byproduct of his WHL team, but completely ignoring Tracey is carrying the team's offense.

I called out his BS take and that's what you take offense with, not the fact his take is BS. Did you know what Tracey had to do prove his doubters wrong when we drafted him? That's why I said he moved the goal post, along with others. I went after his comment on the subject, not the person.

Maybe I could have just reposted my post on page 1 to re-emphasize what he is regurgitating is surface level information with his play in the WHL. I guess from now on I'll just say, "You're wrong." and then repost my post posted earlier in that same thread. What he shared isn't elaborate information. This is narrative speak (no research), not detailed, elaborative speak. Again, I agree with the masses on why Tracey is down (if you and others read my post on page 1 of this thread), but I disagree that's he's not a top prospect due to elaborate information. I shared links from sites with quotes, chronicled Tracey's WHL teams, and shared his productions since his draft year... all in this thread on page 1.

Basically, this is like the whole McTavish situation before the draft. So many people regurgitating surface info without doing any research. Then you have posters like yourself signaling it's okay to spread that regurgitated surface info by elevating surface level info that could be wrong as elaborative info that is fact. Afterwards, feel dumbfounded as to how the possibility of McTavish was drafted. There's only one reason how that happens - lack of or omission of research that discovers nuance (gives more depth).

Here's my elaborative post on Tracey on page 1. You're more than welcome to read it, along with @duxfan1101.

tl;dr version: The reason why some are down on Tracey is due to his lack of production in 12 AHL games this past season as a 19-year old, especially when compared to Zegras, Drysdale, and Perreault. Those three prospects skew the process for players who do need more time to develop.

epic version:
Perreault has elite skills that projected to be a top-10 prospect, but dropped to the bottom of the first round due to his lack of motivation to play a 200-ft game (doesn't play defense). We went through a couple of players like Perreault in Sprong and Aberg. Also, Perreault is physically advanced compared to Tracey.

Perreault: 5'11 and 192 lbs
Tracey: 6'0 and 176 lbs​

Tracey was selected in the bottom of the first round as a project as he was a late bloomer, which is the pattern the Ducks' scouting staff loves to do follow. Although Tracey didn't put up any points as a 19-year old in the AHL, John Broadbent from the Defend the Next blog site for the San Diego Gulls reports the process for Tracey was there at the AHL:

There were several games – especially early on in the season – where it seems Tracey did everything but score.

As I noted in my game reports and on twitter, he is so adept at slipping into the soft areas undected and found himself at the end of a bang-bang play that he either fired right into the opposing teams logo or shanked off a post or sent wide.

Once the WHL started back up again he had to return to Victoria where he scored 9 goals and added 12 assists in 22 games, leading the Royals in points but still only good for 53rdish overall in the high scoring league. He will look to start his first FULL professional career season next year – drafted as more of a play-maker, I would like to see more of that side of him along with some more poise with the puck as he gets more comfor[t]able with the pro-game.​

For the past two OHL seasons, Tracey has led three teams in scoring. He proved that he can score without overagers when he was drafted.

Tracey	WHL
Year	Year	Team	Games	G	A	Pts	Pts/Game
2018-19	D	Moose Jaw	66	36	45	81	1.23
2019-20	D+1	Moose Jaw	28	15	23	38	1.36
		Victoria	24	7	16	23	0.96
2020-21	D+2	Victoria	20	8	11	19	0.95

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

In Tracey's draft year, his team was a 1-line stacked team, including defensemen. The risk of drafting Tracey was about if he was a product of good teammates or can he actually produce on his own. Despite losing all of his line mates at ES (due to age graduation or trades) with Moose Jaw and left with not a lot of talent, Tracey surpassed his scoring rate in his D+1 season. Then he was traded in the season to a defensive minded and lack of scoring team, the Victoria Royals. He led them in scoring as well, but COVID shutdown the playoff-bound Royals. Tracey's D+1 season solidified that he is one of the top prospect for Anaheim. Last year, the Royals traded away several top talents and Tracey was left in the same situation he was in with Moose Jaw in his D+1 season, which is playing without a lot of talent on the team. He still led the Royals in scoring in his D+2 season.​

If we focus on his WHL seasons, then Tracey has proven to be a dual threat on offense for three consecutive seasons and a scoring leader for the past two seasons on three teams. What is interesting about Tracey's D+2 season in the WHL was his PP production on a team lacking an awful lot of talent.

