C Marco Rossi - Ottawa 67’s, OHL (2020 Draft)

[HSF]

Rossi is going to be one of those players where you look back and see his stats and wonder why the heck he didn't go higher

 

[57special]

Top 10, or likely top 8, is pretty high. It's not like Perfetti doesn't have similar stats, and there are doubts about him. Lafreniere is a given, but are you really going to take Rossi over Byfield? Stutzle? Drysadale and Sanderson can skate rings around Rossi, have better size, and play a position that is always in demand in a year that is devoid of a lot of top D prospects. . Holtz and Raymond were playing against men in a much better league. How do you compare?

Even his teammate, Quinn, is highly rated by those who watched a lot of Ottawa, and he is taller, and still seems to have quite a bit of filling out to do.

Rossi isn't being drafted in a vacuum. He is up against the best players in the world at his age. Yes, it's partly about what they have done, but it's also about what scouts think they will do in the future.

 

[Nicomo Cosca]

Rossi is going to be one of those players where you look back and see his stats and wonder why the heck he didn't go higher

We won’t have to wonder. If too many teams (stupidly) pass on him it will because of his height. You would think the success of Point, Marchand, DeBrincat, Gaudreau, Marchessault, and all the other smaller players these days would be enough to not make that mistake.

 

[NyQuil]

Rossi is going to be one of those players where you look back and see his stats and wonder why the heck he didn't go higher

It's an interesting year because there's a lot of hype about the top 8-10 guys and there may be a great deal of hindsight-driven schadenfreude on this board in a few years.

 

[Just Linda]

Wow, you deserve some bragging rights with that take. Since you seem so prescient, what does your top 10 look like this year? Also curious what you think of Sanderson...

Earlier in this thread I had

Lafreniere
Byfield
Stutzle
Raymond
Drysdale
Perfetti
Holtz
Quinn
Sanderson
Rossi

Im less fresh with tape right now and recency bias has shifted for a couple players. My biggest change was from watch Holtz though this preseason, I didn't see what I wanted from him. Despite putting up good points, i dont feel he was a faster player out there despite what whats-his-face media guy said. I even gave it a longer look to see if it was my bias/perception which was altering what I was seeing. Also, I think getting the Barzal comparable for Stutzle's possession game stuck in my head + how well Raymond has looked this preseason has taken that even horse race and shifted the lead barely for me.

To put them into draft tiers, each member of the tier is pretty interchangeable for me and Ive been flipping on them.

1st
Lafreniere
Byfield

2nd
Raymond
Stutzle

3rd
Perfetti
Drysdale
Sanderson

4th
Holtz
Quinn (see below)
Rossi
Zary (borderline)

5th
Quinn (depending on the day you ask me lol)
Schnieder
Zary (see above)

6th
Jarvis (depending on the day)
Lundell
Holloway
Guhle


To answer about Sanderson, hes grown on me for sure but I'm still not seeing the same upside as Drysdale. Less risk though, hes an all around good player and I can see how so many scouts have fallen in love with his play. He seems like the guy who would develop well for sure

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

90

We won’t have to wonder. If too many teams (stupidly) pass on him it will because of his height. You would think the success of Point, Marchand, DeBrincat, Gaudreau, Marchessault, and all the other smaller players these days would be enough to not make that mistake.

players played games in the NHL last year at 70 inches or below according to NHL.com... those would be posted heights which probably are not completely accurate within half an inch.
The top 20 of those are

Player	Pos	DOB	Birth City	S/P	Ht	Wt	Draft Yr	Round	Overall	P
Brad Marchand	L	1988-05-11	Halifax	NS	69	181	2006	3	71	87
Patrick Kane	R	1988-11-19	Buffalo	NY	70	177	2007	1	1	84
Brayden Point	C	1996-03-13	Calgary	AB	70	166	2014	3	79	64
Tomas Tatar	L	1990-12-01	Ilava	--	70	183	2009	2	60	61
Travis Konecny	R	1997-03-11	London	ON	70	175	2015	1	24	61
Johnny Gaudreau	L	1993-08-13	Salem	NJ	69	165	2011	4	104	58
Jaden Schwartz	L	1992-06-25	Wilcox	SK	70	190	2010	1	14	57
Kevin Fiala	L	1996-07-22	St. Gallen	--	70	193	2014	1	11	54
Quinn Hughes	D	1999-10-14	Orlando	FL	70	170	2018	1	7	53
Torey Krug	D	1991-04-12	Livonia	MI	69	186	--	--	--	49
Jonathan Marchessault	C	1990-12-27	Cap-Rouge	QC	69	180	--	--	--	47
Alex DeBrincat	L	1997-12-18	Farmington Hills	MI	67	165	2016	2	39	45
Nikita Gusev	L	1992-07-08	Moscow	--	69	163	2012	7	202	44
Clayton Keller	R	1998-07-29	Chesterfield	MO	70	170	2016	1	7	44
Max Domi	C	1995-03-02	Winnipeg	MB	70	192	2013	1	12	44
Brendan Gallagher	R	1992-05-06	Edmonton	AB	69	184	2010	5	147	43
Jean-Gabriel Pageau	C	1992-11-11	Ottawa	ON	70	180	2011	4	96	42
Conor Garland	R	1996-03-11	Scituate	MA	70	165	2015	5	123	39
Ryan Ellis	D	1991-01-03	Hamilton	ON	70	180	2009	1	11	38

