Prospect Info: 2015 36th overall - Gabriel Gagne (RW) Victoriaville Tigres [QMJHL]

[Rodzilla]

Wasnt Victoriaville terrible? Are they going to be any better next year?

No they were not. Made playoffs swept by Rimouski in 4 but played well


They are young and will get better I expect they had some good players. Gagné had a poor start but picked it up. I don't see a power forward though and no way he's 190pounds.. Also he lacked compete level or consistency this year that's what I'd say.


He's skinny for a tall guy but I think he'll get bigger when pro. I don't really know what to expect from Victo this year we'll see, curious to follow him this year.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

No they were not. Made playoffs swept by Rimouski in 4 but played well


They are young and will get better I expect they had some good players. Gagné had a poor start but picked it up. I don't see a power forward though and no way he's 190pounds.. Also he lacked compete level or consistency this year that's what I'd say.


He's skinny for a tall guy but I think he'll get bigger when pro. I don't really know what to expect from Victo this year we'll see, curious to follow him this year.

Ok 186 not 190 ... said 190 on LWOS link. ... I was imagining a 4lb weight gain

CombineInvites

 

[Boud]

Not a big fan of this pick. Really looks like a Chiasson type of pick. He may end up better but I though there we're better picks at that point. Would've been nice to see Murray take a shot at Sprong.

 

[Coco the Monkey*]

Not a big fan of this pick. Really looks like a Chiasson type of pick. He may end up better but I though there we're better picks at that point. Would've been nice to see Murray take a shot at Sprong.

Dave Cameron's son coaches the islanders. He would have told them what he thinks of Sprong. One dimensional with no defensive ability at all and not a team player.

If gagne becomes Chiasson you realize that's a win, right?

He has more upside than that though. Bigger, better goal scorer.

Also Murray doesn't pick players.

 

[Boud]

Dave Cameron's son coaches the islanders. He would have told them what he thinks of Sprong. One dimensional with no defensive ability at all and not a team player.

If gagne becomes Chiasson you realize that's a win, right?

He has more upside than that though. Bigger, better goal scorer.

Also Murray doesn't pick players.

Well, If our prospect pool wasn't that deep with middling prospects I'd say that a Gagné pick would be fine. The way I see it, I was happy we went with White and Chabot in the first but if you get a shot at a highly skilled player like Sprong in the 2nd round you go for it. He's a unidimensional player but you know what I'll take Kessel over Chiasson. Not saying Sprong will be like Kessel but he's one of the most skilled player in the draft and one of the best offensive players also so taking a shot at him in the 2nd round was almost a no brainer if you ask me. I know he's not the Murray type of pick but for once, having a highly skilled player that a touted prospect would be nice and could round out our forward group down the road. Gagné is not a bad pick, but he has a long way to go he's as good as Sprong offensively. I heard all about Sprong being a head case was overblown by a friend who scouts FC but whether or not that's true, he remains a gamebreaking talent while Gagné is not.

 

[Coco the Monkey*]

Well, If our prospect pool wasn't that deep with middling prospects I'd say that a Gagné pick would be fine. The way I see it, I was happy we went with White and Chabot in the first but if you get a shot at a highly skilled player like Sprong in the 2nd round you go for it. He's a unidimensional player but you know what I'll take Kessel over Chiasson. Not saying Sprong will be like Kessel but he's one of the most skilled player in the draft and one of the best offensive players also so taking a shot at him in the 2nd round was almost a no brainer if you ask me. I know he's not the Murray type of pick but for once, having a highly skilled player that a touted prospect would be nice and could round out our forward group down the road. Gagné is not a bad pick, but he has a long way to go he's as good as Sprong offensively.

Meh, Sprong has a long way to go to be a professional hockey player. I'd rather have Corey perry over Alex semin or Phil Kassel

 

[GWNR]

Definitly get the Chiasson comparisons, but I think Gagne has way more scoring potential. Needs to fill out though

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Favorites:

NHL team: Montreal Canadiens
Player: Sidney Crosby
Video Game: Call of Duty
Movie: The Rocket
TV Show: Prison Break
Actor: Will Smith
Musician: Tiesto

Ewwwwwww. Dude needs to acquire better taste In pretty much every facet of life.

 

[BK201]

Definitly get the Chiasson comparisons, but I think Gagne has way more scoring potential. Needs to fill out though

Yeah I guess I assume we're all making these comparisons on paper and none of us have seen him play tbh.

Personally from this draft I've only seen Barzal, Zacha, Strome and Konecny play and Barzal not live.

I think it's a good pick Sprong only had 4 more goals.

I think they're trying to find a big bodied goal scorer and this is the pick.

