C Alex Turcotte - USNTDP, USHL (2019, 5th, LAK)

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93LEAFS

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He'll get top 5 consideration, or appears on track to. He, Hughes, Vlasic and possibly Beecher have the highest draft stocks. Caufield would if he wasn't 5'9. Will be an interesting class to follow, not sure if they will end up as good as the 97's, but they look special.
 
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Juxtaposer

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Dec 21, 2009
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He'll get top 5 consideration, or appears on track to. He, Hughes, Vlasic and possibly Beecher have the highest draft stocks. Caufield would if he wasn't 5'9. Will be an interesting class to follow, not sure if they will end up as good as the 97's, but they look special.

You mean Caufield would if he were 5’9”. He’s 5’6”.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

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He'll get top 5 consideration, or appears on track to. He, Hughes, Vlasic and possibly Beecher have the highest draft stocks. Caufield would if he wasn't 5'9. Will be an interesting class to follow, not sure if they will end up as good as the 97's, but they look special.

I've got Hughes, Turcotte, Boldy, Cole Caufield, Beecher, Vlasic, Warren, McCarthy, York, Vlasic, Thun and Knight as potential first rounders right now. Thats 11 guys, although I would not say all 11 are first rounders, at the moment.

Hughes and Turcotte I expect to go very high, competing for among the top spots. Hughes looks like the next coming of the Kane, Marner, Keller archetype. Lets see if he can stay at center. If he can, he'll be the obvious first pick in the 2019 draft. Turcotte I think provides more of a two way game, insanely smart player, same type of smarts I see of out Elias Pettersson. He combines that with a more well rounded game than Hughes, he's not as dynamic, but plenty dynamic himself. If Hughes does not go 1OA, he looks like one of the top candidates for 1OA. Among the other forwards, Beecher is more of a project. Size, skating, and he can really shoot the puck. Not that good yet, but maybe in a few years. Boldy is very well rounded. I don't expect him to be a particularly high pick, but he's good right now, and projects as a good player. Caufield is wait and see depending on his height. Could very well be the next Yamamoto type who goes in the first round despite not being that tall. Very good player right now, but playing with Hughes does not help evaluate him. How would he do without playing with the likely 1OA?

On defense, I'm not as sure about any of these guys. Vlasic has nice size, decent movement, shows a shutdown D game at times with more offense than you'd think, but he is inconsistent defensively, and I'm not sure his movement is better than "good for his size." Its hard to project these types of players. If he continues to improve his mobility and show offense, he could be a top 10 pick. If not, he could fall out of the first round or be a late first rounder, hard to know. York is a good puck mover who can really skate, okay defensively, not as good offensively as you'd think, although not a bad offensive player. Nothing special, IMO, but a quality defensemen. Warren I expected more. He's not a bad player, he just doesn't control games, like I had heard. He's rather good defensively and he's a good skater, but offensively he's not shown that much. McCarthy has nice size, a good defensive game, can skate and can move the puck. Thun is very similar, but instead from the left side. I'm not sure either has much offense in their game, but they have a valuable skill-set defensively. I actually don't think any of the defensemen are all that good offensively from this team.

Knight is a really impressive goalie. Polished, but also has size and athleticism. I consider him the top goalie so far for 2019, but even if thats the case, the top goalies aren't always first rounders.
 

93LEAFS

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I've got Hughes, Turcotte, Boldy, Cole Caufield, Beecher, Vlasic, Warren, McCarthy, York, Vlasic, Thun and Knight as potential first rounders right now. Thats 11 guys, although I would not say all 11 are first rounders, at the moment.

Hughes and Turcotte I expect to go very high, competing for among the top spots. Hughes looks like the next coming of the Kane, Marner, Keller archetype. Lets see if he can stay at center. If he can, he'll be the obvious first pick in the 2019 draft. Turcotte I think provides more of a two way game, insanely smart player, same type of smarts I see of out Elias Pettersson. He combines that with a more well rounded game than Hughes, he's not as dynamic, but plenty dynamic himself. If Hughes does not go 1OA, he looks like one of the top candidates for 1OA. Among the other forwards, Beecher is more of a project. Size, skating, and he can really shoot the puck. Not that good yet, but maybe in a few years. Boldy is very well rounded. I don't expect him to be a particularly high pick, but he's good right now, and projects as a good player. Caufield is wait and see depending on his height. Could very well be the next Yamamoto type who goes in the first round despite not being that tall. Very good player right now, but playing with Hughes does not help evaluate him. How would he do without playing with the likely 1OA?

On defense, I'm not as sure about any of these guys. Vlasic has nice size, decent movement, shows a shutdown D game at times with more offense than you'd think, but he is inconsistent defensively, and I'm not sure his movement is better than good for his size. Its hard to project these types of players. If he continues to improve his mobility and show offense, he could be a top 10 pick. If not, he could fall out of the first round or be a late first rounder, hard to know. York is a decent puck mover, good skater, okay defensively, some offense. Nothing special, IMO, but a quality defensemen. Warren I expected more. He's not a bad player, he just doesn't control games, like I had heard. He's rather good defensively and he's a good skater, but offensively he's not shown that much. McCarthy has nice size, a good defensive game, can skate and can move the puck. Thun is very similar, but instead from the left side. Knight is a really impressive goalie. Really polished, but also has size and athleticism. I consider him the top goalie so far for 2019, but even if thats the case, the top goalies aren't always first rounders.
Its strong. 97 had a crazy amount of talent. 2 top 5 picks including a first overall (Matthews, Hanifin), 2 more top 10 picks (Werenski and Tkachuk), and a few more first rounders (McAvoy, White, Roslovic, Kunin, and Tage Thompson). We can't get too carried away though, remember, at this point for the 2017's the most hyped guy was Luke Kirwan followed by possibly Colin White. Bracco was also viewed as a first rounder at points.

