Prospect Info: 63rd overall — C Dominic Turgeon

[PullHard]

This is almost a 180 from what others were saying when the pick was made. Now all of the reports and footage seem to be highlighting his offensive potential, and saying his skating is his biggest detractor. When the pick was made the few blurbs I saw mentioned that he had limited offensive upside. Should be a fun prospect to follow.

 

[Dotter]

This is almost a 180 from what others were saying when the pick was made. Now all of the reports and footage seem to be highlighting his offensive potential, and saying his skating is his biggest detractor. When the pick was made the few blurbs I saw mentioned that he had limited offensive upside. Should be a fun prospect to follow.

Yeah I watched him tonight. He is Winterhawks 1st line center. He skates poorly, like Daniel Cleary poor. He had a very underwhelming game. He is big and seems "heavy" though.

I'm not holding one underwhelming game against him, but he seriously needs to do a lot of work on his skating. And I mean a lot.

 

[InjuredChoker]

Yeah I watched him tonight. He is Winterhawks 1st line center. He skates poorly, like Daniel Cleary poor. He had a very underwhelming game. He is big and seems "heavy" though.

I'm not holding one underwhelming game against him, but he seriously needs to do a lot of work on his skating. And I mean a lot.

can you watch his games this season?

any updates would be welcomed!

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

skating is something you can work on(ask tavares)

hockey sense and smarts is something you either have or you dont and really cant be learnt or taught in the ahl or nhl level

if he is an intelligent enough player he will overcome his skating deficiencies no doubt

 

[joe89]

Yeah, I also saw a "heavy guy" with skating problems who likes going to the hard areas of the ice when I watched a couple of games in the Lake Placid camp. But his strength wasn't really where it needs to be right now to play that game. It's essential that you can get to the inside of your defender if you're gonna make your living around the net. And that's basically where he spent most of his offensive zone time in those games.

 

[Dotter]

skating is something you can work on(ask tavares)

hockey sense and smarts is something you either have or you dont and really cant be learnt or taught in the ahl or nhl level

if he is an intelligent enough player he will overcome his skating deficiencies no doubt

You can tell his coach holds him to a high regard. He got both PP and PK time. He has a long way to go if he's going to make the NHL, though. The puck would be near him and he'd seem slow to get to it, while the other team would easily skate around him to take the possession of puck that was merely inches from being on his [Turgeon] stick. And when he did have it on his stick, the other team seemed to easily pop it off his stick and take it away from him like taking candy from a baby. He had only one hit that I saw in the game.

I think he had one really bad game. I think this was his 3rd game of the season, so he might not have conditioned like other players and isn't up to game speed yet. It was the first time I watched him, but he did not look anything like the highlight video posted above.

At this point, based on my impression of him last night, if he goes on to make it to become a weaker, non-skating Joakim Andersson lite, that will be a huge accomplishment.

If he works hard and fixes his skating issues and conditions like a beast to gain strength so he can power his way to the net, he might become more. Maybe even a top-9er. But like I said, he has a long road ahead.

 

[Frk It]

You can tell his coach holds him to a high regard. He got both PP and PK time. He has a long way to go if he's going to make the NHL, though. The puck would be near him and he'd seem slow to get to it, while the other team would easily skate around him to take the possession of puck that was merely inches from being on his [Turgeon] stick. And when he did have it on his stick, the other team seemed to easily pop it off his stick and take it away from him like taking candy from a baby. He had only one hit that I saw in the game.

I think he had one really bad game. I think this was his 3rd game of the season, so he might not have conditioned like other players and isn't up to game speed yet. It was the first time I watched him, but he did not look anything like the highlight video posted above.

At this point, based on my impression of him last night, if he goes on to make it to become a weaker, non-skating Joakim Andersson lite, that will be a huge accomplishment.

If he works hard and fixes his skating issues and conditions like a beast to gain strength so he can power his way to the net, he might become more. Maybe even a top-9er. But like I said, he has a long road ahead.

Appreciate the feedback on Turgeon. A non-skating and weaker Joakim Andersson would not be an NHL player though, so we need to hope he becomes more than that.

Wings had him graded as a 1st rounder, so he must have just had a bad game, or maybe he didn't put in enough work this summer.

