Prospect Info: CBJ Prospect Thread XI

[majormajor]

Except maybe a goalie. But I generally agree.

Any good goalies out there?

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Any good goalies out there?

Future Considerations: Five college free agents who could interest NHL teams

One way to add prospects to your pipeline without having draft picks is to sign free agents out of the NCAA. Scout Jason Bukala looks at five such players who could draw NHL interest at the end of the season.

www.sportsnet.ca

North Dakota's goalie Ludvig Persson who started at Miami actually.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Also looks like Vinny Duplessis from Quinnipac is a free agent. He's a transfer from BU and his senior year stats look pretty solid after being a backup at BU. Which leads me to Mathieu Caron at BU, he appears to be a free agent too.

The transfer portal seems prime for goalies who excel at smaller schools to transfer to bigger schools to get noticed.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Also this guy catches my attention. He's apparently been to development camp with the Canucks.

Victor Ostman - Men's Ice Hockey - University of Maine Athletics

Victor Ostman (32) Goaltender - JUNIOR (2022-23): Appeared in 33 games while earning 31 starts… Posted a 2.21 GAA, .918 save percentage, five shutouts, while winning

goblackbears.com

 

[Doggy]

Also looks like Vinny Duplessis from Quinnipac is a free agent. He's a transfer from BU and his senior year stats look pretty solid after being a backup at BU. Which leads me to Mathieu Caron at BU, he appears to be a free agent too.

The transfer portal seems prime for goalies who excel at smaller schools to transfer to bigger schools to get noticed.

Let's be realistic. What playing time can we offer a college goalie free agent? Top tier college goalies rarely make the jump to the NHL with success. Just treading water in the AHL can be a challenge.

OSU goalie Jakob Dobes was pretty darn good the last two years in college. 42-28-5 with a GAA around 2.30 and Save Percentage around .925. This year in the AHL he has a GAA of 3.25 and Save Percentage of .898.

Yaniv Perets, QU's goalie the last two years was outstanding in college. GAA around 1.40 and Save Percentage around .934. I mean those are serious eye popping numbers. This year in the AHL he has a 3.27 GAA and .879 GAA.

Devon Levi who had a GAA around 1.90 and Save Percentage around .943 over to NCAA seasons has split this year between the NHL and AHL with a 3.30 GAA and .891 Save Percentage with Buffalo. No question he looks like a keeper...

...but to think we sign a top performing college goalie and he is going to jump in and get playing minutes in Columbus is foolish and even down in Cleveland where Jet Greaves is doing great I am not sure how much playing time the team can offer him. I think heading into tight playoff race Cleveland feels most comfortable with Greaves and Cajan.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Let's be realistic. What playing time can we offer a college goalie free agent? Top tier college goalies rarely make the jump to the NHL with success. Just treading water in the AHL can be a challenge.

OSU goalie Jakob Dobes was pretty darn good the last two years in college. 42-28-5 with a GAA around 2.30 and Save Percentage around .925. This year in the AHL he has a GAA of 3.25 and Save Percentage of .898.

Yaniv Perets, QU's goalie the last two years was outstanding in college. GAA around 1.40 and Save Percentage around .934. I mean those are serious eye popping numbers. This year in the AHL he has a 3.27 GAA and .879 GAA.

Devon Levi who had a GAA around 1.90 and Save Percentage around .943 over to NCAA seasons has split this year between the NHL and AHL with a 3.30 GAA and .891 Save Percentage with Buffalo. No question he looks like a keeper...

...but to think we sign a top performing college goalie and he is going to jump in and get playing minutes in Columbus is foolish and even down in Cleveland where Jet Greaves is doing great I am not sure how much playing time the team can offer him. I think heading into tight playoff race Cleveland feels most comfortable with Greaves and Cajan.

What playing time does any NHL team offer a college free agent goalie straight out of college? Our goalie depth is pretty bare. We need more goalies.

We'll probably roll into next season with Jet maybe on an NHL roster as a backup. Pavel Cajan is not on an NHL deal, Nolan LaLonde isn't exactly tearing up the OHL even though we have him on an entry level contract. Having a college guy capable of playing in Cleveland next year and keep developing is not a bad thing while the others do their thing in Europe.

 

[koteka]

Any goalie looking at our goalie situation would say “I have a decent shot there as opposed to a team like Nashville.”

You can also offer one game in the NHL this year as an enticement, sort of like Eric Robinson got a game in the NHL after signing as a college free agent in 2018, and then he started the next season in the AHL.

 

[lakai17]

Brett Brochu only on an echl deal having a nice season so far.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Any goalie looking at our goalie situation would say “I have a decent shot there as opposed to a team like Nashville.”

You can also offer one game in the NHL this year as an enticement, sort of like Eric Robinson got a game in the NHL after signing as a college free agent in 2018, and then he started the next season in the AHL.

Love the idea/concept. Would give the organization a chance to evaluate the goalie first hand.

Only problem is that those doing the evaluating will (hopefully) be shown the door weeks later. LOL

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Honest question, when was the last time an undrafted goalie came straight out of college into the NHL?

Obviously several have been successful as undrafted players but they usually are older with a bit more experience. Has there ever been one? I'm certainly not expecting greatness out of a college UFA. I don't even know if any of these guys will have any sort of career. I'd think the learning curve for any of them probably involve a couple of years in the minors before getting a shot.

 

[Doggy]

Honest question, when was the last time an undrafted goalie came straight out of college into the NHL?