Tracey	WHL
Year	Team	Games	G	A	Pts	.	PPG	PPA	PPP	PP to Pts ratio
2018-19	Moose Jaw	66	36	45	81		12	15	27	0.333
2019-20	Moose Jaw	28	15	23	38		8	6	14	0.368
	Victoria	24	7	16	24		2	5	7	0.292
2020-21	Victoria	20	8	11	19		6	6	12	0.632

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Over 63% of Tracey's points last year was on the PP. Anaheim needs talented players to help it out on the PP.
​

The problem Tracey has with some fans is the stigma that he isn't Zegras, Drysdale, or Perreault. Zegras is produced in his D+1 season in the AHL and NHL. Drysdale won AHL rookie of the month and looks to be an NHL-mainstay in his draft year. Perreault produced in his draft year on paper, but people forget he was just as lost as Tracey was to begin the season. Yet, Perreault was able to work through it and put up points. Tracey can't be seen as his own player and working at his own pace. Tracey is a long term project because he was a late bloomer and rail thin when drafted. His 12-game AHL stint as a 19-year old is the sole reason many believe that Tracey is already a bust. It doesn't make sense to come to that conclusion so early in a late bloomer's hockey career, but that's what it is for some.

 

[GunnarStahl]

Is his post elaborative as you say? Did he explain why are his WHL teams bad? Is Tracey bad on those WHL teams? Was there significant changes in personnel or styles of play? Did Tracey play other positions with his new team? Why did Tracey's point production drop? Why did Tracey's point production stay the same? There are no elaborative ideas presented, as you stated pertaining to your identified quote. In fact, his comment pertaining to WHL teams adds absolutely nothing because he implies Tracey hasn't done anything with those teams, but maybe he can do a 180-degree in his play at the AHL level that he's going to be going to this season where he put up ZERO points last year in 12 games. It's cognitive dissonance on display if he's expecting Tracey to completely change his mind, but not citing any reason why Tracey would. Also, he's implying that Tracey is a byproduct of his WHL team, but completely ignoring Tracey is carrying the team's offense.

I called out his BS take and that's what you take offense with, not the fact his take is BS. Did you know what Tracey had to do prove his doubters wrong when we drafted him? That's why I said he moved the goal post, along with others. I went after his comment on the subject, not the person.

Maybe I could have just reposted my post on page 1 to re-emphasize what he is regurgitating is surface level information with his play in the WHL. I guess from now on I'll just say, "You're wrong." and then repost my post posted earlier in that same thread. What he shared isn't elaborate information. This is narrative speak (no research), not detailed, elaborative speak. Again, I agree with the masses on why Tracey is down (if you and others read my post on page 1 of this thread), but I disagree that's he's not a top prospect due to elaborate information. I shared links from sites with quotes, chronicled Tracey's WHL teams, and shared his productions since his draft year... all in this thread on page 1.

Basically, this is like the whole McTavish situation before the draft. So many people regurgitating surface info without doing any research. Then you have posters like yourself signaling it's okay to spread that regurgitated surface info by elevating surface level info that could be wrong as elaborative info that is fact. Afterwards, feel dumbfounded as to how the possibility of McTavish was drafted. There's only one reason how that happens - lack of or omission of research that discovers nuance (gives more depth).

Here's my elaborative post on Tracey on page 1. You're more than welcome to read it, along with @duxfan1101.

Touch grass