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Earlier in this thread I had



Im less fresh with tape right now and recency bias has shifted for a couple players. My biggest change was from watch Holtz though this preseason, I didn't see what I wanted from him. Despite putting up good points, i dont feel he was a faster player out there despite what whats-his-face media guy said. I even gave it a longer look to see if it was my bias/perception which was altering what I was seeing. Also, I think getting the Barzal comparable for Stutzle's possession game stuck in my head + how well Raymond has looked this preseason has taken that even horse race and shifted the lead barely for me.

To put them into draft tiers, each member of the tier is pretty interchangeable for me and Ive been flipping on them.

1st
Lafreniere
Byfield

2nd
Raymond
Stutzle

3rd
Perfetti
Drysdale
Sanderson

4th
Holtz
Quinn (see below)
Rossi
Zary (borderline)

5th
Quinn (depending on the day you ask me lol)
Schnieder
Zary (see above)

6th
Jarvis (depending on the day)
Lundell
Holloway
Guhle


To answer about Sanderson, hes grown on me for sure but I'm still not seeing the same upside as Drysdale. Less risk though, hes an all around good player and I can see how so many scouts have fallen in love with his play. He seems like the guy who would develop well for sure

Interesting, thanks!

Nothing too shocking. Understandable take on Holtz, and not surprised that you see Sanderson climbing a bit.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Top 10, or likely top 8, is pretty high. It's not like Perfetti doesn't have similar stats, and there are doubts about him. Lafreniere is a given, but are you really going to take Rossi over Byfield? Stutzle? Drysadale and Sanderson can skate rings around Rossi, have better size, and play a position that is always in demand in a year that is devoid of a lot of top D prospects. . Holtz and Raymond were playing against men in a much better league. How do you compare?

Even his teammate, Quinn, is highly rated by those who watched a lot of Ottawa, and he is taller, and still seems to have quite a bit of filling out to do.

Rossi isn't being drafted in a vacuum. He is up against the best players in the world at his age. Yes, it's partly about what they have done, but it's also about what scouts think they will do in the future.

Good points..we shouldn't be surprised if he goes closer to 10 than 5, he's up against a lot of talent. Even putting height aside.

 

[jc17]

If someone does take Quinn over him I think it will be a huge mistake. Nothing is certain so maybe Quinn out plays him, but I think it's slim.

 

[bsu]

Rossi is going to be one of those players where you look back and see his stats and wonder why the heck he didn't go higher

This.

 

[Hockey Know it all]

I'll preface this by saying I think Rossi will be a good NHLer and that I don't really care about height of a player unless their like 5' 6" or something outrageous. For me, however, what stands out is that he only had a PPG of 1.17 against teams with a 0.600% or better. These would have been teams that were much closer in talent to Ottawa. The talent gap between 90% of NHL teams is much less pronounced compared to junior hockey. (these plays ins sort of confirm that). This would be my concern about how his offense will translate. He seemed to take advantage of the fact that he was older and stronger than some bottom teams who are typical filled with younger players that aren't physically filled out yet.

This argument is so stupid. I’m pretty sure that’s how hockey works.
Let’s say he is a PPG player in the nhl. How is scoring 43points in 35 games against bad teams and 39 points in 47 games against good teams bad? He is still contributing at a solid rate vs most teams. The argument”he only scored blah blah” against good teams is stupid.

 

[simonedvinsson]

This argument is so stupid. I’m pretty sure that’s how hockey works.
Let’s say he is a PPG player in the nhl. How is scoring 43points in 35 games against bad teams and 39 points in 47 games against good teams bad? He is still contributing at a solid rate vs most teams. The argument”he only scored blah blah” against good teams is stupid.

