Prospect Info: 2016 Maple Leafs Draft Pick - 92nd Overall - Adam Brooks - C - Regina Pats [5-10/171]

[Cor]

People are forgetting that if we have 8 really good smaller wingers, it doesn't mean our future wingers are all going to be small.

It means we have 8 potential trading chips to trade for size, or other positions.


It's a good problem to have

 

[Walshy7]

Is there a reason to think that Brooks has absolutely no chance of being a good NHL'er though?

The nice thing is, he doesn't replace anyone in our system, he gets added to them to make a stronger system that could yield more NHL talent. Internal prospect rankings are really just a way for us to frame the system and entertain ourselves as fans, it doesn't matter if we put Kapanen above Bracco or Brooks above Grundstrom - what they do with their opportunities will determine who sticks.

Brooks' numbers are pretty prodigious for a junior year, would be the highest mark in more than 20 years in the WHL if he continued it for 70+ games. That's nothing but a good indicator, it's not an assurance of anything, but having that good indicator improves his odds of panning out. Another good indicator at the next level would further improve those odds, where a poor AHL season would hurt them...so I don't understand the dislike, why not just be happy that he's doing well and hope that he continues that in his first pro season next year?

Centre and LW are also softer positions in our system than RW, having some contingency plans there won't hurt us

im not writing him off at all, im mainly replying to the one or 2 people saying "I don't see how he doesn't play with marner".

we have 2 better LW in Kap (better on off wing) and Grundstrom is a LW who's results to me are better than 2PPG in a junior league. Kap is near PPG in the AHL and grundstrom is 2nd in the entire league in goals. And as I have said Nylander is a C so Matthews and Nylander at C for hopefully 10 years then Kadri at 5 more.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying his success but we have so many small scoring wingers ahead of him there is no chance they all make it. Sure he could develop more and become the best but it is unlikely hence the double overage draft pick in the 5th round.

Again I don't dislike him at all but I don't see him making this team I really dont

 

[crump]

WHL Player of the week.

"On Tuesday, December 27, Brooks recorded five points (3G-2A), including the game-winning goal, in a 7-4 win versus Brandon and was named second star for his efforts." wtf.

http://whl.ca/article/regina-pats-adam-brooks-named-whl-player-of-the-week

 

[Randy Randerson]

im not writing him off at all, im mainly replying to the one or 2 people saying "I don't see how he doesn't play with marner".

we have 2 better LW in Kap (better on off wing) and Grundstrom is a LW who's results to me are better than 2PPG in a junior league. Kap is near PPG in the AHL and grundstrom is 2nd in the entire league in goals. And as I have said Nylander is a C so Matthews and Nylander at C for hopefully 10 years then Kadri at 5 more.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying his success but we have so many small scoring wingers ahead of him there is no chance they all make it. Sure he could develop more and become the best but it is unlikely hence the double overage draft pick in the 5th round.

Again I don't dislike him at all but I don't see him making this team I really dont

I think it's too early to start slotting anyone in beyond maybe Kapanen and Leipsic, and even they are probably still 50/50 to be long term NHL'ers. Sure there's lots of guys who we rank ahead of Brooks, but there is almost no chance that they all pan out, so more is better as it raises the odds of getting something you can use at the NHL level. Wouldn't worry about who Brooks steals opportunity from until that's a real problem and we have too many guys knocking on the big club's door.

We don't know that Nylander is a centre until he plays there for a significant sample and does well with it, so Brooks being a centre adds some value for us, contingency plans are a good thing

Brooks is also a guy who's best offensive asset is getting into position to make a play without the puck - very different than the rest of our small offensive players who all thrive with the puck on their stick (Marner is the only one that I can think of who scored a lot of junior goals by sneaking into the slot for a feed), so there could well be synergy with Brooks getting into position for feeds from star level linemates who have the puck on their sticks alot

Brooks NHLe is 17.01 and Grundstrom's is 7.8 - Brooks has played 2 more games. It's not a perfect system, but statistically Brooks' production is much better than Grundstrom's in terms of aggregate projectability to the NHL

 

[TheCLAM]

WHL Player of the week.

"On Tuesday, December 27, Brooks recorded five points (3G-2A), including the game-winning goal, in a 7-4 win versus Brandon and was named second star for his efforts." wtf.

http://whl.ca/article/regina-pats-adam-brooks-named-whl-player-of-the-week

Sam Steel named first star 1 goal 4 assists

 

[mallory67]

People are forgetting that if we have 8 really good smaller wingers, it doesn't mean our future wingers are all going to be small.

It means we have 8 potential trading chips to trade for size, or other positions.


