C Casey Mittelstadt - Eden Prairie HS, USHS (2017, 8th, BUF)

[coastal_nuck]

If we get the 8th pick out of Buffalo Id consider taking him but he does have fatso issues even tho hes a funny looking guy i just couldnt pick a guy that High because he looks funny

You're an idiot. The epitome of what makes this board and the Canucks one hard to read.

Mittlestad is a great prospect, combine results aside. Luckily, a hockey players worth isn't determined by that 1 day event.

 

[Zarzh]

This could not be further from the truth. There is a huge amount of supervision, expectation and control of players in terms of off-ice training in NCAA hockey. It absolutely is not optional as you suggest, even outside of the playing season. This applies to all NCAA Division I athletes (both men and women), not just hockey players. MN will kick his ass into shape. He won't have any other option.

Given the choice, I would much rather try to drastically improve the fitness of a very skilled player with strong IQ, than try to improve the skill and IQ of a low skill fitness freak. The later is Tim Tebow, who time and time again shows that sports aren't played in weight rooms.

What really blows me away about the Mittelstadt discussion is how few people talk about his need to improve his skating stride. Fitness won't be the thing that stunts an NHL career. What will keep him from his ceiling is his skating.

His fitness is pathetic. Unless he was heavily injured, that would be bad standards for a 16 year old. Strength-wise he wouldn't be close to most high school sports teams.

Don't love college training. would feel better about CHL. Facilities generally seem worse then most upscale gyms and private skill (skating) trainers.

That Mittelstadt is at the level where skill beats fitness is optimistic.

 

[Spade]

His fitness is pathetic. Unless he was heavily injured, that would be bad standards for a 16 year old. Strength-wise he wouldn't be close to most high school sports teams.

Don't love college training. would feel better about CHL. Facilities generally seem worse then most upscale gyms and private skill (skating) trainers.

That Mittelstadt is at the level where skill beats fitness is optimistic.

College training facilities at major schools tend to be much better than your run of the mill CHL team. And with the extended length of the season, CHL players are further at a disadvantage when it comes to in-season fitness training.

At the end of the day he plays hockey for a living as opposed to lifting weights, so as long as he's a better hockey player than the players around him all is well. It's also much easier to develop fitness routines and get in excellent shape (well, except in my case) as opposed to developing a very niche set of skills such as playing hockey well. I think you have to go into his particular circumstances with the mindset that he can only get better as he fills out.

If you get stuck worrying about how players look at 18, you lose sight of what they could be at 25.

 

[Zarzh]

College training facilities at major schools tend to be much better than your run of the mill CHL team. And with the extended length of the season, CHL players are further at a disadvantage when it comes to in-season fitness training.

At the end of the day he plays hockey for a living as opposed to lifting weights, so as long as he's a better hockey player than the players around him all is well. It's also much easier to develop fitness routines and get in excellent shape (well, except in my case) as opposed to developing a very niche set of skills such as playing hockey well. I think you have to go into his particular circumstances with the mindset that he can only get better as he fills out.

If you get stuck worrying about how players look at 18, you lose sight of what they could be at 25.

Average CHL team, maybe. Good CHL team, or sports academy not really. There Ivy League and a few D1 schools with absolutely terrible gyms, and mediocre trainers.

There's relative skill. If we're assuming he's a top 5 prospect this year, but a top 10 talent-wise prospect in an average year, well that isn't enough to get by on skill. Any prospect who could get by on skill would be the #1 or #2 pick in most years. Let's assume value-wise Mittlestadt will have to be a #2C to be a good pick, the #2C on most playoff teams is similar or slightly higher talent level, one isn't going to outskill many of them.

If we assume fitness and skating/footspeed isn't that big of an issue, we pick Sam Gagner, Griffin Reinhart, Anthony Bennett, and Michael Beasley extremely high.

 

[Bonin21]

Throws out basketball names lol

 

[Frk It]

Average CHL team, maybe. Good CHL team, or sports academy not really. There Ivy League and a few D1 schools with absolutely terrible gyms, and mediocre trainers.

Ok... but not where Mittelstadt is going.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

Average CHL team, maybe. Good CHL team, or sports academy not really. There Ivy League and a few D1 schools with absolutely terrible gyms, and mediocre trainers.

There's relative skill. If we're assuming he's a top 5 prospect this year, but a top 10 talent-wise prospect in an average year, well that isn't enough to get by on skill. Any prospect who could get by on skill would be the #1 or #2 pick in most years. Let's assume value-wise Mittlestadt will have to be a #2C to be a good pick, the #2C on most playoff teams is similar or slightly higher talent level, one isn't going to outskill many of them.