Either way, hopefully he gets better as the season goes on.

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

Appreciate the feedback on Turgeon. A non-skating and weaker Joakim Andersson would not be an NHL player though, so we need to hope he becomes more than that.

Wings had him graded as a 1st rounder, so he must have just had a bad game, or maybe he didn't put in enough work this summer.

Either way, hopefully he gets better as the season goes on.

Supposedly Turgeon was really good in camp, too. Might just be him getting back into the Portland swing of things after playing a different system for a month.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

Appreciate the feedback on Turgeon. A non-skating and weaker Joakim Andersson would not be an NHL player though, so we need to hope he becomes more than that.

Wings had him graded as a 1st rounder, so he must have just had a bad game, or maybe he didn't put in enough work this summer.

Either way, hopefully he gets better as the season goes on.

Meh....I think you guys are reading way too much into his first, post-draft game. I say this as someone who very much agrees that he has heavy feet.

 

[Frk It]

Meh....I think you guys are reading way too much into his first, post-draft game. I say this as someone who very much agrees that he has heavy feet.

I was not reading that much into it. I think its most likely he just had a bad game.

I think he will be one to move up our prospect rankings.

 

[Dotter]

I was not reading that much into it. I think its most likely he just had a bad game.

I think he will be one to move up our prospect rankings.

I think it was last year he started off slow and by the end of the season he showed some offensive talent. And I read his coaches are high on him. He gets the ice time. If he works hard, I think he has a chance in the NHL someday.

But as of right now I don't know why Wings traded up to get him and considered him in their "top 30"? At best he might be a 'heavy' bottom 6er in the NHL someday (imo). I think he is the type of guy Babcock drools over.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

Despite the kind of negative reputation of his father(not being a winner, whatever that means.) I really liked him. It'd be nice to see his son become an NHLer, for whatever team and role that may be.

 

[Dotter]

Another underwhelming game by Turgeon tonight. His team lost 6 to 4 and are 0-5 in the season.

He had a wee-bit better game but still pretty much unnoticeable. Highlights from him was winning a few draws and getting a couple shots on net... maybe two. His passing isn't crisp and he had a few giveaways.

Despite it being a 10 goal game tonight I don't think Turgeon was on the ice for or against a goal. My guess is +/- stat will be 0.

He looks like he has heart and work ethics. He doesn't come off lazy or disinterested. He seemed to turn up his game near the end trying to tie the game. But was unsuccessful.

Maybe he has a nagging injury or something, I dunno.

 

[Claypool]

Another underwhelming game by Turgeon tonight. His team lost 6 to 4 and are 0-5 in the season.

Who's the team's new head coach? Seems like it's a greater effect on the team that I anticipated.

 

[ricky0034]

Who's the team's new head coach? Seems like it's a greater effect on the team that I anticipated.

well they did lose 4 of their top 6 scorers from last year(and all of the top 3)

together those 4 combined for 383 points in 260 games and one of them was a dman

 

[Dotter]

Winterhawks lost in the SO tonight, but Turgeon had the best game I've watched him to date. In the first period he had maybe 3 or 4 shifts, I thought maybe the coach benched him. And was demoted to the 2nd unit PP, but was still the 1st PK center.

He was underwhelming in the first, you hardly noticed him. His low ice-time might have had something to do with that.

2nd period, he showed great composure and strength along the boards. That is where he shines. He also had a nice wrist shot that created a big juicy rebound, but he didn't have any team-mates there to pop it in.

He drew 2 penalties.

3rd period
Coach must have noticed he was picking up his game and gave his line more ice time. When Turgeon was on the ice, he has this aura about him like I get with Sheahan. He is just so defensively responsible. I'm starting to feel like the other team won't score as long as he's on the ice. And so far no team has in any of the games I watched him. I believe he is a +1 now.

He created net front havoc drawing two defenders to him and the goalie lost focus so a player on his line scored. That goal would never have went in if he it wasn't for Turgeon creating havoc.

Another positive I notice about Turgeon is he is pretty good at faceoffs and never quits on the puck. He is what Babcock would describe as "heavy".