It's a good problem to have

Not so fast! There is always a plethora of small, speedy wingers on the market ... very hard to translate that into a good big body winger with some foot speed. Just look at the waiver wire this year ... Seth Griffith, Teemu Pulkinen etc. etc.

 

[Randy Randerson]

Not so fast! There is always a plethora of small, speedy wingers on the market ... very hard to translate that into a good big body winger with some foot speed. Just look at the waiver wire this year ... Seth Griffith, Teemu Pulkinen etc. etc.

If any player hits any level and doesn't play well for extended periods of time, that will hurt their value

If Brooks hits the AHL and puts up Pulkkinen type numbers he'll be a valuable prospect, just like Pulkkinen was before he got 60+ games in Detroit that showed he was a one-trick pony that was unlikely to translate to the NHL

If we're going to deal him, or any prospect, we should hope we sell when the stock is high

 

[Alerion]

.

Some very high quality posts in the last page and half, thanks for the input. I can't wait to see Brooks' impact with the Marlies when he finally makes it up.

 

[Jack Bauer]

People are forgetting that if we have 8 really good smaller wingers, it doesn't mean our future wingers are all going to be small.

It means we have 8 potential trading chips to trade for size, or other positions.


It's a good problem to have

And to add to that it means we get to view those 8 and decide which 1 or 2 are the cream of the crop for us to develop further.

If they all have trade value beyond that then it shows have amazing our scouts are doing.

Anyone remember when Jeff Farkas or John Doherty were the top prospects we left drafts with? And how we had to hope and pray that they were home run picks?

Now we're picking guys like Bracco, Timashov, Dzierkals, Korshkov, Grundstrom and are hoping to get 1 or 2 NHL players out of the mix.

 

[Walshy7]

And to add to that it means we get to view those 8 and decide which 1 or 2 are the cream of the crop for us to develop further.

If they all have trade value beyond that then it shows have amazing our scouts are doing.

Anyone remember when Jeff Farkas or John Doherty were the top prospects we left drafts with? And how we had to hope and pray that they were home run picks?

Now we're picking guys like Bracco, Timashov, Dzierkals, Korshkov, Grundstrom and are hoping to get 1 or 2 NHL players out of the mix.

looking at that list:
Grundstrom is a babcock player all the way, my hope is he takes hyman's spot as he has the same attributes but is also a goal scorer (2nd in the entire SHL in goal scoring)
Dzierkals is a 2 way high energy player (maybe competing with Brooks)
Korshkov brings something we sorely lack forward with size oh and he was scoring a the rate of some pretty elite Russian players before injury
Timashov also could be competing with Brooks
Bracco is just under 2PPG as a 19 year old which must hold more weight than a 20 yr old doing it?

So while we are hoping for 1 or 2 NHLers from the list I think Grundstrom and Korshkov will be given a lot more rope due to their attributes than Bracco, Timashov, Dzierkals and Brooks (also Walker I guess) who will all be fighting for one maybe 2 spots

 

[lifelonghockeyfan]

Surprisingly for all their perceived lack of strength, the Leafs puny wingers seem to win the majority of puck battles along the boards. I've been impressed.
Would the Kessel of Leafs (not the Pens) even be engaged in such battles?

 

[Randy Randerson]

Some very high quality posts in the last page and half, thanks for the input. I can't wait to see Brooks' impact with the Marlies when he finally makes it up.

Me too - can't believe they couldn't make space for him this year with the weakness in the Marlies centre position. He was good at camp over the summer, and I think our perception would be different if he was in the AHL now and scoring at a reasonable pace because the "over ager" moniker would be gone

c'est la vie though, we'll see him next year

 

[67Cup]

IIRC, Brooks was slightly injured through training camp and could not put his best foot forward. I am not surprised he wasn't on the Marlies. What did surprise me a bit was that he was not sent to Orlando, where he could develop and be promoted to the Marlies if he showed he deserved it. That would have been in line with Dubas' talk about using the ECHL as a lower minor league similar to the minors in baseball.

 

[Walshy7]

Me too - can't believe they couldn't make space for him this year with the weakness in the Marlies centre position. He was good at camp over the summer, and I think our perception would be different if he was in the AHL now and scoring at a reasonable pace because the "over ager" moniker would be gone

c'est la vie though, we'll see him next year

this, I think they have decided he is a winger and if you look at him as a winger you see why he didn't make the Marlies. The C depth on the Marlies is truly pathetic colin greening is lining up at C as of now (due to injuries and the goats absence) but even to start Froese was 1st line C and colin smith is the only legit top 6 C prospect on the marlies roster

 

[The CyNick]

Skill will always be needed.

