2018 summer prospect camp scrimmage 7/6

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Who was Merkley’s partner? It’s Brent Burns 2.0. We gotta get him paired with the right mentor.

He totally has that Brent Burns sydnrome; the good and the bad. Noticeably good all game, mostly makes the right defensive plays, probably posts great shot metrics, but his few errors lead to goals against.

One thing to consider though is that in the 2nd half of the game, Team Ricci had weak goaltending, while Team Marchment’s goaltender kept them in it.

For the most part, I thought the guys who we expected to do well did well but nobody was head and shoulders above. I was impressed by how much of a natural Merkley looked while holding the blue line and keeping the offensive zone play alive. I thought Norris got caught down low a few times and it seemed like he floated a bit but his line was out for some long shifts so probably just tired. He's pretty fast though and was definitely a factor. Letunov-Chmelevski-Halbgewachs line did more in the 2nd half. Also liked Ferraro, McGrew, and Leonard. A little disappointed by Chekhovich but he made up for it in the end with the pass to Norris.

Beyond many of the players mentioned, Letunov was strong on the puck. It followed him around all night. He looks like he could project as a puck-possession bottom line center.

I liked Leonard's game a lot--had him for 4 scoring chances. Defense needs work.

Merkley looked on another level in the offensive zone. He just kept finding a way to keep the puck in. Was allergic to shooting the puck though.

Thought the Balcers-Gambrell-Chmeleski line tried to do too much.

Norris created chances with his shot and made some nice passes.

Pretty much agree with everything in these two posts. Merkley’s offensive IQ and talent and Norris’ athleticism both stood out to me as NHL level but as a whole they weren’t head and shoulders above the rest in terms of overall performance.

 

[SnarkAttack]

I thought merkley looked a lot like Dan Boyle with the puck. He even did the turn back in the dzone. What impressed me was his vision and his ability to make a really good play almost every time with the puck.

 

[Jargon]

Color me excited about Merkley. Isn’t he like 17?! NHL level offensive awareness and talent? I think they can teach him positioning and discipline, but his talent sounds wildly promising.

 

[KirbyDots]

I thought merkley looked a lot like Dan Boyle with the puck. He even did the turn back in the dzone. What impressed me was his vision and his ability to make a really good play almost every time with the puck.

I kinda kept thinking of him as a cross between Burns and Boyle, with both their strength and drawbacks. His offensive awareness and direction is like Burns, but he also has the gaff on d. His skating looked kinda like Boyle, but his size was similar as well. If he can become more dependable on d and bulk up he's probably at least a top 4 maybe a top 2 defenseman. If he can't he'll be Marc-André Bergeron, though I think it'll be easy to fix his problems and he does seem to be working at it. Camp should do him wonders, he'll learn from a lot from Pickles and Burns.

 

[PacificOceanPotion]

Heck of a pass by Chekhovich on the game winner..He's 1 of my favorite prospects already.

 

[Led Zappa]

I went by seeing something impressive happen and having to look up the number. I did that the most for Halbgewachs, which by the end I didn't have to look up his number lol.

 

[37 others]

Im no scout, but... Merkley's first play lightly dumping the puck into the corner really impressed me. He makes complex plays look so slow and simple and has such a good sense for where players are and where he should put the puck. He absolutely oozes offensive hockey sense on the blue line but was caught trying to do too much in his own zone when pressured, leading to him getting pinned up along the boards by the forechecking forward. Certainly took his dandy time joining the play when he would pass the puck up the ice, but skated well and hard when he needed to. Didn't look awful defensively, but he was in the offensive zone for probably 90% of his shifts and his line was never truly pressured in the defensive zone. He doesn't shoot enough and passed up a few good shooting chances, but that's a common criticism I've read about him. The crowd eventually all yelled for him to shoot, and he was able to get it through well. Hopefully he can work on that in the future too. A little disappointed at his shootout attempt, which was just him skating and shooting forehand far side. Also looked to have a huge smile on his face the whole time.

