MS said:
That isn't a great league, and pretty much every guy who's been successful later on has torched it. Vanek had 46 goals in 53 games at age 17. Arnason had 37 goals in 52 games at 18. Sejna had 40 goals in 52 games at 18. Erik Cole had 30 in 48 games at age 18. Jeff Taffe had 12 goals in 17 games at age 17. Brandon Bochensky had 47 goals in 55 games at 18. And so on.
I don't know if his poor team is an excuse or not. It will be very interesting to see how he produces next year.
I'm not sure those ages are quite right. Sejna turned 19 a month or two into that year and was 20 the next. A lot of those guys actually turned a year older very shortly into those seasons. At such a young age, it's more important what stage of development you're at. Vanek had 50 games in the USHL before his 46 goal year.. obviously he had more exposure to develop his game. Wheeler came from high school.
Also have a look at their teammates. Vanek had a fellow 40 goal scorer on his team. Sejna, Bochenski were actually outscored. Their teams had four or five players scoring 25+ goals. Wheeler had four or five guys scoring 10-17 goals, more than half which were set up by him.
One disappointing aspect for me was his powerplay. He scored hardly anything on the PP.. almost all his points came even strength (I think he's actually one of the top scorers in the league at ES).. but that's partially due to an undeveloped understanding of the game and Green Bay's lousy PP - 10% and 26 goals. All the other teams ranged from 15-24% and 40 to 64 goals.. the next worst team scored almost twice as many PP goals as Green Bay!
As for the Vanek comparisions... dont go overboard with criticism... I believe the scout simply meant he plays like Vanek.. a skill game with sniper ability.. even though they're both very big players, they dont play like power forwards. He's not Vanek plus speed.. he's just a similar player who has a bit more speed.