To be a good team for a long time, we will need a parade of young guys who can step into second and third tier roles at cheap money. Guys like Hyman and Brown could have a couple good seasons playing with Matthews, and command more money as RFAs. If we can plug in a guy like Brooks or Bracco at ELC in three years to replace a Brown, then great.

It may actually end up being that the guys like Brown are flipped either for pieces to help the current team, or turned into picks to keep the pipeline strong. It's basically the Chicago model of identifying 6-8 core pieces (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Kadri, Reilly, Gardiner, Andersen, possibly JVR or Zaitsev) and filling out the rest of the team with rotating parts. Many of those guys will need to be ELCs if we want to keep that core together.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Skill will always be needed.

To be a good team for a long time, we will need a parade of young guys who can step into second and third tier roles at cheap money. Guys like Hyman and Brown could have a couple good seasons playing with Matthews, and command more money as RFAs. If we can plug in a guy like Brooks or Bracco at ELC in three years to replace a Brown, then great.

It may actually end up being that the guys like Brown are flipped either for pieces to help the current team, or turned into picks to keep the pipeline strong. It's basically the Chicago model of identifying 6-8 core pieces (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Kadri, Reilly, Gardiner, Andersen, possibly JVR or Zaitsev) and filling out the rest of the team with rotating parts. Many of those guys will need to be ELCs if we want to keep that core together.

Exactly this.

 

[Randy Randerson]

this, I think they have decided he is a winger and if you look at him as a winger you see why he didn't make the Marlies. The C depth on the Marlies is truly pathetic colin greening is lining up at C as of now (due to injuries and the goats absence) but even to start Froese was 1st line C and colin smith is the only legit top 6 C prospect on the marlies roster

Seems odd to me that they would pick him in June as a centre and decide he isn't one before seeing him play, unless they really think his ceiling is high as a winger

Agree that its strange that he didn't end up in the AHL or ECHL though

 

[Walshy7]

Seems odd to me that they would pick him in June as a centre and decide he isn't one before seeing him play, unless they really think his ceiling is high as a winger

Agree that its strange that he didn't end up in the AHL or ECHL though

it is 100% my line of thinking, obviously it very likely could be wrong but looking at that marlies and even solar bear C depth, add the fact Brooks is the last year eligible WHL player seems very strange to me. Didn't they sign him to a ELC? or am I confusing him with moore?

 

[Randy Randerson]

it is 100% my line of thinking, obviously it very likely could be wrong but looking at that marlies and even solar bear C depth, add the fact Brooks is the last year eligible WHL player seems very strange to me. Didn't they sign him to a ELC? or am I confusing him with moore?

I don't think they've signed him yet, there's a list of non-roster contracts at the bottom here but I don't know how current it is: https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/mapleleafs

Maybe because Brooks was unspectacular until last year, they wanted to see if he could repeat in junior too....test the draft theory re: overagers maybe?

Agree though, I was surprised they sent him back. If it's because they think he's a winger in the pros I'm ok with that, means they think his ceiling justified it

 

[SEER]

My 2nd highlight-montage for.. Adam Brooks.., who plays Center Position... and is the Captain of the 2016-17 Regina Pats...., in the WHL.... Adam was chosen with the Toronto Maple Leafs 6th pick (#92)... in the 4th Round of the 2016 NHL Draft....

Adam won the Bobby Clarke Trophy last season, for leading the WHL in points production..... and is presently leading the whole WHL again in this 2016-17 season.., with an average of over "2 points/ per game"... He also had two, consecutive hat-tricks..., in the month of December..

Adam Brooks
Center -- shoots L
Born May 6 1996 -- Winnipeg, MAN
20 yrs. ago
Height 5.10 -- Weight 178

RECENT STATS:

2013-14 - Regina Pats - WHL
60 Games... 4 Goals... 7 Assists... 11 Points... -9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014 WHL PLAYOFFS
4 Games... 0 Goals... 1 Assist...1 Point... +/- 0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 - Regina Pats - WHL
64 Games... 30 Goals... 32 Assists... 62 Points... +24
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015 WHL PLAYOFFS
9 Games... 4 Goals... 3 Assists... 7 Points... +3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015-16 - Regina Pats - WHL
72 Games... 38 Goals... 82 Assists... 120 Points... +41 *PPG+
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016 WHL PLAYOFFS
12 Games... 7 Goals... 16 Assists... 23 Points... +5 *PPG+
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
*2016-17 - Regina Pats - WHL (*Up to January 3rd 2016)
30 Games... 21 Goals... 44 Assists... 65 Points... +31 *2-PPG+

This video contains: most of Adam's 2016-17 goals.... (in chronological order) + many assists., up to January 1st...;
clips from a September 2016 Pat's interview with Adam..., just after he returned from Leafs training camp...;
clips from a fight in early December... and other various 2016 clips & photos...