 

[SnarkAttack]

I kinda kept thinking of him as a cross between Burns and Boyle, with both their strength and drawbacks. His offensive awareness and direction is like Burns, but he also has the gaff on d. His skating looked kinda like Boyle, but his size was similar as well. If he can become more dependable on d and bulk up he's probably at least a top 4 maybe a top 2 defenseman. If he can't he'll be Marc-André Bergeron, though I think it'll be easy to fix his problems and he does seem to be working at it. Camp should do him wonders, he'll learn from a lot from Pickles and Burns.

If he can fix his issues as a person, then his floor seems to be a 3rd pairing/ 2nd pp qb assuming he continues to put on size/weight. His upside is really good.

He seemed to be playing a very controlled game. It was nice to see that he was mostly positionally sound, but I was still selfishly hoping to see him do some crazy 4th forward stuff a bit more.

 

[KirbyDots]

I went by seeing something impressive happen and having to look up the number. I did that the most for Halbgewachs, which by the end I didn't have to look up his number lol.

Kid was a spark plug out there! He was always doing something to make things happen, there were times when he looked like Johnny Gaudreau out there. I think he'll do great if they get him good consistent linemates and if he can add more muscle.

Some minor observations:
Kotkov is huge, has skill but needs to work on his skating. Kinda kicks funny, not getting enough outta each stride.
Karlsson looks steady, great positioning, knew where to be to make things happen. More polished than some out there.
Ferraro really impressed me, very good positioning and saved a lot of plays. Not as explosive on offense as Merkley, but he seems like he'll probably have a shot at being a good 2-way guy in the bigs.
McGrew is skilled. Nice hands.
Checkhovich, awesome pass on the Norris goal. Looked great out there, very creative.
Gambrell looked more mature than most of the rest. He could improve his finishing and be a little more assertive on offense, looked very controlled.
Balcers was trying to do too much, might have had something to do with the crowd chanting "Rudy" whenever he had the puck.
Letunov also looked very steady, probably the same as Gambrell( years of college hockey). He has good size and reach. I could see him making it as a 4th liner someday if he can't put his offense together.

 

[The Nemesis]

Merkley was on the ice for 2 GF and 3 GA...his defense clearly needs some work, but not every goal was his fault, and he was mostly strong defensively outside of the goals against. Offensively, he has the ****in sauce. He was noticeably the best and most impressive player out there.

So basically guaranteed heart-in-your-throat at either end of the ice. I'll take it.

Norris was pretty good as well.

This is hard to process because HFSJ has done nothing but condition me to the idea that Norris is awful and unrepentant for his sins. I see praise and I assume it must be sarcastic, but there's so much of it that it must actually be genuine, but that can't be, but that would mean that everyone's in on the joke, but oh no I've gone cross-eyed.

Balcers-Gambrell-Chmelevski was the first line for Team Ricci and they were noticeably a little better than everybody else but at the same time, they didn’t score and there wasn’t a particular one of them that stood out above their pack.

You take that back right now.

Rudy Dangles > all. Fact. Objective and unimpeachable.

 

[The Nemesis]

Also in all the rundowns I've not seen Chmelevski's name mentioned. Was he not there? Or just had a vanilla, unimpactful game?

 

[KirbyDots]

Also in all the rundowns I've not seen Chmelevski's name mentioned. Was he not there? Or just had a vanilla, unimpactful game?

He was OK, flashes of skill, but kinda vanilla.

Rudy Dangles > all. Fact. Objective and unimpeachable.

Yeah he kinda tried to do too much on his own. His skill was impressive but he's lucky it was only a prospect scrimmage cuz he got a little too fancy on occasion.

Most of the Cuda vets including the Ch-twins played very solid controlled games that were fairly bland but professional.

 

[LA Shark]

So basically guaranteed heart-in-your-throat at either end of the ice. I'll take it.



This is hard to process because HFSJ has done nothing but condition me to the idea that Norris is awful and unrepentant for his sins. I see praise and I assume it must be sarcastic, but there's so much of it that it must actually be genuine, but that can't be, but that would mean that everyone's in on the joke, but oh no I've gone cross-eyed.



You take that back right now.

Rudy Dangles > all. Fact. Objective and unimpeachable.

This basically reflects my thoughts 100% lol

 

[The Nemesis]

He was OK, flashes of skill, but kinda vanilla.