Obviously several have been successful as undrafted players but they usually are older with a bit more experience. Has there ever been one? I'm certainly not expecting greatness out of a college UFA. I don't even know if any of these guys will have any sort of career. I'd think the learning curve for any of them probably involve a couple of years in the minors before getting a shot.

Interesting question...

Could not find one more recent: Ty Conklin played 4 NHL games in his first season post NCAA. He played at UNH 2000-2001 and played Oct 16, 20, 24 & 25 for Edmonton. Then spent next two years in the AHL. But it looks like he made jump straight to the NHL.

As far as being "successful" the most successful I found in the past twenty years (and they still needed 3-4 years in the minors) were...

Casey DeSmith played three minor league seasons before getting an NHL sniff
Aaron Dell played four minor league seasons
Mike Condon played three minor league seasons
Cam Talbot played four minor league seasons
Keith Kincaid got one NHL game in his second season post NCAA
Ben Scrivens got 12 games in his second season post NCAA

 

[majormajor]

Only problem is that those doing the evaluating will (hopefully) be shown the door weeks later. LOL

You're in the minority here if you want to purge our amateur scouting staff.

 

[KJ Dangler]

You're in the minority here if you want to purge our amateur scouting staff.

It no doubt will be changed some at minimum , could totally clean house as well .

 

[koteka]

You're in the minority here if you want to purge our amateur scouting staff.

We really don’t know much about our amateur scouting. We only know what is revealed through picks.

Maybe our scouts are mediocre and Jarmo is a wizard - like maybe the scouts loved Pool Party and Jarmo overruled them. I’d love to see how our scouts rated guys we didn’t draft, especially some defensemen. I’d also love to know if we would have drafted Will Smith over Carlsson.

I do think we have guy in Russia who knows what he is doing - the Russians we draft tend to do much better than their draft position would suggest. Beyond that, I don’t think we know much.

Who would we have picked if we didn’t pick Sonny Milano or Liam Foudy or Gabe Carlsson? Who would we have picked if we didn’t pick Zack Werenski or Yegor Chinakhov? Was Marchenko (or Texier) loved by all the scouts or did they have big arguments about his potential? What did the amateur scouts think about the 1st we gave up in the Provorov trade? There is so much we don’t know.

 

[stevo61]

We really don’t know much about our amateur scouting. We only know what is revealed through picks.

Maybe our scouts are mediocre and Jarmo is a wizard - like maybe the scouts loved Pool Party and Jarmo overruled them. I’d love to see how our scouts rated guys we didn’t draft, especially some defensemen. I’d also love to know if we would have drafted Will Smith over Carlsson.

I do think we have guy in Russia who knows what he is doing - the Russians we draft tend to do much better than their draft position would suggest. Beyond that, I don’t think we know much.

Who would we have picked if we didn’t pick Sonny Milano or Liam Foudy or Gabe Carlsson? Who would we have picked if we didn’t pick Zack Werenski or Yegor Chinakhov? Was Marchenko (or Texier) loved by all the scouts or did they have big arguments about his potential? What did the amateur scouts think about the 1st we gave up in the Provorov trade? There is so much we don’t know.

Well we know Rich Sutter wanted Ridley Greig over Chinakhov

 

[Cyclones Rock]

You're in the minority here if you want to purge our amateur scouting staff.

Was referring to coaching and those currently playing GM.

Being in the minority isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially here FWIW I haven't any strong opinion on the scouting dept.

 

[majormajor]

Was referring to coaching and those currently playing GM.

Being in the minority isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially here

For sure, I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Cutter Gauthier, Alexander Nikishin lead Craig Button’s top 50 NHL-affiliated prospects list | TSN

Cutter Gauthier was in the midst of some controversy this season, but there's nothing controversial about Craig Button ranking him at No. 1.

www.tsn.ca

Jiricek, Brindley make the list

 

[squashmaple]

Cutter Gauthier, Alexander Nikishin lead Craig Button’s top 50 NHL-affiliated prospects list | TSN

Cutter Gauthier was in the midst of some controversy this season, but there's nothing controversial about Craig Button ranking him at No. 1.

www.tsn.ca

Jiricek, Brindley make the list

My, how Jiricek has fallen this year.

 

[stevo61]

My, how Jiricek has fallen this year.

In the eyes of impatient people. Wont mean much in a couple years.

Jiricek never played in the WJC so Button probably almost forgot about him

 

[Doggy]

Nolan LaLonde has won sixteen in a row for Saginaw with the 18th best Save Percentage in the league. Statistically speaking its safe to say he has shown no growth as a goalie in his three seasons in the OHL.

 

[squashmaple]

In the eyes of impatient people. Wont mean much in a couple years.

Jiricek never played in the WJC so Button probably almost forgot about him

He wasn't eligible this year, but he killed it last year. But yeah, agreed Button probably forgot.

 

[stevo61]

He wasn't eligible this year, but he killed it last year. But yeah, agreed Button probably forgot.

I know but Buttons opinion is always heavily reliant on recency bias and short tournaments.

 

[Xoggz22]

Cutter Gauthier, Alexander Nikishin lead Craig Button’s top 50 NHL-affiliated prospects list | TSN

Cutter Gauthier was in the midst of some controversy this season, but there's nothing controversial about Craig Button ranking him at No. 1.

www.tsn.ca

Jiricek, Brindley make the list

Not a surprising crap list from Button. And not because Jiricek is like the 6th best d-man. That list is pretty awful overall.