Turcotte is probably the 2nd highest for this draft class at the moment from the USNTDP, but we are a long time away, and scouts won't start getting serious about these guys until this years U-18. The 1999's are a good but not great group. It will be interesting if anyone can force their way up. It will be tough for the D, but I could see one of the centers and someone else bumping up.

Beecher has a huge ceiling if he can put it togeather, everyone is desperately after a big franchise center, and he has the skill set to be one.
 
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AmericanDream

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great move by Alex! I love the control and his ability to knock the defenders stick away with his free arm in full flight, pure skill there! he has wonderful bloodlines as anyone who was old enough to remember his dad, Alfie Turcotte should have had such a lengthy NHL career if the game was different back then for smaller players. Alfie was a dominant offensive player who everywhere he went was a ppg player outside the NHL. Hopefully his son has a far better NHL career than he did.
 
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Pavel Buchnevich

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I think Hughes is the top American prospect for the 2019 draft, but Turcotte isn't far behind at #2. I think he might be a top 5 pick in next year's draft.
 

North Country

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I think Hughes is the top American prospect for the 2019 draft, but Turcotte isn't far behind at #2. I think he might be a top 5 pick in next year's draft.
A few young 2000's could also be higher up. Ben Brinkman would excell on defense with his draft class, if able to play with the 17's. Ryder Donovan and Brady Meyer would also have the same type of success and both made the Ivan Hlinka roster two years out from their draft. I think the last player to do this was Casey Mittelstadt so it's pretty rare.
 
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JiggsNY

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Bumped up to the U18 squad with Knight Caulfield and York

If they stay up then USA clearly prioritizing U18s over the playoffs despite being in first place, unless it's only temporary, idk
 
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AmericanDream

Thank you Elon!
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Bumped up to the U18 squad with Knight Caulfield and York

If they stay up then USA clearly prioritizing U18s over the playoffs despite being in first place, unless it's only temporary, idk


yeah that is odd with Knight, don't really get that at all....good for Caulfield, York, and Turcotte...all top players deserving of getting more recognition.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

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He had an assist in his first game for the 18's.

I watched some of the 17's 5 nations tournament last week and Turcotte looked like the best player at the tournament. Getting moved up seemed the right decision.

He had one assist that was absolutely ridiculous of a 16 year old where he was being hounded skating down the right side of the rink, he held the guy off using his strength, got pushed into the boards but made the shovel pass out in front for a goal.

His game is reminiscent of Datsyuk. I've compared Elias Pettersson to Datsyuk, but I think the comparison is an even better fit for Turcotte. Same size, skating, hands, IQ level on the ice, 200 foot game, but also very dynamic offensively. Turcotte might be the next best forward in this draft. He also might be a better chance at a 1c than Hughes. I think Turcotte has a better chance to stick centrally than Hughes. Turcotte is exceptionally strong and plays a pretty gritty game for a skilled player. Right now though, I wouldn't say there are real challengers for Hughes, but it's over a year out from the draft.
 

Whalers Fan

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Bumped up to the U18 squad with Knight Caulfield and York

If they stay up then USA clearly prioritizing U18s over the playoffs despite being in first place, unless it's only temporary, idk

USA Hockey always prioritizes the U18 WC, so that's nothing new here. I am surprised Knight was brought up just to sit on the bench backing up DeRidder last night. It will be interesting to see who dresses as goalies tonight for the U17 team. They could theoretically demote Mor from the U18 team, since the rest of the U17s games are versus USHL opponents and therefore he is not age-restricted from playing for them.

The bench sure looked full last night with all these call ups. I counted 20 skaters and two goalies. The U17 team will be shorthanded tonight if some of the call ups don't play, or replacements have been found.
 

Frannel

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USA Hockey always prioritizes the U18 WC, so that's nothing new here. I am surprised Knight was brought up just to sit on the bench backing up DeRidder last night. It will be interesting to see who dresses as goalies tonight for the U17 team. They could theoretically demote Mor from the U18 team, since the rest of the U17s games are versus USHL opponents and therefore he is not age-restricted from playing for them.

The bench sure looked full last night with all these call ups. I counted 20 skaters and two goalies. The U17 team will be shorthanded tonight if some of the call ups don't play, or replacements have been found.
On the NTDP website Erik Middendorf, DJ King and Mor are now listed as U17...
 
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AmericanDream

Thank you Elon!
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On the NTDP website Erik Middendorf, DJ King and Mor are now listed as U17...
yep, makes sense...it does happen where players drop from the u18 team to play u17, and these would be the 3 I would select...more playing time for them as well so not a total loss if they are motivated enough to play better
 

Frannel

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yep, makes sense...it does happen where players drop from the u18 team to play u17, and these would be the 3 I would select...more playing time for them as well so not a total loss if they are motivated enough to play better
But they will only be on the U17 for the rest of the season, right? They won't be on the program next year again?
 
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