Dennis Cholowski signs a 3 year EL Contract

[Konnan511]

His stats dont look great but his team is bad. As a dman hes one point out of second on the team in scoring with one less game played and 4 points out of first with 2 less games played. The enxt closest D is 7 points behind and after that no D even have double digit points. I hope he makes the junior team so we can see hwat he looks like on a good team

He's almost a PPG player as a DMan. He's #11 in scoring for WHL Dmen. Those are impressive stats.

 

[Ezekial]

Exit: nm I guess it was mentioned.

I can't agree with anyone negatively on his point totals, he's doing great on a bad team

 

[Shaman464]

He's almost a PPG player as a DMan. He's #11 in scoring for WHL Dmen. Those are impressive stats.

They really aren't though. The bad team line isn't much of an excuse because some of the best individual performances in hockey come on teams that are no where near contending (proof that hockey is a team sport, unlike some other sports where one player can carry a team). His stat line and overall play puts him at or just below expectations we should have for a 1st round pick 2 years after being drafted and playing in a junior league.

At this point my view is we don't know much about him until we see him play a season in the AHL. Because his performance in the worst of the three CHL leagues isn't world burning by any means. Until he is taken out of that and starts to play against men its hard to say if his mediocre stats are because of him or his team.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

They really aren't though. The bad team line isn't much of an excuse because some of the best individual performances in hockey come on teams that are no where near contending (proof that hockey is a team sport, unlike some other sports where one player can carry a team). His stat line and overall play puts him at or just below expectations we should have for a 1st round pick 2 years after being drafted and playing in a junior league.

At this point my view is we don't know much about him until we see him play a season in the AHL. Because his performance in the worst of the three CHL leagues isn't world burning by any means. Until he is taken out of that and starts to play against men its hard to say if his mediocre stats are because of him or his team.

I don't care if they are a little worse than normal, the WHL is still a lot better than the Q in my opinon.

You don't really learn a whole lot about your prospects before pro hockey. He is playing well, now being elevated into a captains role after a summer where he did a lot of right things. This is all good for us hopefully, but again we won't know until he hits pro hockey. I think the biggest thing he has going for him is how quickly he processes the game. But yes we watched Smith and Kindl (less so than Smith) be world beaters at lower levels before.

 

[Frk It]

I don't care if they are a little worse than normal, the WHL is still a lot better than the Q in my opinon.

You don't really learn a whole lot about your prospects before pro hockey. He is playing well, now being elevated into a captains role after a summer where he did a lot of right things. This is all good for us hopefully, but again we won't know until he hits pro hockey. I think the biggest thing he has going for him is how quickly he processes the game. But yes we watched Smith and Kindl (less so than Smith) be world beaters at lower levels before.

I’d agree with that. I didn’t like that draft day trade for a few reasons, but I’m pretty happy with where Cholowski is at and his outlook. Not really many holes in his game, compared to some of our other defenseman we were hopeful about and didn’t pan out.

And yeah, last 2 years the W has been way better than the Q.

 

[Redder Winger]

He's almost a PPG player as a DMan. He's #11 in scoring for WHL Dmen. Those are impressive stats.

Are they?
He's in post draft season 2 in Canadian junior. He's a first round pick. He better be among the WHL defensemen leaders.

Other D from that draft:
Sergachev - 25 NHL games 5-9-14
McAvoy - 20 NHL games 2-8-10
Chychrun - 68 NHL games 7-13-20

Other WHL D from that draft
Kale Clague 19 games 10-23-33 (51st overall)
David Quenville 21 games 7-20-27 (200th overall)
Josh Mahura 20 games 7-15-22 (85th overall)
Jake Bean 20 games 3-17-20 (13th overall)
Dennis Cholowski 22 games 6-14-20 (20th overall)
Libor Hajey 23 games 6-12-18 (37th overall)
Vojtek Budick 22 games 1-4-5 (130th overall)
Josh Anderson 10 games 0-3-3 71st overall
Brayden Chizen 14 games 1-1-2 (204th overall)

 

[lomekian]

To be fair, he's contributed by either scoring or assisting to 28% of all his team's goals. There are only 5 WHL d-men with a % of 29% or above - he's 2nd top point scorer on his team, 4th highest goal scorer, 3rd best plus minus and has just been made captain - and only has 4 penalty minutes in 22 games. For a two way guy in his first WHL season I'm happy.

 

[Leronziia]

There's not much you can glean statistically from a defenseman in junior hockey, apart from ensuring that he is near PPG (an indication that he has offensive instincts).

Ryan Ellis put up monster numbers, nearly 2PPG in his D+2, yet has never broken 40 points in the NHL.

 

[Redder Winger]

There's not much you can glean statistically from a defenseman in junior hockey, apart from ensuring that he is near PPG (an indication that he has offensive instincts).

Ryan Ellis put up monster numbers, nearly 2PPG in his D+2, yet has never broken 40 points in the NHL.

Ellis did go 16-22-38.
Considering he shares icetime on D with Josi, Subban and Ekholm, that's pretty good.

 

[Dotter]

I don't care if they are a little worse than normal, the WHL is still a lot better than the Q in my opinon.

You don't really learn a whole lot about your prospects before pro hockey. He is playing well, now being elevated into a captains role after a summer where he did a lot of right things. This is all good for us hopefully, but again we won't know until he hits pro hockey. I think the biggest thing he has going for him is how quickly he processes the game. But yes we watched Smith and Kindl (less so than Smith) be world beaters at lower levels before.