Nhl had him ranked 36 among North American skaters so it's not off the boards like some people are saying and sounds like AVs wanted him before 42.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Dave Cameron's son coaches the islanders. He would have told them what he thinks of Sprong. One dimensional with no defensive ability at all and not a team player.

If gagne becomes Chiasson you realize that's a win, right?

He has more upside than that though. Bigger, better goal scorer.

Also Murray doesn't pick players.

Yep, that is a huge red flag right there. To have someone connected with the organization to be close to this kid day after day, and we pass on him.....that is saying a lot about this kid.

 

[BondraTime]

Yep, that is a huge red flag right there. To have someone connected with the organization to be close to this kid day after day, and we pass on him.....that is saying a lot about this kid.

Yup. I know from talking to guys in the know around the rink the Sens LOVED Chlapik. I never heard anything about Sprong, good or bad.

 

[Dr.Sens(e)]

Well, If our prospect pool wasn't that deep with middling prospects I'd say that a Gagné pick would be fine. The way I see it, I was happy we went with White and Chabot in the first but if you get a shot at a highly skilled player like Sprong in the 2nd round you go for it. He's a unidimensional player but you know what I'll take Kessel over Chiasson. Not saying Sprong will be like Kessel but he's one of the most skilled player in the draft and one of the best offensive players also so taking a shot at him in the 2nd round was almost a no brainer if you ask me. I know he's not the Murray type of pick but for once, having a highly skilled player that a touted prospect would be nice and could round out our forward group down the road. Gagné is not a bad pick, but he has a long way to go he's as good as Sprong offensively. I heard all about Sprong being a head case was overblown by a friend who scouts FC but whether or not that's true, he remains a gamebreaking talent while Gagné is not.

I think we have been seeing this for a while with the team and our scouts mentality, in particular with forwards. Zibanejad over Couturier. Lazar over Shinkaruk or Mantha. Even Noesen/Puempel ahead of Jensen / Saad.

Not that our picks didn't have skill, but there were more "pure skill" players available, and they were missing a little something on the character side to our scouts. Or were just pure one-dimensional.

The same thing happened this year. The most interesting thing Dorion said about Colin White was that "there were more skilled guys available" but they liked what he brought overall. So ending up with White/Gagne is certainly less pure skill than Konecny/Sprong, but it's part of a culture the team wants at forward. Rolling out your 12 forwards who all play a certain way at a base minimum, makes the unit overall greater than the sum of their parts. Even if it means we might not have a 35+ or even 30+ goal scorer.

On D, we tend to have taken a bit different approach, where skilled and strong skating d-men are more of a premium, with Karlsson, Ceci, Chabot and some others.

When it comes to picks in the 15-60 range, I don't mind that mentality overall. I do think Konecny "plays the right way" and is just as physical if not more so than White, but at 5'9 and already having shown some injury history, I get that our scouts opted for White.

 

[Boud]

I think we have been seeing this for a while with the team and our scouts mentality, in particular with forwards. Zibanejad over Couturier. Lazar over Shinkaruk or Mantha. Even Noesen/Puempel ahead of Jensen / Saad.

Not that our picks didn't have skill, but there were more "pure skill" players available, and they were missing a little something on the character side to our scouts. Or were just pure one-dimensional.

The same thing happened this year. The most interesting thing Dorion said about Colin White was that "there were more skilled guys available" but they liked what he brought overall. So ending up with White/Gagne is certainly less pure skill than Konecny/Sprong, but it's part of a culture the team wants at forward. Rolling out your 12 forwards who all play a certain way at a base minimum, makes the unit overall greater than the sum of their parts. Even if it means we might not have a 35+ or even 30+ goal scorer.

On D, we tend to have taken a bit different approach, where skilled and strong skating d-men are more of a premium, with Karlsson, Ceci, Chabot and some others.

When it comes to picks in the 15-60 range, I don't mind that mentality overall. I do think Konecny "plays the right way" and is just as physical if not more so than White, but at 5'9 and already having shown some injury history, I get that our scouts opted for White.

I really do like the White pick honestly. He's better than just a two-way player, he has skill and can produce also so I'm not mad at all that we skipped Konecny. He plays a well rounded game and I like that we went safe in this case especially since we traded Lehner to get this pick. Atleast down the road we'll have something to show for if ever Lehner turns out to be as good as he can be. I also like the Chabot pick, was almost a no brainer at that point. In the 2nd round, I'm fine with picking Chlapik and I really like him at 48 he's probaby the best player that was still on board but like you say after taking White, I though we could take a shot at a guy with more skill. If not more skill(Sprong), there's still a couple guys that I would've grabbed before Gagné personally. Harkins and Jakub F-Karlsson come to mind. That obsession of Murray with tall guys drives me nuts.

