C Alex Newhook - Victoria Grizzlies, BCHL (2019, 16th, COL)

[BondraTime]

You ignored the point. It was if you didn't even read what I said. Opportunity doesn't guarantee anything in college hockey. This is not junior hockey. It's a very tactical style of hockey. Having good coaching, a good system, a good group of veteran players around them has helped Boldy and Newhook have success.

Meanwhile, Turcotte and Caufield have had none of that. The team sucks, the coaching might be the biggest reason for that, there's no system. Wisconsin hockey this year is a disaster. And we should add Holloway to this discussion. He came from the AJHL, Newhook from the BCHL. He's probably going to get drafted in a similar range to Newhook a draft later, and he's definitely struggled this season. He's a little younger than Newhook, but I think he'd have a lot more success on a better team.

Besides, Newhook isn't even the highest scorer on his own team, Boldy is fifth. Zegras is third in scoring on his own team. Meanwhile, Caufield leads his team in scoring. He actually has more points than Zegras. Turcotte is fourth, despite missing a lot of games. You have to take these things into account. Relativity matters, and I find it a little deceiving to act like these raw totals make such a big difference towards making big changes in where players rank. If you are going to say Newhook goes above Turcotte due to stats, why doesn't he also go above Byram? Byram went 4th, Turcotte went 5th. Byram is having statistically the same season as he had last year.

I also don't think the role argument is very convincing. All high picks get a big role. The only one recently where I remember this being a problem was O'Brien, and he left so early that he didn't stick it out and see if it would change around after the start of the season.

Newhook had 1 point in his first 6 games on wing. He’s been far and away the top scorer on his team since he got moved to Center with 38 points the past 25 games. Closest in that time frame on his team is 22 year old senior Mattilia with 30 points. You have to take those things into account.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

You can't use those points and then also downplay the lack of opportunity for Newhook/Boldy/Zegras. If Newhook and Boldy had more opportunity, they would be first and 2nd on their team in scoring (as they have been in the new year).

There isn't a lack of opportunity. They play top six with PP time. No different than the Wisconsin kids. The only difference is that their team is better, scores more and wins a lot more games. Trying to act like the Wisconsin kids are playing 30 minutes per game with 2 minutes of PP time each PP is ridiculous. Maybe they have a few less good veterans in front of them. That doesn't mean the veterans the team does have don't play big minutes, as well. And they aren't even playing such huge roles every game. Turcotte was on the third line when he returned from injury.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Newhook had 1 point in his first 6 games on wing. He’s been far and away the top scorer on his team since he got moved to Center with 38 points the past 25 games. Closest in that time frame on his team is 22 year old senior Mattilia with 30 points. You have to take those things into account.

For the record, I think he's having a very good season.

I'm responding to the comment that his point totals so far this season justify having him higher than a player that went top 5 when he went 16th. There's context missing to such a surface level statement like that.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

You ignored the point. It was as if you didn't even read what I said. Opportunity doesn't guarantee anything in college hockey. This is not junior hockey. It's a very tactical style of hockey. Having good coaching, a good system, a good group of veteran players around them has helped Boldy and Newhook have success.

Meanwhile, Turcotte and Caufield have had none of that. The team sucks, the coaching might be the biggest reason for that, there's no system. Wisconsin hockey this year is a disaster. And we should add Holloway to this discussion. He came from the AJHL, Newhook from the BCHL. He's probably going to get drafted in a similar range to Newhook a draft later, and he's definitely struggled this season. He's a little younger than Newhook, but I think he'd also have a lot more success on a better team. He'll probably end up a similar caliber NHL'er, but his point totals are not going to be anywhere near as good this season as Newhook.

Besides, Newhook isn't even the highest scorer on his own team, Boldy is fifth. Zegras is third in scoring on his own team. Meanwhile, Caufield leads his team in scoring. He actually has more points than Zegras. Turcotte is fourth, despite missing a lot of games. You have to take these things into account. Relativity matters, and I find it a little deceiving to act like these raw totals make such a big difference towards making big changes in where players rank. If you are going to say Newhook goes above Turcotte due to stats, why doesn't he also go above Byram? Byram went 4th, Turcotte went 5th. Byram is having statistically the same season as he had last year.

I also don't think the role argument is very convincing. All high picks get a big role. The only one recently where I remember this being a problem was O'Brien, and he left so early that he didn't stick it out and see if it would change around after the start of the season.

To the first bolded, you're right. He's 2nd on his team one point back of first place, 22 year old senior Julius Mattila. Also, where did I say he would go above Turcotte? He's having a better freshman year but unless I misspoke in a post I certainly wouldn't be taking him above Turcotte in a redraft right now. I think Newhook has a good argument to go above a lot of the Dmen selected in front of him(Broberg, York, Soderstrom) and perhaps Podkolzin... Basically I think he's probably around a ~10th overall pick right now in a redraft. But Byram, Turcotte, Caufield, Boldy would still go above him.



As for the 2nd bolded. He literally started the year as a 3rd line LW with little special teams time. Now he's the 2nd line Center(Really his line is the 1st line though), with 2nd unit PP time and getting a healthy amount of PK time.


He's earned a major increase in role and responsibility because of his play. +/- is a heavily flawed stat but it still says something that he's by far the best forward on the team at a +26(Next closest being Hardman at +19).


Flat out he's just having a phenomenal rookie year. The best of the freshman class. Doesn't mean he'd go higher in than them in a redraft, just that he's having the best year. I had Caufield Top 5 in my rankings before the 2019 draft and actually had Newhook at like ~23rd. So he has definitely risen for me but only to about ~10th-12th.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

There isn't a lack of opportunity. They play top six with PP time. No different than the Wisconsin kids. The only difference is that their team is better, scores more and wins a lot more games. Trying to act like the Wisconsin kids are playing 30 minutes per game with 2 minutes of PP time each PP is ridiculous. Maybe they have a few less good veterans in front of them. That doesn't mean the veterans the team does have don't play big minutes, as well. And they aren't even playing such huge roles every game. Turcotte was on the third line when he returned from injury.

Trying to act like Newhook and Boldy have nothing to do with BC's success is also ridiculous. BC was horrible last year, and now with Newhook/Boldy/Knight they are good is just a coincidence? Wisconsin was bad last year and still bad this year. Caufield/Turcotte should at least be able to make them competitive.

That being said, one season does not justify anyone's draft re-ranks that much. Lets see how they play in the NHL.

 

[AvsCOL]

Something that’s important to remember in all of this is that he plays for a really good veteran team that’s well coached. College hockey is not like junior hockey. Its not most talented team wins. It’s a tight-checking style where the games are usually low scoring, very tactical and physical.

Last 4 Boston College games:

6-2
3-2
10-1
6-1

I don't even know what you're arguing about right now. I get that you don't think Newhook is a top-5 prospect, and I don't really care, but you're just making stuff up right now.

 

[Caser]

Thread over 1k posts, closing it and starting a new one here: C Alex Newhook - Boston College, NCAA (2019, 16th, COL) Part 2