He also showed good hands in the shoot out. He was the only player on the Winterhawks team to score in the shoot out. It was a beauty forehand-backhand-forehand-backhand deke, roof *SCORE!*

Some of the knocks I have for him might be due to low hockey IQ team mates that aren't ready for his passes, because they weren't connecting very much. The other knock was he doesn't seem very good at entering the zone with the puck and seems like the puck rolls of his stick a bit too easy. His skating didn't look like as much of an issue in tonights game. He seems to read the play well, but still looks a bit clunky at times... bit like Holmstrom did.

I think I'm figuring out what DRW scouts and Holland see in this kid. He reminds me of Riley Sheahan in so many ways. Great along the boards. Realgud at faceoffs. Has hands. His wrister looks lethal. Strong. Work ethics. Never gives up. He seems like a big game player, a guy that you want on your team during the most important game of the year, a guy that knows how to rev it up like Zetterberg in the big games.

Of course a lot of that is just my impression of him thus far, but he is really growing on me. I think we found ourselves a Riley Sheahan / Tomas Holmstrom hybrid. Lol.

 

[ap3x]

Thanks for the impressions. Sounds good. Despite having a good game and showing his strenghts, confirmation of any known weaknesses?

 

[Dotter]

Thanks for the impressions. Sounds good. Despite having a good game and showing his strenghts, confirmation of any known weaknesses?

Yeah he struggled getting the puck to his teammates at times. It might have been partially their fault for not recognizing the pass in time, or Turgy would totally miss the mark or try to force a pass through traffic that didn't work. He wasn't that smooth carrying the puck into the offensive zone. He seems more like a dump and chase guy trying to play puck possession. And one pet peeve I have was the puck seemed to roll off his stick easily at times.

And his biggest notable weakness is his skating, but that wasn't an issue for him tonight because he was good at reading plays and he actually did skate pretty well overall -- maybe the team they were playing was a slow team? He does seem to be working on his skating, because it didn't stand out as major flaw. He did well and was mobile.

He does play on a fast team with energetic teammates, so surely he looks slow in comparison.

 

[InjuredChoker]

petan was just sent back to juniors. portland got a lot more firepower.

 

[Chance on Chance]

Of course a lot of that is just my impression of him thus far, but he is really growing on me. I think we found ourselves a Riley Sheahan / Tomas Holmstrom hybrid. Lol.

Sounds like were really going the big strong 2 way C and offensive winger method

 

[Dotter]

Sounds like were really going the big strong 2 way C and offensive winger method

Looks that way. He was amazing last night too. I didn't write a long post on it because I wasn't sure if people are getting annoyed with me bumping the thread.

First few games he looked slow and underwhelming. You hardly noticed him. Man, the past two games though he has been in BEAST mode. When he is out there, his line dominates play in the offensive zone and he is just so damn strong and smart. He reminds me so much of Sheahan, but I think Turgeon has the ability to carve out a niche for net front presence because how much havoc he can create. He;s been playing point on the PP I do believe, but I think he would be damn good net front presence. He also has a nice shot and backhander... probably underrated and needs to use it more. He's not afraid to go to the dirty areas, either.

I think he was worth trading up for, I can see why the Wings think highly of him now.

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

Looks that way. He was amazing last night too. I didn't write a long post on it because I wasn't sure if people are getting annoyed with me bumping the thread.

It's not annoying at all; it's actually awesome to hear how he's doing. It's pretty cool to see how you've changed your mind over a few viewings.

 

[SimplySolace]

It's not annoying at all; it's actually awesome to hear how he's doing. It's pretty cool to see how you've changed your mind over a few viewings.

This. I really enjoy reading write-ups from those who get to watch a prospect on a frequent basis

 

[ChadS]

Yeah please continue updating us because very few actually see these guys play. If you don't want to use this thread, you can also post in the prospect thread.

It's good to hear he's getting better. Never really doubted the pick as they seemed very high on him, similar to Bertuzzi last year.

 

[Winger98]

This. I really enjoy reading write-ups from those who get to watch a prospect on a frequent basis

same. Part of the lifeblood of the board, imo, has been the folks who get to watch our guys and report in on them. And it's good to hear Turgeon is picking his game up as the year gets started.