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

Maybe the sens would of drafted Gagne later but they knew the Avs were going to take it some decided to move

 

[Coco the Monkey*]

I really do like the White pick honestly. He's better than just a two-way player, he has skill and can produce also so I'm not mad at all that we skipped Konecny. He plays a well rounded game and I like that we went safe in this case especially since we traded Lehner to get this pick. Atleast down the road we'll have something to show for if ever Lehner turns out to be as good as he can be. I also like the Chabot pick, was almost a no brainer at that point. In the 2nd round, I'm fine with picking Chlapik and I really like him at 48 he's probaby the best player that was still on board but like you say after taking White, I though we could take a shot at a guy with more skill. If not more skill(Sprong), there's still a couple guys that I would've grabbed before Gagné personally. Harkins and Jakub F-Karlsson come to mind. That obsession of Murray with tall guys drives me nuts.

Big hockey players are better. Nobody wants us to become Montreal

 

[BondraTime]

Big hockey players are better. Nobody wants us to become Montreal

That's a very wrong statement

 

[BK201]

Yup. I know from talking to guys in the know around the rink the Sens LOVED Chlapik. I never heard anything about Sprong, good or bad.

that's what they said post draft as well. Well the actual comment was that they had him ranked a lot higher than where they got him.

 

[VortexDr]

That's a very wrong statement

Is it?? I certainly hope Ottawa never becomes anything lie Montreal... the language police and the arrogant fans will never be surpassed by ottawa

 

[BK201]

Is it?? I certainly hope Ottawa never becomes anything lie Montreal... the language police and the arrogant fans will never be surpassed by ottawa

Montreal could hang with Boston anyday of the week though.

do you remember the 2011 playoffs Montreal vs Boston i think both teams kept loosing at home and went to game 7 which Boston won.

anyways they did not look out sized at all. thier toughest player at the time White i believe and he's only 6.0 183.

that series coulda went either way and they were hitting pretty good.

i think we only beat them the other year because

A) Price sucked ass that no team could come back from especially not Budaj.

B) that gryba hit, Price and turtle neck getting hurt and our coach got in thier heads

C) 2 face offs on the wrong side

 

[Boud]

Big hockey players are better. Nobody wants us to become Montreal

Okay there, that's such a ridiculous comment to make. First, Harkins and Forsbacka-Karlsson are 6'00 and up. You want me to get you a list of players who are 6' and are very very good or what?

Second, ''Big hockey players are better'' is just false because it depends on the player and what type of skillset they have. It's not as simple as just saying big players are better. Pageau is better than Chiasson and is much smaller. Karlsson is better than Wiercioch/Cowen, and Etc.

Third, even if we drafted ONE SINGLE smaller player with high upside, it wouldn't make us a small team at all so please...

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

Is a fan of a frnachise who's best forward and best dman in franchise history arent big

Alfredsson= 5'11 200
Karlsson = 6' sub 185


Havlat was technically a fairly big guy but he played smaller then alfredsson

Spezza is a giant but didnt play like some abrasive big forward

 

[SAK11]

I really do like the White pick honestly. He's better than just a two-way player, he has skill and can produce also so I'm not mad at all that we skipped Konecny. He plays a well rounded game and I like that we went safe in this case especially since we traded Lehner to get this pick. Atleast down the road we'll have something to show for if ever Lehner turns out to be as good as he can be. I also like the Chabot pick, was almost a no brainer at that point. In the 2nd round, I'm fine with picking Chlapik and I really like him at 48 he's probaby the best player that was still on board but like you say after taking White, I though we could take a shot at a guy with more skill. If not more skill(Sprong), there's still a couple guys that I would've grabbed before Gagné personally. Harkins and Jakub F-Karlsson come to mind. That obsession of Murray with tall guys drives me nuts.

I think most GMs have a desire to find skilled players with great size. The goal scoring power forward is a player that all teams would love to have on their team. It's not as if Murray only takes taller players, never looking the way of smaller skilled guys.
What's intriguing about Gagne is that he hasn't even really figured out how to properly use his size yet. Nick Paul's a good example of someone who has figured out how much his size can be used to his advantage, and his game has taken off in the last couple of seasons. At 6'5", if Gagne could add some muscle and play with an edge, he could be a force. Easier said than done of course, but this is a player who scored goals at almost the same rate as Sprong this year, and who more than doubled his own goal total from a year ago, so he's on the right track.

 

[Icelevel]

I agree that taking someone over 6'3" is a bit of a risk. there just aren't many mobile speedy guys at that size.

 

[swiftwin]

That is quite a bit to give up, as long as our organization believes in this player

One of the other few times Murray traded up to snatch someone he really wanted, he landed us Erik Karlsson. So I'm pretty psyched that Murray & co. are psyched about this kid.

 

[Benjamin]

Big hockey players are better. Nobody wants us to become Montreal

They've been more successful then us.