That's kind of how I feel. Wouldn't it be more concerning if he was scoring less against the baddies? There was an analysis a few pages back comparing Perfetti's and Rossi's production against the goodies, and the conclusion was that Rossi's offensive numbers drop because he plays a more defensive game. Consequently, the goodies scored significantly more goals against Perfetti than Rossi. We see this from the more Selke-caliber players all the time come playoff time as two-way centers focus first on shutting down the opposing superstars.

 

[Hockey Know it all]

That's kind of how I feel. Wouldn't it be more concerning if he was scoring less against the baddies? There was an analysis a few pages back comparing Perfetti's and Rossi's production against the goodies, and the conclusion was that Rossi's offensive numbers drop because he plays a more defensive game. Consequently, the goodies scored significantly more goals against Perfetti than Rossi. We see this from the more Selke-caliber players all the time come playoff time as two-way centers focus first on shutting down the opposing superstars.

Exactly. It’s such a stupid analysis, it hurts my head.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Can everyone just be happy for the Wild when he falls to us at 9?

 

[nickdawg95]

Can everyone just be happy for the Wild when he falls to us at 9?

If he falls there's no way the sabres don't pick him. sorry pal

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

If he falls there's no way the sabres don't pick him. sorry pal

I have faith that the Sabres will screw it up

 

[nickdawg95]

I have faith that the Sabres will screw it up

Yeah, I do to

 

[lilidk]

Is he going to play in Europe this season

 

[SwedeChristoffer]

Is he going to play in Europe this season

As far as I know, he hasn't, and will not sign with a European club prior to the draft.

I think his intentions are to wait until he is drafted and then let the team that drafts him decide where he will play.
NHL, AHL (if he is allowed?), or in Europe (Zürich probably).

As you can see there's a lot of "maybes" and "I thinks" in what I just wrote, that's because I haven't seen anything concrete, it's just based on small pieces of information from tweets and what-not.

 

[AKL]

Is he going to play in Europe this season

As far as I know, he hasn't, and will not sign with a European club prior to the draft.

I think his intentions are to wait until he is drafted and then let the team that drafts him decide where he will play.
NHL, AHL (if he is allowed?), or in Europe (Zürich probably).

As you can see there's a lot of "maybes" and "I thinks" in what I just wrote, that's because I haven't seen anything concrete, it's just based on small pieces of information from tweets and what-not.

This is what I've gotten from everything I've read too. He's had offers from Euro teams, but is convinced he can make the NHL next season, so is leaving his options open.

 

[lilidk]

This is what I've gotten from everything I've read too. He's had offers from Euro teams, but is convinced he can make the NHL next season, so is leaving his options open.

Wish I see him against the man before the draft

 

[AKL]

Wish I see him against the man before the draft

Yeah it would have been nice. It's also going to be a situation where, by the time the NHL preseason starts, he won't have played for like 8 months, so he'll probably be out of practice, and likely not in top form to make an NHL team.

 

[Kingpin794]

That's kind of how I feel. Wouldn't it be more concerning if he was scoring less against the baddies? There was an analysis a few pages back comparing Perfetti's and Rossi's production against the goodies, and the conclusion was that Rossi's offensive numbers drop because he plays a more defensive game. Consequently, the goodies scored significantly more goals against Perfetti than Rossi. We see this from the more Selke-caliber players all the time come playoff time as two-way centers focus first on shutting down the opposing superstars.

I mean that's fine. That's pretty much how I personally project his game anyway. He's going to be a solid two way forward but he's not going to be an offensive catalyst type. Certainly worth a top ten pick and valued more by some GM's depending on what they're looking for. One has the potential to challenge for the Art Ross and the other is a Selke player. My comment and the one after looking at goals against were both good context for each player's stat lines.

 

[jc17]

Stats are only meaningful if they've shown to be a factor in the past.

Too many people are looking at his stats vs top and bottom teams and making assumptions about the implications of those stats without evidence that it makes a big difference

From what I've seen they aren't meaningless but its not as simple as if you produce way more vs bad teams you bust. Producing against good teams has definitely been something that is a good sign, but guys like stamkos and marner had big drop offs like rossi and turned out fine.

I'd rather that he scores a lot against good and bad teams, but the scoring he did shouldn't just be thrown out because it was heavily skewed against bad teams

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Is he going to play in Europe this season

I don’t know how official it is but the plan is for him to sign with a team in the DEL because they start closer to the NHL’s season so if he doesn’t make an NHL team he can report there