GDT: Penticton Young Stars Tournament September 15th-18th

[deleted user]

Really liked Stromgren and Lipinski tonight. Not a big fan of Honzek again though.

Thought Kuznetsov did a lot of little things well in this tourney.

Honzek was heralded as a puck protection player but it was hard for me to isolate any moments when he did that noticeably.

Hopefully (and likely) that we get chances to experience that!

 

[Bounces R Way]

Really liked Stromgren and Lipinski tonight. Not a big fan of Honzek again though.

Thought Kuznetsov did a lot of little things well in this tourney.

Also wanted to give Kuznetsov some love for his play this weekend. Great edgework to stay with his man in the defensive zone. Solid steady defenseman.

I'm also thinking Klapka with a good camp could be on the big club. Coronato I'm not entirely sold on him being ready.

 

[Rubi]

Nobody dominated in these three games nor were they a threat to score every time they were on the ice. The Flames have some ok players in this batch but I haven't seen a difference maker yet. It could be a long time before we see another Johnny Hockey in the lineup. That edge of your seat feeling when he had the puck is something I'm going to miss.

 

[Volica]

Nobody dominated in these three games nor were they a threat to score every time they were on the ice. The Flames have some ok players in this batch but I haven't seen a difference maker yet. It could be a long time before we see another Johnny Hockey in the lineup. That edge of your seat feeling when he had the puck is something I'm going to miss.

Johnny Gaudreau had 3 points in this tournament when he was there in 2014.

These tournaments mean next to nothing, they're just a little fun primer for hockey in the fall.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Personally I didn’t think Coronato played great but he just does so many things. I think it was more rust than anything. He failed on execution but the kid has high hockey IQ.

These tournaments are really scrambled and favour guys with speed. Coronato does well to create time and space but he needs guys to play with. I think he’ll look better with the structure in the NHL. A Huberdeau-Lindholm-Coronato line would be interesting IMO.

 

[Lunatik]

Personally I didn’t think Coronato played great but he just does so many things. I think it was more rust than anything. He failed on execution but the kid has high hockey IQ.

These tournaments are really scrambled and favour guys with speed. Coronato does well to create time and space but he needs guys to play with. I think he’ll look better with the structure in the NHL. A Huberdeau-Lindholm-Coronato line would be interesting IMO.

Yeah, these kids also have like 1 practice beforehand too. I never take this tournament very seriously because of that. It's like the first few exhibition games for the big club, they mean very little (not that later exhibition games mean anything)

 

[Yepthatsme]

Johnny Gaudreau had 3 points in this tournament when he was there in 2014.

These tournaments mean next to nothing, they're just a little fun primer for hockey in the fall.

Also 3 years of College hockey post draft compared to Coronato’s 2. This tournament is usually dominated by the older teams, the fact our team did so good while being young is a good sign. There’s a reason Klapka stood out the most while having one of the more limited skill sets/upside.

 

[HighLifeMan]

Yeah - take these tournament results with a massive grain of salt.

The Canucks brought as roster full of 99-01's.. which is pretty comical for a prospect tournament. Hirose and McDonagh for example are the same age as Ruzicka.. They better be standing out, lol.

 

[Fig]

Honzek was heralded as a puck protection player but it was hard for me to isolate any moments when he did that noticeably.

Hopefully (and likely) that we get chances to experience that!

A bunch of the scouting information on Honzek was completely wrong. We may have to start from scratch in rebuilding his scouting profile.

If you re-read Honzek's scouting report and look at the scouting clips, you'll see what I mean. It was absolutely bizarre how badly the reports and the clips contradicted. It'll say Honzek was poor at skating with low speed, but then in the highlights you'll see him win a few foot races at some pretty quick speeds. His acceleration is poor, sure, but his top speed is impressive.

Apparently the same was true for Danielson where his scouting report and clips were full of contradictions as well.

 

[deleted user]

A bunch of the scouting information on Honzek was completely wrong. We may have to start from scratch in rebuilding his scouting profile.

If you re-read Honzek's scouting report and look at the scouting clips, you'll see what I mean. It was absolutely bizarre how badly the reports and the clips contradicted. It'll say Honzek was poor at skating with low speed, but then in the highlights you'll see him win a few foot races at some pretty quick speeds. His acceleration is poor, sure, but his top speed is impressive.

Ooof! I did think it was strange. I wonder how this could come about?!?

 

[Fig]

Ooof! I did think it was strange. I wonder how this could come about?!?

I'm not sure. But some of the scouting seemed to have been incomplete and done solely prior to his injury.

It's not to say Honzek isn't capable of protecting the puck. You can see it in some of the highlights in the clips. But he's also 6'4 playing against others almost half a foot shorter. He was playing against bigger players int his tournament and more seasoned players and I think the coaching mandate was different.

