American Prospect Update Thread - Part 4

[tealhockey]

It's a pointless event and I'd be fine if they cancelled it. But making a worthless event even worse is an odd, but typical USAH move.

Agree x2.. They've also technically cut out the non-USHL top Americans (MNHS, Prep) as well AFAIK. So it goes

 

[William H Bonney]

Agree x2.. They've also technically cut out the non-USHL top Americans (MNHS, Prep) as well AFAIK. So it goes

Good point, I'll update to reflect that.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Not sure how many has heard of Ryan Roth (19), but i have followed his entire OHL career, went undrafted in 2018 and in 2019.
- i think he could be a 4th,5th,6th round steal in the next NHL Draft

Ryan is from Ladue, Missouri (St.Louis suburbia), a super rich county, about 9000 population, richest county or a city in the entire
state of Missouri. 5 foot 7 / 170 pounds RW - currently plays for Sarnia Sting (for stacked SOO before) - tremendous skater, strong legs
and lower body, difficult to knock off the puck

He has made steady progress each season in the OHL and is now having a breakout season;
7 goals, 11 assists in 11 games, 5+5=10 in 5 games for Sarnia

His 7th goal of the season (1:30) Ontario Hockey League – Official Site of the Ontario Hockey League
(+ a nice a drop pass, PP)

 

[canuck2010]

A nice story about some nice people. Wish him well. Cheers.

Color of Hockey: Saganiuk making impression with U.S. Under-17 team

 

[tealhockey]

Not sure how many has heard of Ryan Roth (19), but i have followed his entire OHL career, went undrafted in 2018 and in 2019.
- i think he could be a 4th,5th,6th round steal in the next NHL Draft

Ryan is from Ladue, Missouri (St.Louis suburbia), a super rich county, about 9000 population, richest county or a city in the entire
state of Missouri. 5 foot 7 / 170 pounds RW - currently plays for Sarnia Sting (for stacked SOO before) - tremendous skater, strong legs
and lower body, difficult to knock off the puck

He has made steady progress each season in the OHL and is now having a breakout season;
7 goals, 11 assists in 11 games, 5+5=10 in 5 games for Sarnia

His 7th goal of the season (1:30) Ontario Hockey League – Official Site of the Ontario Hockey League
(+ a nice a drop pass, PP)

I've been following him since bantams, he's always been very talented but I thought college would have been better for him due to the size thing. Good to hear he is coming on strong I don't see him much in the OHL other than highlights

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Isaac Howard has had a strong start to his 2nd year in Shattuck (first year: Bantam T1) this season; u16 midget.
11 goals, 13 assists, 24 points in 12 games this season.

Shattuck u16 top 5:

1. Hovsepyan (04/02/2003) 29 points (1.52 ppg)
2. Gasseau (06/03/2003) 27 points (1.59 ppg)
3. Lastarza (01/14/2004) 25 points (1.47 ppg)
4. Howard (03/30/2004) 24 points (2.00 ppg)
5. Schneider (09/17/2003) 24 points (1.26 ppg)

 

[tealhockey]

Seen a lot of the top 04s this fall. Some names to watch: Gavin Brindley -- reminiscent of Clayton Keller at the same age. Skating for days, great quickness, great on the puck, strong offensive upside, always noticeable, but smaller than most of the competition. Late birthdate, so practically a bantam, plays up in U16 hockey with Seamus Casey -- also a very strong prospect, right shot who plays the left side. Offensive defenseman with good skating.

Frank Nazar, Rutger McGroarty and Hunter Brzustewicz were all as advertised. Elite prospects for their age group at the moment. Nazar probably impressed me the most from a pure skill standpoint, McGroarty seems to have the most pro upside, Brzustewicz is a late birthday and somewhere in between the two re: talent/pro upside

 

[HaveKnifeWillButcher]

A nice story about some nice people. Wish him well. Cheers.

Color of Hockey: Saganiuk making impression with U.S. Under-17 team

Yes, it's a nice story. But the real value is in showing how riddled the U.S. national team system is with kids who are really Canadians, right?

 

[canuck2010]

Yes, it's a nice story. But the real value is in showing how riddled the U.S. national team system is with kids who are really Canadians, right?

No I've given up on that.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Chaz Lucius still at goal per game pace. 14 games played, 14 goals.
(4 goals in 8 USHL games, 10 goals in 6 games for the U17)

14 goals, 2 assists, 16 points.

 

[tealhockey]

Chaz Lucius still at goal per game pace. 14 games played, 14 goals.
(4 goals in 8 USHL games, 10 goals in 6 games for the U17)

14 goals, 2 assists, 16 points.

U17 NTDP is well ahead of schedule this year. Not just winning but scoring plenty and beating great USHL teams. Seems like this could be a group similar to the 01s last year

 

[Artorius Horus T]

U17 NTDP is well ahead of schedule this year. Not just winning but scoring plenty and beating great USHL teams. Seems like this could be a group similar to the 01s last year

Talking about the schedule... Does USNTDP put standard X number of games schedule each season, or does it vary?.

 

[tealhockey]

Talking about the schedule... Does USNTDP put standard X number of games schedule each season, or does it vary?.

Good question, not sure. As far as the USHL goes I believe they play a 'full schedule', but it is split between the U17 and U18 teams, and the U17 plays a bit more of the schedule as the U18 has college teams, international competitions etc. I don't know that there is a fixed number of games, I imagine they do try to hit a number though. They usually play about 60 games as U18s.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Chaz Lucius 15 goals in 15 games.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Ryan Roth keeps playing really well and producing, what a luck of the draw for him to get traded to Sarnia.
Has 25 points this season in 15 games, 19 in 9 games for Sting.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Lucius is the real deal it seams.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Here are my thoughts from the first game I saw of this years 17's.