I was wondering about level of competition. Is WHL a good place for a dman to learn his trade?

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I was wondering about level of competition. Is WHL a good place for a dman to learn his trade?

I personally prefer the WHL over all the Canadian leagues. The WHL has produced a lot of talent and I think they play the game the right way out there in most cases. It is the most rugged of the junior leagues in my opinion for sure. Generally the OHL probably has a touch more talent, but I am a pretty big fan of the WHL.

In terms of D-man plenty of good ones have come from that league over the years.

 

[RedWingzz]

Does anyone think he has a shot at Canada's blueline at the World Juniors? I doubt it, but maybe he has an outside shot?

 

[Claypool]

Does anyone think he has a shot at Canada's blueline at the World Juniors? I doubt it, but maybe he has an outside shot?

He absolutely has a shot. And unless he has a really poor camp he'll likely make the team. I don't see any players who are automatic locks this year for Canada.

 

[Frk It]

He absolutely has a shot. And unless he has a really poor camp he'll likely make the team. I don't see any players who are automatic locks this year for Canada.

Well, the dumb thing is if you have made the team in the past you really have to nosedive to not be re-selected. They seem to really like to keep continuity. So ~4 spots on the blue line are probably already locked down. So Cholo is probably battling a lot of guys for the last 1 or 2 spots. For example even if he has outplayed Jake Bean over the last 2-3 months, I doubt they will give him Bean’s spot.

On the last episode of The Pipeline Show the scout from Hockey Canada was on, and he talked about Cholowski as an option, and was complimentary of his game.

Bob Mac on Team Canada:
World Junior selection process ramps up - Article - TSN

 

[Frk It]

I personally prefer the WHL over all the Canadian leagues. The WHL has produced a lot of talent and I think they play the game the right way out there in most cases. It is the most rugged of the junior leagues in my opinion for sure. Generally the OHL probably has a touch more talent, but I am a pretty big fan of the WHL.

In terms of D-man plenty of good ones have come from that league over the years.

WHL is a strong league. I’d really like to select a player or two from there with our first few picks this year. They have a bunch of 16 year olds doing big things too for next year already.

 

[Claypool]

Well, the dumb thing is if you have made the team in the past you really have to nosedive to not be re-selected. They seem to really like to keep continuity. So ~4 spots on the blue line are probably already locked down. So Cholo is probably battling a lot of guys for the last 1 or 2 spots. For example even if he has outplayed Jake Bean over the last 2-3 months, I doubt they will give him Bean’s spot.

On the last episode of The Pipeline Show the scout from Hockey Canada was on, and he talked about Cholowski as an option, and was complimentary of his game.

Bob Mac on Team Canada:
World Junior selection process ramps up - Article - TSN

If Canada won gold last year, sure. I could see the argument for bringing back a lot of the same crew. I think they’ll be more interested in bringing the best players in camp. I don’t think players like Bean or Fabbro are a lock by any means.

 

[Frk It]

If Canada won gold last year, sure. I could see the argument for bringing back a lot of the same crew. I think they’ll be more interested in bringing the best players in camp. I don’t think players like Bean or Fabbro are a lock by any means.

Good point (regarding Canda not winning), we will see. I think he deserves a spot with the big strides he has made over the last 6-8 months. Hopefully they feel the same. I enjoy watching that tournament, would like to see how he does against his top peers.

 

[newfy]

He's almost a PPG player as a DMan. He's #11 in scoring for WHL Dmen. Those are impressive stats.

They're solid enough, but for a guy who was a first round pick, 2 years away from his draft they arent absolutely amazing or anything like that. I just thought I would give some context to them which makes them look even more impressive

 

[Hatter of the Beach]

I don't care if they are a little worse than normal, the WHL is still a lot better than the Q in my opinon.

.

The liklihood of NHL success relative to players drafted from each league begs to differ. Who were some of the last good WHL prospects, Reinhart (second line center), Virtanen (lol), and Nolan Patrick who in most years wouldn’t have gone top 5?

How many first line talents has the dub sent to the NHL in the past 5 years? A lot less than the OHL and Q, that’s for sure

 

[Frk It]

How many first line talents has the dub sent to the NHL in the past 5 years? A lot less than the OHL and Q, that’s for sure

Nah

WHL
Draisaitl, Seth Jones, Provorov, Barzal

QMJHL
MacKinnon, Drouin, Ehlers

 

[mouser]

The liklihood of NHL success relative to players drafted from each league begs to differ. Who were some of the last good WHL prospects, Reinhart (second line center), Virtanen (lol), and Nolan Patrick who in most years wouldn’t have gone top 5?

How many first line talents has the dub sent to the NHL in the past 5 years? A lot less than the OHL and Q, that’s for sure

1st round picks the last five drafts:
2013: WHL 8, OHL 8, QMJHL 6
2014: OHL 10, WHL 9, QMJHL 1
2015: OHL 7, WHL 5, QMJHL 5
2016: OHL 9, WHL 4, QMJHL 2
2017: WHL 7, OHL 5, QMJHL 2

Totals: OHL 39, WHL 33, QMJHL 16

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Cholo cut from team Canada

 

[Dotter]

Cholo cut from team Canada

They've made a critical mistake.

 

[Christien]

They've made a critical mistake.

Agreed. Don’t see how a guy like Bean makes it on the team over him.

 

[Leronziia]

I actually agree with Dotter.

They've got enough smaller offensive guys that are defensive liabilities already.