Prospect Info: [2020 - 109th] Blake Biondi (NCAA - University of Minnesota-Duluth)

montreal

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really? that's exciting. I was just going off that one report that talks about how great his skill is but the skating's a mess. If the skating is not McShane bad and plays with more intensity then that's pretty interesting.

I was a little meh on the draft but I have to say all our later round picks beside the goalie (though I don't know much) actually seem to have intriguing upside. It's really just the Tuch pick (I'm pretty high on Guhle) that seems to have 'limited upside' but even he could fill a need.

I think even if Guhle and Mysak hit we could be in pretty damn good shape going forward. That is if Caufield can hit as big as I hope. Bit of a side note, are some cooling on Caufield? I know there was a few things people didn't like but he did have a pretty great freshman stat wise.

I haven't focused on the skating so much yet and i'm not great at picking skating apart, it's going to take me a while to get several views on all the picks. The good news is i found a bunch of games of his and I will likely get the NCHC.tv at some point to see him especially when he plays against Stapley since they are in the same conference.

So far looks to have more intensity and really like the power and lower body strength though it will be better to see him in the NCAA vs overpowering 16, 17, 18, year olds.

I don't want to say anything about the Tuch pick cause it might be a few weeks till I can get to see full games with the USNDTP, the highlights I wasn't too impressed and not to make anything out of it but when Timmins announced the pick he looked like he wasn't too happy but I could just be reading too much into nothing. I will get to see him a good bit at BU vs Harris and Struble since I'd say watching Northeastern is my favorite team to follow after Laval.
 

26Mats

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I haven't focused on the skating so much yet and i'm not great at picking skating apart, it's going to take me a while to get several views on all the picks. The good news is i found a bunch of games of his and I will likely get the NCHC.tv at some point to see him especially when he plays against Stapley since they are in the same conference.

So far looks to have more intensity and really like the power and lower body strength though it will be better to see him in the NCAA vs overpowering 16, 17, 18, year olds.

I don't want to say anything about the Tuch pick cause it might be a few weeks till I can get to see full games with the USNDTP, the highlights I wasn't too impressed and not to make anything out of it but when Timmins announced the pick he looked like he wasn't too happy but I could just be reading too much into nothing. I will get to see him a good bit at BU vs Harris and Struble since I'd say watching Northeastern is my favorite team to follow after Laval.

McGuire's been talking up Tuch for over a year, for what it's worth.
 
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montreal

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McGuire's been talking up Tuch for over a year, for what it's worth.

i heard that and I am pretty sure I saw him at least once as i know I saw the USNDTP play but I don't recall him if he even played but I will need to check my notes on that. So far i watched 2 very short clips.

I just checked and it was the U-17 team I saw this year, not the U-18 but I may have seen them early on in the season as I know I did at some point because I remember seeing Bordeleau.
 
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montreal

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just got done watching him play in the USHL last year from very early in the season. It was my first time seeing him in the USHL, he was at center and on the PP, I was impressed despite no points as his team got shutout. He was physical as he always finished his checks, had 4 pims, a trip which was just a bit unlucky and at the end of the 2nd both sides were mixing it up and he went into the scrum.

He's certainly got some power to his game for sure, he went right after Tuch with an open ice hit and while he bounced off him a bit he stayed on his feet. Tuch got him back late in the game into the boards and he got up a little slowly but skated right for the US player and put a nice hit on him.

It's going to be very interesting to see how he handles himself next month in the NCHC, which if I had to pick between the 3 best conferences in the NCAA I would have to pick the NCHC though that's in general as it will vary each year which one is stronger but the NCHC is almost always stacked with NHL draft picks and some of the best teams in the NCAA.
 

montreal

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Just finished watching his first game of the season last year vs Farrell. Biondi was once again very noticeable though not as physical this time around. He had 1 assist, but was involved in at least one really good scoring chance on top of that and was in on a late goal in the game when his team had their goalie pulled.

Had some trouble defensively as he was on for 2 of the 3 goals against but he was playing against the powerhouse team of the USHL.

I have to say the more I watch this kid the more interested I am in seeing how he progresses as you can see the power, the lower body strength is really good for someone his age. It looks like he's got some decent or better offensive skills but hard to say for sure since he hasn't had much time against higher competition yet as he only played 10 games in the USHL last year. He only had 3 pts but he was also on the 2nd lowest scoring team in the league.

He needs some technical work on his skating though to get him to use that power/strength better to be quicker and the skating is odd as it looks good at times but a bit choppy at other times. Also like that he's around the net a lot in the offensive zone, doesn't shy away from the prime areas.
 

Whitesnake

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Quiet start of the year for him...hopefully he picks it up from there.
 

Estimated_Prophet

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Interesting pick as there is some skill and he is quite strong with a high compete level.

The skating however.......is really bad. Alot of work needed here, hopefully he can make some strides in this area.
 
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Goldenhands

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Quiet start of the year for him...hopefully he picks it up from there.

Its going to be a tough first NCAA season for him as it was to expect, skating needs alot of work, thats really the area where he needs to focuss the most...
 

Whitesnake

If you rebuild, they will come.
Jan 5, 2003
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Its going to be a tough first NCAA season for him as it was to expect, skating needs alot of work, thats really the area where he needs to focuss the most...

The gap between USHS and NCAA is probably one of the biggest gap there is. In the USHS, the guy was a fast train and a force. In the NCAA you see his feet and there is a lot of work to do with was almost not apparent in the USHS.
 

Pompeius Magnus

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Biondi isn't quite a '' super-duper long time project'' type the way Smith or Dobes are for exemple. He's not that far removed from that though and since he's barely getting forth line minutes as a freshman I wouldn't expect anything from him probably till he's a junior. He's in a top notch program at least so he's at the right place to learn and in a winning environment.
 

montreal

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I haven't seen as many games of his as i would like since he's playing on the 4th line and i've been busy watching Caufield, Struble/Harris and Tuch. If the hockey east is shut down for 2 weeks (just a rumor) then i should get to see him play a few more games.

I wonder if it's a bit like Struble last year who also came in at 18, struggled in his first few games on the 3rd pairing, but then started to gain the coaches trust and moved up the 2nd pair where he started to break out before season ending injury. While I highly doubt the same would happen here, in his first 6 games Biondi was held pointless, in his next 7 he's had 3 pts. Now he's still on the 4th line but getting 2 pts in his last 3 games should at the very least keep him from being a healthy scratch if not again then hopefully not often which hasn't been the case as he's only been sat for 2 of the 15 games.
 

montreal

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going to try and watch today's game.

here's how his season is going,

first 10 games - 0-1-1 Even 0 pims
next 6 games - 2-2-4 +4 2 pims


when he's in the AHL I could see him in the 210-220 pound range, he's got that big frame that looks like he could still add on a decent amount of mass. Not that he needs it, he already looks solid physically for an 18 year old.
 
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Estimated_Prophet

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If he can entirely overhaul his skating then he has a chance but his stride would make Pierre Dagenais cringe. He is young enough to make such a drastic improvement, hopefully he can pull it off because he has some real upside with the rest of his game.
 
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montreal

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If you had told me that a month into the season that Biondi would be leading his team in points, I would have said you were crazy after how little he played last year and how poor his skating technique is. Going to be very interesting to see what kind of year he has.
 

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