Really liked what I saw from Justin Janicke. Looks like the best forward of the bunch. Complete game, dynamic speed and skill. Chaz Lucius is also really good. Pure goal scorer. Skating looks better than I expected. I also liked some of the other forwards. Pastujov can definitely play, but his skating needs to improve. Jack Hughes isn't dynamic, but will be a good player. Duke, Boucher, Savage, Devine in that order were the next four best forwards, in my opinion.

On the back-end, I liked Hughes, Gallagher, Schmidt and Hreschuk. All look like potential first or second round picks. I don't know if any are top 10 caliber players. Maybe Hughes, but I'd like to see a little more dynamic offense. Gallagher and Hreschuk looks like a quality OFD who can defend good enough. Hreschuk with the better skating, Gallagher with the better hockey IQ. Schmidt looks to have a pretty good all-around game for a big defensemen. Hopefully they develop him better than they developed Adam Samuelsson and Vlasic, who were similar style of players. But I also think he looks to be a better player than those guys, so I think he'll probably be a key player for this team. I'm not going to try to guess about the goalies.

The team looks to have a good amount of depth. There probably isn't a Turcotte or Hughes, but it should still be a good team because there's a lot of quality hockey players who should go in the first few rounds.

 

[ASPIFC]

IMO it is worrying that US still can't produce top 5 draft picks regularly. Next two years can easily go without top 10 pick.

 

[tealhockey]

IMO it is worrying that US still can't produce top 5 draft picks regularly. Next two years can easily go without top 10 pick.

I said it in another thread, but I really think it has to do with getting a higher share of elite level athletes playing the sport. You rarely have a Jack Hughes who isn't a high-end athlete (6'1-6'2 with power game, explosiveness, strength) that can go so high. Matthews was an anomaly and what I'm talking about -- he would have been a top tier baseball or football player had he done that route. Eichel might have been as well, and we were lucky he was born in BU's backyard.

Most of our high-end athletes play cheaper sports like football, basketball. Other countries lose plenty of them to soccer but Canada/Russia/Sweden/Finland seem to get a really good share of their top-end athletes in hockey from what I can tell. If you aren't well-off, playing hockey really isn't an option most places in America, which cuts off a major segment of the player pool as well as not being one of the big sports here compared to the others.

 

[ASPIFC]

I think we still should do better. Only Canada has more registered players. USA has 500,000 players more than Finland and Sweden. I dont think there is any excuses that small countries like Sweden and Finland are doing better than US. Even hockey is massively popular in those countries. There is some massive years when USA can match Canada with first rounders but there is still too many years when even europeans are kicking our ass big time.

 

[tealhockey]

I think we still should do better. Only Canada has more registered players. USA has 500,000 players more than Finland and Sweden. I dont think there is any excuses that small countries like Sweden and Finland are doing better than US. Even hockey is massively popular in those countries. There is some massive years when USA can match Canada with first rounders but there is still too many years when even europeans are kicking our ass big time.

I guess. The numbers game should bear out for the USA, but I think it did with a crop like last year and we do have some great players in '03, '04 already looking great. The top 5 situation is really just a luck of the odds type of thing to me. You need guys who are like freaks of nature, not just more bodies.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Didn't we have two top 5 picks in the last draft?

2020 is a bad draft for us. Every country has a year like that. I wouldn't rule out that we have a few guys that have top 5 potential for 2021. I think that looks like a pretty good age group, actually. Maybe there's no Eichel or Matthews, but no country produces players of that caliber every year. The 2022 crop is hyped on caliber with the 2019 crop, so I don't see why there's any reason for worry.

 

[tealhockey]

Didn't we have two top 5 picks in the last draft?

2020 is a bad draft for us. Every country has a year like that. I wouldn't rule out that we have a few guys that have top 5 potential for 2021. I think that looks like a pretty good age group, actually. Maybe there's no Eichel or Matthews, but no country produces players of that caliber every year. The 2022 crop is hyped on caliber with the 2019 crop, so I don't see why there's any reason for worry.

We did, but jury is still out on both of those top 5 picks and how high-end they will be at the end of the day. I think last year may have actually been a bit light overall. I agree it seems like we have some guys who can curve into the single digits for '21. I don't think anyone's worried I think the point was just that with the massive amount of players registered in America, you might think American talent would be even more prevalent by now.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

We did, but jury is still out on both of those top 5 picks and how high-end they will be at the end of the day. I think last year may have actually been a bit light overall. I agree it seems like we have some guys who can curve into the single digits for '21. I don't think anyone's worried I think the point was just that with the massive amount of players registered in America, you might think American talent would be even more prevalent by now.

The jury is still out on every player from that draft, but it looks like the USA had the best crop of players from the 2019 draft from any country.

What are the numbers of American players registered as opposed to Canadian players or Russian players? Those countries must also have big numbers of players registered. It is true that we don't produce as many good players per capita as Finland or Sweden, but hockey is more popular in those countries, and there's a much bigger effort and percentage of their athletic budget that goes into hockey. Hockey is a niche sport in the USA.

 

[tealhockey]

The jury is still out on every player from that draft, but it looks like the USA had the best crop of players from the 2019 draft from any country.

What are the numbers of American players registered as opposed to Canadian players or Russian players? Those countries must also have big numbers of players registered. It is true that we don't produce as many good players per capita as Finland or Sweden, but hockey is more popular in those countries, and there's a much bigger effort and percentage of their athletic budget that goes into hockey. Hockey is a niche sport in the USA.

Don't think your argument is any different than what I said except that you seem to ignore the fact that we have so many more people and I'm fairly confident we have more players registered than any country. The other facts counter-act our population advantage but one would anticipate the numbers would bear out in American prominence over the long-run, which may well be the case.