*2016-17 WHL Scoring Leader: Adam Brooks Extended 2016-17 WHL Highlights - TML (HD)

​

 

[Randy Randerson]

My 2nd highlight-montage for.. Adam Brooks.., who plays Center Position... and is the Captain of the 2016-17 Regina Pats...., in the WHL.... Adam was chosen with the Toronto Maple Leafs 6th pick (#92)... in the 4th Round of the 2016 NHL Draft....

Adam won the Bobby Clarke Trophy last season, for leading the WHL in points production..... and is presently leading the whole WHL again in this 2016-17 season.., with an average of over "2 points/ per game"... He also had two, consecutive hat-tricks..., in the month of December..

Adam Brooks
Center -- shoots L
Born May 6 1996 -- Winnipeg, MAN
20 yrs. ago
Height 5.10 -- Weight 178

RECENT STATS:

2013-14 - Regina Pats - WHL
60 Games... 4 Goals... 7 Assists... 11 Points... -9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014 WHL PLAYOFFS
4 Games... 0 Goals... 1 Assist...1 Point... +/- 0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 - Regina Pats - WHL
64 Games... 30 Goals... 32 Assists... 62 Points... +24
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015 WHL PLAYOFFS
9 Games... 4 Goals... 3 Assists... 7 Points... +3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015-16 - Regina Pats - WHL
72 Games... 38 Goals... 82 Assists... 120 Points... +41 *PPG+
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016 WHL PLAYOFFS
12 Games... 7 Goals... 16 Assists... 23 Points... +5 *PPG+
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
*2016-17 - Regina Pats - WHL (*Up to January 3rd 2016)
30 Games... 21 Goals... 44 Assists... 65 Points... +31 *2-PPG+

This video contains: most of Adam's 2016-17 goals.... (in chronological order) + many assists., up to January 1st...;
clips from a September 2016 Pat's interview with Adam..., just after he returned from Leafs training camp...;
clips from a fight in early December... and other various 2016 clips & photos...

*2016-17 WHL Scoring Leader: Adam Brooks Extended 2016-17 WHL Highlights - TML (HD)

​

Thanks man....I bet this one was a little easier to put together than Gauthier/Middleton

 

[AustonMarner*]

WHL Player of the week.

"On Tuesday, December 27, Brooks recorded five points (3G-2A), including the game-winning goal, in a 7-4 win versus Brandon and was named second star for his efforts." wtf.

http://whl.ca/article/regina-pats-adam-brooks-named-whl-player-of-the-week

Anti Leafs bias.

 

[AustonMarner*]

Skill will always be needed.

To be a good team for a long time, we will need a parade of young guys who can step into second and third tier roles at cheap money. Guys like Hyman and Brown could have a couple good seasons playing with Matthews, and command more money as RFAs. If we can plug in a guy like Brooks or Bracco at ELC in three years to replace a Brown, then great.

It may actually end up being that the guys like Brown are flipped either for pieces to help the current team, or turned into picks to keep the pipeline strong. It's basically the Chicago model of identifying 6-8 core pieces (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Kadri, Reilly, Gardiner, Andersen, possibly JVR or Zaitsev) and filling out the rest of the team with rotating parts. Many of those guys will need to be ELCs if we want to keep that core together.

I feel pretty safe to replace his name with Zaitsev. Gardiner still makes mistakes, so does Zaitsev but he covers up for his mistakes more than anyone on this team does and he is in his first year adjusting in NHL. Gardiner can be replaced by Nielsen who provides quick first pass out of the zone, bomb from point, amazing defensively and some much needed physicality on this team.

The last thing we need is soft players like Gardiner commanding money over guys like Nielsen who bring much more to the table.

 

[Pops]

I feel pretty safe to replace his name with Zaitsev. Gardiner still makes mistakes, so does Zaitsev but he covers up for his mistakes more than anyone on this team does and he is in his first year adjusting in NHL. Gardiner can be replaced by Nielsen who provides quick first pass out of the zone, bomb from point, amazing defensively and some much needed physicality on this team.

The last thing we need is soft players like Gardiner commanding money over guys like Nielsen who bring much more to the table.

Jake is soft as puddy.Wait till we see Jake in a play off round. We will see than what type of a d man he really is. If I see him jump out of the way, to avoid a check one more time....

Real nhl defenceman don't do that, only scared players, who are afraid to get hit

 

[Muston Atthews]

Jake is soft as puddy.Wait till we see Jake in a play off round. We will see than what type of a d man he really is. If I see him jump out of the way, to avoid a check one more time....

Real nhl defenceman don't do that, only scared players, who are afraid to get hit

Gardiner was great in our playoff series with the Bruins IIRC