Yeah he kinda tried to do too much on his own. His skill was impressive but he's lucky it was only a prospect scrimmage cuz he got a little too fancy on occasion.

Most of the Cuda vets including the Ch-twins played very solid controlled games that were fairly bland but professional.

It's the Sharks way! Just beat the flare and drama out of them until the prospect pool is replaced with an assembly line churning out the kind of flavorless slog of two-way players that Tim Burke has nigh-religious experiences over.

(were it not already past midnight and was I not already hindered by very little sleep over the last few days, I would photoshop Burke's head into some sketchy televangelist/faith healer/peter popoff nonsense gifs. but in light of the fact that I don't have an hour to sit here and produce that sort of thing, everyone will have to be content with the mental image instead of, y'know, an actual image.)

Also I will not have any more of your Rudy-bashing, blasphemer.

 

[WSS11]

good to know that the fans on this board can be counted on to give an instant in depth analysis for those of us that couldn’t be in attendance unlike some “insiders” paid to do it.

 

[Juxtaposer]

So does Norris look like a top-6 guy? You can almost always tell, even from a scrimmage like this. Meier had the look to him. Hertl, watching him in his draft+1 year in the Czech men’s league, I could just tell that he was an absolute lock to be a second liner at worst.

He either has the stuff or he doesn’t.

 

[Bizz]

So does Norris look like a top-6 guy? You can almost always tell, even from a scrimmage like this. Meier had the look to him. Hertl, watching him in his draft+1 year in the Czech men’s league, I could just tell that he was an absolute lock to be a second liner at worst.

He either has the stuff or he doesn’t.

probably not at the moment, but I thought he was the best looking forward on Team Marchment by a wide margin.

the only player that looked NHL-ready was Gambrell. I could tell why he got the call up late in the season.

 

[Juxtaposer]

probably not at the moment, but I thought he was the best looking forward on Team Marchment by a wide margin.

the only player that looked NHL-ready was Gambrell. I could tell why he got the call up late in the season.

That’s definitely interesting. I thought Gambrell looked waaaaay out of his depth in the NHL. But maybe he breaks camp, who knows.

 

[OrrNumber4]

So does Norris look like a top-6 guy? You can almost always tell, even from a scrimmage like this. Meier had the look to him. Hertl, watching him in his draft+1 year in the Czech men’s league, I could just tell that he was an absolute lock to be a second liner at worst.

He either has the stuff or he doesn’t.

Briefly looking at them play (to clarify, not at the scrimmage), I didn't think Gambrell or Norris had the stuff. But then again, I thought Brodzinski and Rod did and didn't see it in Meier or Coyle.

 

[hohosaregood]

That’s definitely interesting. I thought Gambrell looked waaaaay out of his depth in the NHL. But maybe he breaks camp, who knows.

I think if Gambrell can get stronger then that'll be enough to get him in the NHL. He was a lot stronger on the boards during the scrimmage than he did at the end of the season which probably helps that he was playing against younger and guys who aren't NHL conditioned.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

This is hard to process because HFSJ has done nothing but condition me to the idea that Norris is awful and unrepentant for his sins..

I ignore virtually everything this board says about Norris.

 

[Lebanezer]

I ignore virtually everything this board says about all players and prospects.

FIFY.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

So does Norris look like a top-6 guy? You can almost always tell, even from a scrimmage like this. Meier had the look to him. Hertl, watching him in his draft+1 year in the Czech men’s league, I could just tell that he was an absolute lock to be a second liner at worst.

He either has the stuff or he doesn’t.

I don’t know if I’ve watched enough prospect scrimmage type events to really give you a straight up yes or no to this. But my initial gut reaction is yes, he does have the stuff.

 

[spintops]

Seems like we have a lot more "Low B" type prospects at this camp. We don't have a Meier sure fire blue chipper, but seems like 8+ of these guys have a legitimate shot of making the NHL even if it's just depth roles. Fair assessment?

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Seems like we have a lot more "Low B" type prospects at this camp. We don't have a Meier sure fire blue chipper, but seems like 8+ of these guys have a legitimate shot of making the NHL even if it's just depth roles. Fair assessment?

I didn’t see Meier in his prospect scrimmage so I can’t necessarily compare, but Merkley looked pretty blue chip to me.