If we assume fitness and skating/footspeed isn't that big of an issue, we pick Sam Gagner, Griffin Reinhart, Anthony Bennett, and Michael Beasley extremely high.

Casey isn't attending an Ivy League school. He is attending the University of Minnesota. If you have problems distinguishing between the two, you probably should not be commenting on the facilities of NCAA schools.

 

[CanaFan]

Throws out basketball names lol

To be fair, Anthony Bennett likely *does* have massive skating issues. I doubt he ever makes the NHL

 

[bigdog16]

Average CHL team, maybe. Good CHL team, or sports academy not really. There Ivy League and a few D1 schools with absolutely terrible gyms, and mediocre trainers.

There's relative skill. If we're assuming he's a top 5 prospect this year, but a top 10 talent-wise prospect in an average year, well that isn't enough to get by on skill. Any prospect who could get by on skill would be the #1 or #2 pick in most years. Let's assume value-wise Mittlestadt will have to be a #2C to be a good pick, the #2C on most playoff teams is similar or slightly higher talent level, one isn't going to outskill many of them.

If we assume fitness and skating/footspeed isn't that big of an issue, we pick Sam Gagner, Griffin Reinhart, Anthony Bennett, and Michael Beasley extremely high.

Not really. All ivy leagues have extremely beautiful gyms and trainers that make a salary and a healthy living off simply that. The Ivys have the richest alum and deepest history, money flows in there like water. Sure you could say AIC, Niagara might not have unbelievable gyms, hence why they are bottom of the rankings year after year

 

[Zarzh]

Not really. All ivy leagues have extremely beautiful gyms and trainers that make a salary and a healthy living off simply that. The Ivys have the richest alum and deepest history, money flows in there like water. Sure you could say AIC, Niagara might not have unbelievable gyms, hence why they are bottom of the rankings year after year

Relative to most A-list private gyms, or training academies, they're disappointing.

The trainers are fine for the average student. Compared to private skating or skill trainers for example, there's a quality drop off in the vast majority of cases.

Casey isn't attending an Ivy League school. He is attending the University of Minnesota. If you have problems distinguishing between the two, you probably should not be commenting on the facilities of NCAA schools.

I'm assuming Minnesota is a D1 school.

Either the player has insane work ethic and good/great skill and can be fine wherever, or high enough skill and can stagnate for a year as a one and done.

Throws out basketball names lol

There are very few hockey names where fitness was a concern and they had any expectations of stardom. Brendl?

 

[1972]

Makes you wonder how good he will be when he cuts 20 lbs of fat and puts on 10 lbs of muscle.

 

[57special]

To be fair, Anthony Bennett likely *does* have massive skating issues. I doubt he ever makes the NHL

 

[57special]

Relative to most A-list private gyms, or training academies, they're disappointing.

The trainers are fine for the average student. Compared to private skating or skill trainers for example, there's a quality drop off in the vast majority of cases.



I'm assuming Minnesota is a D1 school.

Either the player has insane work ethic and good/great skill and can be fine wherever, or high enough skill and can stagnate for a year as a one and done.



There are very few hockey names where fitness was a concern and they had any expectations of stardom. Brendl?

The large D1 universities have better facilities than the vast majority of CHL teams. As for access to trainers....where do you think they get their degrees?

The endowments at the Ivy leagues are in the billions of dollars. Harvard is what- 48B? A hair more than a Junior team, don't you think?

You're "assuming" that Minnesota is a D1 school? Do you mean you don't know? If you don't know, how can we take any of your posts seriously?

 

[TT1]

I can't wait to tell everyone i told you so when he busts.

 

[CanaFan]

I can't wait to tell everyone i told you so when he busts.

We'll all be here waiting anxiously I'm sure

 

[Knucklehead]

I can't wait to tell everyone i told you so when he busts.

Yeah ok....Just be sure to show up if Mittlestadt is in the running for rookie of the year award.

 

[clevelandcane]

I love Mittlestadt. He's my favorite in his group. I hope he makes the WJ roster. Can't wait to see him in Plymouth.

 

[57special]

I don't know if he is going to be a star in the NHL, but I do know that he has star-like skills. His hands are sick. Skating is pretty good, but could be better. One thing that the Gophers do is produce good skaters, so he's going to the right place.

