Chad Painchaud

Posted this in the Thrashers board but no one goes there and it got no response so I'll try here. I just want to know what you think this guy's potential is. Anything opinions would be great. The reason I ask is because he went to my school (graduated this past year) and I know him, so I was just curious as to what kind of future he has, if any.
Thanks.

 

no painchaud fans out there?

 

I like Chad he's a very good player with a all-around game, He has a good future ahead of him. I wanted the Leafs to grab him if he was availiable but he wasn't.

 

Sarnia was on TV last night and he didn't look very good IMO. Expected way more from a guy taken pretty highly. Made a few nice passes, but he's not that big and wasn't very involved at all ... for the most part played on the perimeter and was barely noticeable. The commentators were saying he's struggled with the transition from Mississauga to Sarnia, so maybe that's the case and he'll turn it around as the season goes on (his PPG is down considerably from last year, not a good sign). His reputation is as a speedy, gritty two-way guy but I didn't see much evidence of it - he's pretty quick but didn't use it well, and he looked pretty soft and wasn't involved physically at all.

That said, it's only one game so I don't have a very broad view of him but he looks to me like a bit of a reach to go as highly as he did. I'm not sure what he translates to pro as ... 3rd line checker I guess, but if he wants to make it in that role he'll have to show a hell of a lot more drive and grit than he did last night.

 

Chad Painchaud was one of my favourite hopefuls for the Leafs to pick up in round 3 of last years draft.

 

I've seen him 3 times this year, although in fairness the third time with Sarnia I wasn't paying much attention to the game.

And Painchaud... I have to say I'm disappointed. I bought into him as a late-round hopeful for the draft last year too, as many did, based on limited viewing. But in similarly limited viewing this year, I'm seeing regression if anything. I don't know if I'm just seeing the wrong games, although his stats don't tell a very reassuring story either.

I would say that his head just doesn't look like its in the game. You could say the same a bit last year too, of course, but still, one would have expected progress. He skates well, he looks like he has added some strength, but he seems pretty ineffectual overall. Every once in a long while he'll do something, make a rush that makes you realise he has the physical talent to be a frontline player in the OHL, but then he finishes it with a bonehead pass-away or just skates off into the corner and lets the play disintegrate. He doesn't seem to use his teammates very well. And he vanishes into the ice for long stretches. He should be a much better player, but something is going wrong.

I wouldn't project him as an NHL prospect at this point. He has some of the tools, but I think the best you could hope for, at a stretch, is that he completely turns things around, really puts in some serious effort for the rest of his junior career and a few years in the minors, gets a mean streak, and emerges as some kind of quick 4th line defensive player. But even that's so hard to see right now.