Prospect Info: At 18th Overall the Winnipeg Jets Select C Chaz Lucius

[DRW204]

What I find most interesting about Kucherov is even Tampa who was smart enough to draft him still had him ranked below Namestnikov who was their 1st round pick.

Kucherov was gonna spend a few More years in Russia IIRC. That changed though. Also don't think MHL is a highly sought league which is where he played prior to being drafted.

 

[Atoyot]

Kucherov was gonna spend a few More years in Russia IIRC. That changed though. Also don't think MHL is a highly sought league which is where he played prior to being drafted.

You are correct in this, in fact there were concerns about him coming over at all. I was mostly pointing out that it's silly to look to a single player to judge what is and isn't impressive, rather than taking a large sample and seeing what is expected from that draft position. If Lucius ends up a 60 point guy, that's very impressive as an 18th overall pick. What Connor is doing is just even more impressive as a 17th overall pick. It doesn't affect how impressive it would be for Lucius to hit 60, nor does it take away from how impressive Boeser has been where he was taken. If you're going to use Connor as your measuring stick in terms of how many points a player should get based on where they were drafted, you're going to be perpetually disappointed.

 

[DRW204]

You are correct in this, in fact there were concerns about him coming over at all. I was mostly pointing out that it's silly to look to a single player to judge what is and isn't impressive, rather than taking a large sample and seeing what is expected from that draft position. If Lucius ends up a 60 point guy, that's very impressive as an 18th overall pick. What Connor is doing is just even more impressive as a 17th overall pick. It doesn't affect how impressive it would be for Lucius to hit 60, nor does it take away from how impressive Boeser has been where he was taken. If you're going to use Connor as your measuring stick in terms of how many points a player should get based on where they were drafted, you're going to be perpetually disappointed.

yeah i sort of remember him needing to be released or have his Russian contract terminated to play in the Q/North America. anyway, i don't think anyone disagrees. we all have lofty hopes for our players, but just think when you throw names like connor or laine around, guys traditionally in the 30-40 goal range and were basically outliers in production as teens, just need to be careful with these expectations for Chaz.

if you're talking play-style that's completely different. he can play similarly to either of those 2, but not have the same impact/production. anyway, if he is a 60 pt player that's more than fine given his draft range. in the late teens/20s we've picked connor, stanley, roslovic, vesalainen and heinola. a 60 pt Fwd would be far higher than our typical selection (sans Connor of course) in that range.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

The Laine comp is an interesting one. I'm hoping he learns to use his size better than Laine.

He has a lot less of it than Laine does. True that Laine seldom made good use of though. Anybody know if he has improved there this year? For that matter, has he improved on anything outside of scoring?

I still think of that 1 game he played for us last year. It was special. If I was his coach, I would just show him the video of that game and say, 'do that every game'.

 

[surixon]

He has a lot less of it than Laine does. True that Laine seldom made good use of though. Anybody know if he has improved there this year? For that matter, has he improved on anything outside of scoring?

I still think of that 1 game he played for us last year. It was special. If I was his coach, I would just show him the video of that game and say, 'do that every game'.

Laine seems to be on one of his hot streaks for them right now. I have no clue on the state of the rest of his game. The one game I saw of him he was invisible but it's a one game sample.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Laine seems to be on one of his hot streaks for them right now. I have no clue on the state of the rest of his game. The one game I saw of him he was invisible but it's a one game sample.

That's the first one of those hot streaks he's gone on in quite a while. Laine and CBJ fans should be encouraged. He can win a lot of games for them before he cools off. And then do it again next time. Just hope it isn't another 2 years between hot streaks. Or is it 3 now?

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

i hope folks are talking play style when throwing names line laine or connor, and not production. think the chances of him being essentially a yearly 30+ goal scorer like connor, or a teenage NHL goal scoring phenom 35g/82gp career pace like laine is kinda small

Just finisher/goal scorer vs 200' player, I think.

KC has avg 36.75 goals per 82 games since his first game as a Jet. That includes 20 games with only 2 G in his first pro year. Interestingly, that's about 1 G per season more than Laine.

