stokes84
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Watching the three televised games, he was clearly the most talented player. McDavid light.
C Casey Mittelstadt (2017, 8th, BUF) II
- Thread starter Steve Kournianos
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Watching the three televised games, he was clearly the most talented player. McDavid light.
Heh-heh. Amazing how he isn't getting knocked down and bullied on the ice by the other pullup/benchpress workout warriors.
I have no idea what sort of NHL'er CM will end up being, but he sure is one of the most skillful players I have ever seen. He seems to be a step ahead of everyone else. I think he is best used with smart, talented linemates(Yamamoto?) who can understand and make use of the great chances he is giving them.
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Castle8130
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An offensive dynamo type of player. I see him being a 60-70 point scorer in the nhl easily, said that before the draft and nothing has changed my mind. Everyone stat watched him when judging him before the draft and also just judged him from not being able to do a pullup
He's a hard guy to find a comparable for, he does a lot of everything and really is a swiss army knife type of player. I think it's still too early to determine what type of player he is going to become in the NHL and really depends on how Buffalo molds him.
He's on of those guys who has good straight line speed but excellent lateral movement, he's what i would classify as a dynamic east west skater. He's got those elite Patrick Kane, Clayton Keller type of hands to go with the skating, which really makes him a treat to watch. The most impressive thing for me though? he never stands still, he's always moving and looking for open ice and plays that hard 200ft game.
Not saying he's going to be a good as Eichel, because Eichel is a rare talent who can really drive an entire teams offense, but i won't be surprised if he comes in and puts up similar numbers.
He's on of those guys who has good straight line speed but excellent lateral movement, he's what i would classify as a dynamic east west skater. He's got those elite Patrick Kane, Clayton Keller type of hands to go with the skating, which really makes him a treat to watch. The most impressive thing for me though? he never stands still, he's always moving and looking for open ice and plays that hard 200ft game.
Not saying he's going to be a good as Eichel, because Eichel is a rare talent who can really drive an entire teams offense, but i won't be surprised if he comes in and puts up similar numbers.
Some really nice moves there. Mid season last year I had him at #1 and not because of the player he was, but what I thought he could become. He is insanely gifted with boatloads of skill. He has some holes in his game, but if he can learn to play NHL style hockey, I think Buffalo has a very special player.
Elias Pettersson
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Thought he was very impressive yesterday. When watching him play like that, it confuses the heck out of me why he isn't scoring more in the NCAA. His play yesterday looked almost as good as Keller last year. And yet his NCAA numbers are nowhere near Keller's even though he plays in the softest, easiest, highest scoring division in the NCAA.
Maybe watch him play in College instead of just looking at the box score maybe? Can’t just look at the stats, especially when you are talking a 19 game sample size.
Elias Pettersson
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Lame excuse because at some point, you have to produce.
Watching Virtanen, I'd think he's a top 6 forward without looking at his stats.
He’s almost PPG and second on his team in scoring as a freshman, at some point he has to produce? Lol
Elias Pettersson
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Produce relative to expectations. He's a top 10 draft pick. PPG is no doubt impressive if you're a relatively unknown late first round pick.
We've recently seen many examples of great forwards produce above PPG in the NCAA post draft just in the past 2 years:
Clayton Keller (pick#7 - Mittelstadt's closest comparable) - 45P in 31GP
Kyle Connor (pick#17) - 71P in 38Gp
Brock Boeser (pick#23) - 60P in 42Gp
Colin White (pick#21) - 43P in 37Gp
Tyson Jost (pick#10) - 35P in 33Gp
And even if you look at Ryan Poehling who was pick #25 in the same draft as Casey, who has 16P in 14Gp.
Add to the fact that Mittelstadt plays in the Big-10, which is the worst division in the NCAA and every single one of the players above (except Connor), put up those numbers in tougher divisions.
Take all of that into consideration, and you have to think that Mittelstadt should be producing a bit more relative to expectations.
I'm not hating, I'm just asking questions. If you go through this thread, you would have seen that I'm pretty supportive of Mittelstadt.
Snippit
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I don't know if the record has changed since this post was made, but maybe it's time to re-evaluate the notion that Big 10 is the weakest conference. At least for this year.
Castle8130
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Mittelstadt isn't getting as many minutes as Pitlick I think, and he doesn't have a lot of talent on the team to work with. Thats my guess, he might not be playing as much. IDK I could be wrong.
Elias Pettersson
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There. that could be the explanation I'm looking for. I'm interested in following up with Mittelstadt's development because prior to the draft, I wanted the Canucks to draft Mittelstadt or Glass.
Critical13
Fear is the mind-killer.
Part of the misconception is that through the games CM has played the gophers had the 4th toughest strength of schedule in the NCAA.
You also have to consider that he is coming straight from HS and historically there have not been many go ppg post HS seasons, especially from the Gophers, pretty sure Kessel was the last one to do so.
Poehling is in his second college season which is a huge difference as well even if they are same draft year especially when you are talking about an under 20 game sample size.
This Gopher team is also one of the more offensively inept teams they have had in the last decade, I would not be surprised if CM is the only forward on the team in the NHL five years from now.
And to also add to the comments regarding the pull ups, there was actually a follow up article on the athletic where they interviewed the gophers training staff, they adjusted his shoulder position and he was doing 7 pull ups within the first week and double digits by the start of the season, I don’t think his workouts will be an issue and anyone who has seen him knows that he is not afraid of contact and wins most of his battles anyway.
Dr Jan Itor
Registered User
Unless something changed recently, Mittelstadt and Pitlick were playing on the same line, and CM definitely wasn't getting shafted on PP time.
RipCityPuckers
Registered User
I like the high school argument that someone presented earlier in this thread (can't remember who and don't feel like going back)
I'm not claiming to be an expert here but just on the surface I can see there being major difficulty in jumping from high school hockey where he'd essentially be dominating I'm guessing to college hockey where he is playing with guys 2-4 years his senior who have developed more into their bodies
Like I said I'm no expert but it just seems like a logical theory to me. I'd love to hear more input from someone who has more knowledge on the subject though
I'm not claiming to be an expert here but just on the surface I can see there being major difficulty in jumping from high school hockey where he'd essentially be dominating I'm guessing to college hockey where he is playing with guys 2-4 years his senior who have developed more into their bodies
Like I said I'm no expert but it just seems like a logical theory to me. I'd love to hear more input from someone who has more knowledge on the subject though
Castle8130
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I don't think Muscle is the reason he is successful at throwing his body around, although I think he does have a strong lower body, but it's his low-center of gravity. You can see it when he plays kid of. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but a lot of people judge him for not having as much muscle.
Isaac Nootin
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Considering he played half a season in the USHL, plus U18, the high school argument is ridiculous.
I believe that line was broken up around a month ago unless they recently put it back. They were getting way to much defensive attention from opponents so they got split
Jaykay
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Mittelstadt was playing with Pitlick and Scott Reedy in the weeks leading up to the tournament.
