Just a bit more about Gillies and Saskatoon. This is a low scoring team- and Gillies sees, as I said above, very little power play ice. He does not play (except on rare occasions) with Menei and McCrae, the Blades' two best scorers. The Blades have no quarterback type defenceman to carry the puck in and dish it to forwards by the net or even a defenceman whose forte is the breakout pass.
Stats don't show a lot this stuff. I'd also be willing to bet that he leads the league in near misses.
Gillies is probably the most mis-analyzed player in this draft. One poster said he kept reading that he's a slow grinder, others have said that he has no hockey sense (his defensive and board games are excellent), and now another says that he has hands of stone- and quite definitively too.
Too many people are making up scouting reports of this guy in their heads. He's big and is not a great scorer (although he rarely sees power play time) so..... people fill in the holes with speculation.
True- he is not a great finisher. He seems snake bitten around the net, doesn't get into scoring position very well but that is not the same as stickhandling. People should actually watch a player (and not just the prospects game) before saying such things.
All well and good. Near misses are misses. IMO he does not have good hands, lacks vision, and isn't a stickhandler of note - I really don't think those are unfair descriptions. I've been told by three or four pro scouts that they think he lacks hockey sense, and I don't think he's teeming with it, but no one's saying he lacks character. I'm not sure being good along the board means you have good hockey sense. Certainly when it comes to offensive hockey sense, Gillies doesn't top the charts.
There have to be reasons why some are still liking him; because I've heard pretty much every excuse too why he's not producing.
He's on a bad team...yet he gets no power play time. Doesn't sound like a typical first round prospect to me. Hamill plays on a strong team and he gets lots of powerplay time.
If Saskatoon is such a poor team, why doesn't he get more ice time. and also...if he's such a good prospect, why isn't he making them a better team? Top two pick in his second WHL season - you can't tell me the team isn't disappointed with his production.
I chatted with a fellow who knows Gillies well and worked with him on his game and conditioning the past few summers. He said the one thing they can't remedy is his hands - he just doesn't have it around the net. It happens - Chad Kilger displays that every couple nights in NHL arenas.
Gillies is going to play in the NHL - I don't think that's under debate - if you want to spend a first round pick on a third liner...be prepared for what you're getting.
Late note - he has been intriguing some scouts when he's played back on the blueline. It's where he played right up until bantam. If he does go higher then I figure he might well go to a team that wants to play him on the blueline, or even a bit of both. In this day of the salary cap, it doesn't hurt to have a versatile player like Streit.