So Kyle is more than a 30 G man. It is already 35 and he is on pace for about 46 this year. It would be great if Chaz could be a consistent 25-30 goal scorer and not be too much of a liability elsewhere.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

yeah i sort of remember him needing to be released or have his Russian contract terminated to play in the Q/North America. anyway, i don't think anyone disagrees. we all have lofty hopes for our players, but just think when you throw names like connor or laine around, guys traditionally in the 30-40 goal range and were basically outliers in production as teens, just need to be careful with these expectations for Chaz.

if you're talking play-style that's completely different. he can play similarly to either of those 2, but not have the same impact/production. anyway, if he is a 60 pt player that's more than fine given his draft range. in the late teens/20s we've picked connor, stanley, roslovic, vesalainen and heinola. a 60 pt Fwd would be far higher than our typical selection (sans Connor of course) in that range.

I would be happy with 50 pts from Chaz. 25 goal scorers don't exactly grow on trees.

 

[CorgisPer60]

Chaz is a bad, bad man.

 

[Mud Turtle]

I may have made a mistake on Lucius. I wasn’t very high on him but he opened my eyes today. If he can keep that style of play up, he’ll have some success at the NHL level.

 

[nobody imp0rtant]

Chaz is a bad, bad man.

Want some mustard on that hot dog?

 

[MrBoJangelz71]

I may have made a mistake on Lucius. I wasn’t very high on him but he opened my eyes today. If he can keep that style of play up, he’ll have some success at the NHL level.

I was under the impression his skating was below average, yet he moves around the ice at a decent clip, with room to improve. Defensively he looks very responsible

 

[ffh]

I was under the impression his skating was below average, yet he moves around the ice at a decent clip, with room to improve. Defensively he looks very responsible

I think if their skating was that suspect they wouldn't have went in 1st round. Chaz and rutger getting the same criticism for their skating. They get around the ice fine

 

[Buffdog]

Tough to tell at this point whether the issue is his skating, his injuries, or his lack of playing time over the past year.

Since he seems to be improving steadily, it just might be a combination of the two latter factors

 

[cg98]

Tough to tell at this point whether the issue is his skating, his injuries, or his lack of playing time over the past year.

Since he seems to be improving steadily, it just might be a combination of the two latter factors

He was never a strong skater to begin with, but two major injuries that required surgery and rehab within a span of 3 years didn't help either. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to AHL hockey.

 

[WiscoJet]

After watching him today you can tell he is better suited being at C rather than RW. Where he played exclusively at Minnesota. He even had some good reads in his defensive zone today when the Moose were hemmed in their own zone. It was eye opening how good he was in front of the net today. In a couple viewings never once did I see Minnesota play to that strength last year. Whether it is injury, improvement, or combination of both, his skating was better today. Last year the couple times I watched him his skating was very choppy and it really was affecting his output. Excited to see how he progresses, pair him with a zone entry savant and prosper. Also last thing, kid put up 19 points in 24 games after coming off a bad injury, getting injured again ,all while having his team not play to his strengths in my opinion. Lets hope he stays healthy because the one thing I do know is this team will cater to all of his strengths.

 

[Boreal]

If only the Jets had a playmaking magician on the wing about his age... This could be the finisher Perfetti needs.

 

[cg98]

The Moose are stacked this year. Lucius will develop nicely being a leading center in the AHL vs college.

 

[ps241]

Keep the reports coming. Kind of exciting that we now have two prime forward prospects on the Moose this season with Chaz and BBB. I think I’m going to want to get out to a Moose game at some point.

 

[GeorgeJETson]

I'm interested in hearing how our prospects handle the C position, and if that can transition to the NHL

 

[Sombastate]

Hey just a fan of prospects and wanted to see what the general consensus of Lucius is now. I know a few major injuries, but it looks like he's doing better than well when he's actually playing, yeah?

 

[hockeyarena]

Looks like he could end up a 2nd line 60 pt guy which is exactly where we projected him for the most part.

 

[surixon]

Hey just a fan of prospects and wanted to see what the general consensus of Lucius is now. I know a few major injuries, but it looks like he's doing better than well when he's actually playing, yeah?

He has shown flashes but needs a healthy year in the AHL.

 

[bustamente]

Safe to say both him and Perfetti have to stay away from injuries or we will never see their full potential.

 

[Arthur Fonzarelli]

What I find most interesting about Kucherov is even Tampa who was smart enough to draft him still had him ranked below Namestnikov who was their 1st round pick.

What I found more interesting is why you’d bring Namestikov’s name up with regards to Kucherov.

Namestnikov isn’t you typical Russian. He’s lived in North America since he was 8 months old and was drafted out of the OHL. He spent a handful of years playing in Russia when his father, ex NHLer Evgeny, went home to play out the twilite of his career before returning to North America as a scout for the Leafs.

On that note, what better player to help transition all the recent Russian draft picks?