When I looked at the clips vs the reports, I started seeing a high IQ player who was experimenting with different skillsets and tools. I assume he's still figuring out who he is as a player and the centre experiment will be part of this. Hopefully he also has the IQ to seal certain skillsets to ensure success at the NHL level. He's a prospect that I truly consider to be a raw prospect. He's still learning and figuring things out for what he wants in his basic skillset. He seemingly hasn't decided to hone specific skillsets to be his signature style yet but he's developing a ton of skills to a very intriguing level and package. That's what I see.

 

[Lunatik]

I'm not sure. But some of the scouting seemed to have been incomplete and done solely prior to his injury.

It's not to say Honzek isn't capable of protecting the puck. You can see it in some of the highlights in the clips. But he's also 6'4 playing against others almost half a foot shorter. He was playing against bigger players int his tournament and more seasoned players and I think the coaching mandate was different.

When I looked at the clips vs the reports, I started seeing a high IQ player who was experimenting with different skillsets and tools. I assume he's still figuring out who he is as a player and the centre experiment will be part of this. Hopefully he also has the IQ to seal certain skillsets to ensure success at the NHL level. He's a prospect that I truly consider to be a raw prospect. He's still learning and figuring things out for what he wants in his basic skillset. He seemingly hasn't decided to hone specific skillsets to be his signature style yet but he's developing a ton of skills to a very intriguing level and package. That's what I see.

These scouting reports we are privy to often have inaccuracies because they only see the guys a few times, they don't have time to watch them all live either so it's mostly off video. It is also usually 1 set of eyes. So a shitty game ends up skewing these scouting reports.

Also when it comes to things like skating, these scouts will lose points for technique. Emile Poirier was a very quick skater, even had decent acceleration, but he was said to have "poor" skating, because his stride was unconventional and a bit awkward.

With NHL teams when they scout, they start scouting everywhere, then they single out players they like start scouting them more often and watch them several times and have a much deeper book on these guys. They also have other scouts check teh players out too, so more than one set of eyes see them.

 

[Fig]

These scouting reports we are privy to often have inaccuracies because they only see the guys a few times, they don't have time to watch them all live either so it's mostly off video. It is also usually 1 set of eyes. So a shitty game ends up skewing these scouting reports.

Also when it comes to things like skating, these scouts will lose points for technique. Emile Poirier was a very quick skater, even had decent acceleration, but he was said to have "poor" skating, because his stride was unconventional and a bit awkward.

With NHL teams when they scout, they start scouting everywhere, then they single out players they like start scouting them more often and watch them several times and have a much deeper book on these guys. They also have other scouts check teh players out too, so more than one set of eyes see them.

Agreed. But the scouting reports we see are still typically closer to 80% accurate for getting an idea of the player. I remember reading some scouting reports on Honzek, pulling up a few Honzek highlights and going, "Who the guy in the clip vs the scouting report?". It felt like it was almost less than 50% accurate. I'd never seen these types of scouting reports being this inaccurate and contradictory before. Very few of the other prospects in this draft felt as badly inaccurate which was why it was so bizarre.

 

[Lunatik]

Agreed. But the scouting reports we see are still typically closer to 80% accurate for getting an idea of the player. I remember reading some scouting reports on Honzek, pulling up a few Honzek highlights and going, "Who the guy in the clip vs the scouting report?". It felt like it was almost less than 50% accurate. I'd never seen these types of scouting reports being this inaccurate and contradictory before. Very few of the other prospects in this draft felt as badly inaccurate which was why it was so bizarre.

Covid hangover maybe? They haven't really been able to scout these guys the last couple years because of how few games have been played.

 

[Fig]

Covid hangover maybe? They haven't really been able to scout these guys the last couple years because of how few games have been played.

That would make sense if many other prospects in this drafts top 60 were this bad. But from what I understand, only Honzek's and Danielson were as inaccurate as they were.

Furthermore Honzek's inaccuracies were weird. I'm going back to look and the differences don't feel as jarring, but it also seems like they have been corrected post draft. But you can see in my posting history I commented quite a few time about my annoyance at how contradictory the scouting reports were vs the clips.

I think the scouting reports are starting to correct certain misleading wording and minor tweaks now. So I think it's starting to get resolved and sorted out.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I'm not sure. But some of the scouting seemed to have been incomplete and done solely prior to his injury.

If you haven't, have a read of his prospect page on the HF Prospects board from start to finish. It has documented how he's progressed. Started off as "hey this guy isn't bad" to "hey this guy might actually get drafted" to "hey this guy might be a mid-late draft pick" to "hey this guy might sneak into the first round" to "hey this guy might get drafted in the middle of the first round" to "hey the Flames took this guy so gotta be a total bust" (probably).

 

[Fig]

If you haven't, have a read of his prospect page on the HF Prospects board from start to finish. It has documented how he's progressed. Started off as "hey this guy isn't bad" to "hey this guy might actually get drafted" to "hey this guy might be a mid-late draft pick" to "hey this guy might sneak into the first round" to "hey this guy might get drafted in the middle of the first round" to "hey the Flames took this guy so gotta be a total bust" (probably).

I've already read it in its entirety... possibly more than once due to the amount of times I went back to check for references of certain aspects to his game.