 

[Menzinger]

His fitness is pathetic. Unless he was heavily injured, that would be bad standards for a 16 year old. Strength-wise he wouldn't be close to most high school sports teams.

Don't love college training. would feel better about CHL. Facilities generally seem worse then most upscale gyms and private skill (skating) trainers.

That Mittelstadt is at the level where skill beats fitness is optimistic.

Not so sure I'd agree about those facilities - Big 10 Schools will have gyms on par with any other training program in pro sports. And he's going to U of Minnesota which has particularly good ones too. They're lightyears ahead of anything that a CHL team has.

 

[BigRangy]

The combine performance isn't concerning in itself. Hockey games aren't won in the weight room, and being out of shape means that there's more room to get better once you get into shape.

What is concerning is the attitude that Mittelstadt appears to have towards self-improvement. He went back to play high school at an age where the best prospects push themselves by going to the NCAA and he didn't put any preparation into the Combine at all. I haven't watched nearly enough of him to comment smartly on his hockey skills but a player has to be committed to being the best he can be otherwise he will probably not make it. Very, very few people can become good NHLers (which you'd expect from a top 10 pick) on skill alone. If I were to draft him, I'd need to be very confident that he can change his outlook on what hockey means to him, because otherwise I don't see him making much of an impact.

 

[Marre]

Not doing a pullup doesn't mean he hasn't dedicated time to strength and conditioning. He ranked 5th in the fatigue index testing.

I'm not sure being consistently bad is such a good thing.

 

[jarboy]

Relative to most A-list private gyms, or training academies, they're disappointing.

The trainers are fine for the average student. Compared to private skating or skill trainers for example, there's a quality drop off in the vast majority of cases.



I'm assuming Minnesota is a D1 school.

Either the player has insane work ethic and good/great skill and can be fine wherever, or high enough skill and can stagnate for a year as a one and done.



There are very few hockey names where fitness was a concern and they had any expectations of stardom. Brendl?

Minnesota has an extra 3400 seat hockey arena just to play girls hockey on. Visiting NHL teams practice on it. You have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[CanaFan]

Strength and fitness are without a doubt the two easiest areas of development to shore up. Compared to skating, hockey IQ, hands, and passing the things Mittelstadt needs to work on are fairly safe and projectable.

Yet weirdly it's set off a firestorm of criticism that is more than concerns about Vilardi's weak skating, Makar's size and competition level, etc.

It's very ... odd and I suspect has more to do with it being the one area that posters can relate to ("I go to the gym, why can't he?") as opposed to the less straightforward issues of skating and levels of competition.

He may not pan out - better players than Mittelstadt have busted before - but the reaction to the fitness testing has to be one of the most emotional / least rational outbursts I've seen on these boards in years.

 

[stl76]

The combine performance isn't concerning in itself. Hockey games aren't won in the weight room, and being out of shape means that there's more room to get better once you get into shape.

What is concerning is the attitude that Mittelstadt appears to have towards self-improvement. He went back to play high school at an age where the best prospects push themselves by going to the NCAA and he didn't put any preparation into the Combine at all. I haven't watched nearly enough of him to comment smartly on his hockey skills but a player has to be committed to being the best he can be otherwise he will probably not make it. Very, very few people can become good NHLers (which you'd expect from a top 10 pick) on skill alone. If I were to draft him, I'd need to be very confident that he can change his outlook on what hockey means to him, because otherwise I don't see him making much of an impact.

THIS! So much this. Despite being pretty old for this draft, a lot of the reports I've read about Mittelstadt mention his need to mature and possible upside. Watching interviews with Casey, I see a kid with a LOT of growing up to do - despite being one of the older eligible players.

Playing high school, I question Mittelstadt's quality of competition and his drive to dedicate his life to making the NHL. Yes he answered some questions about competition by producing in the USHL, but I am not sold.

The fitness issues and poor combine performance are just one more red flag IMO.

 

[AustonsNostrils]

THIS! So much this. Despite being pretty old for this draft, a lot of the reports I've read about Mittelstadt mention his need to mature and possible upside. Watching interviews with Casey, I see a kid with a LOT of growing up to do - despite being one of the older eligible players.

Playing high school, I question Mittelstadt's quality of competition and his drive to dedicate his life to making the NHL. Yes he answered some questions about competition by producing in the USHL, but I am not sold.

The fitness issues and poor combine performance are just one more red flag IMO.

Except he excels when stepping up in competition, look at his Hlinka and U18 stats.