Galchenyuk as a prospect had more skills than Caufield and KK. Minus maybe Caufield’s shot but both are smarter by a wide margin.
Prospect Info: Cole Caufield (Part 5) - No Sophmore Slump, please Edition
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Tighthead
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These assessments always come with the benefit of hindsight. I don't think may people were complaining about AG's smarts after two seasons.
I don't think CC and KK are dumb players, but I am certainly not in a position to assess them as particularly smart either.
GlassesJacketShirt
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His goal-scoring ability is top tier. Whether he can score at will in the NHL will come down to him rounding out the rest of his game so coaches feel good sending him out there.
There was no complaint, but it wasn’t consider as a strenght. KK’s IQ is obvious and Caufield is elite at finding open space. They rely on it to have success. AG was not relying on his smart to perform. CC and KK have good skills and great smarts but need to get stronger. If they do, they will bring an interesting package.
CristianoRonaldo
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Revisionism is a common thing in this board... Galchenyuk was described by the scouts as a smart player, with above-average skating ability, tons of skills, a dynamic offensive player who can defend.
A great passer who can shoot the puck and a creative player because of his great vision. He was praised for his hockey sense and on ice awarness.
Alex Galchenyuk 2012 NHL Draft Prospect Profile
https://thehockeywriters.com/alex-galchenyuk-the-next-ones-nhl-2012-draft-prospect-profile/
He was a future #1C... He was better than Kotkaniemi as a prospect.
Nobody was talking about his lack of "hockey I.Q" in fact he was praised for it.
This talk started when Therrien and MB ruined him.
A great passer who can shoot the puck and a creative player because of his great vision. He was praised for his hockey sense and on ice awarness.
Alex Galchenyuk 2012 NHL Draft Prospect Profile
https://thehockeywriters.com/alex-galchenyuk-the-next-ones-nhl-2012-draft-prospect-profile/
He was a future #1C... He was better than Kotkaniemi as a prospect.
Nobody was talking about his lack of "hockey I.Q" in fact he was praised for it.
This talk started when Therrien and MB ruined him.
Tighthead
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Kk’s genius isn’t that obvious. Sorry. Of course your reply will be “a true hockey fan can see it”. I don’t think he is a dumb player, but if he has the “great smarts” as you declare his physical tools must be terrible because this season was a struggle and a disappointment.
Finding open space doesn’t necessarily equate to being overall hockey smart. It means he is good at finding open space. You use it as evidence of “great” smarts. That’s unreasonable.
You are seeing the best of KK and CC and seeing AG with hindsight.
The Great Weal
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It's pretty difficult to assign guarantees from 17/18 year olds. Even more so with those who were injured the entire draft year like Galchenyuk. They Habs had to make scout him without seeing his draft year performance. 16 year olds can look like a superstar but then never really progress and their flaws become a lot more apparent as they age and face tougher competition. For example, Anton Lundell was considered a top 5 and even top 3 player for this draft last year. Now however, he's outside of the top 10 on many sites because of his skating. Another example is Joe Veleno who was seen as the #1 overall pick for a while but really trailed off and got drafted at the end of the 1st round.
Projecting a prospect is incredibly difficult. Jonathan Drouin was one of the best prospects I have ever seen. He was absolutely incredible and would have gone higher in a draft that didn't have Mack, Barkov and Jones. I mean look at this scouting report: NHL Draft prospects: No. 3 Jonathan Drouin - Sportsnet.ca.
It has high praise for his talent(and deservedly so) and then you also see stuff like this: "Drouin isn’t afraid to mix it up. He likes getting under his opposition’s skin and will jab a defender in the back of the legs after a whistle, which inevitably starts a scrum." Drouin in the NHL is soft as baby shit. The report also praises his goalscoring when he has a career high of 21 goals in an NHL season.
In addition, numerous scouting sites contradict one another. I recall vividly a scouting website calling Nick Suzuki an excellent skater when skating was arguably his biggest weakness which is supported in other reports.
As for Galchenyuk, I don't think it's right to say that Therrien and MB ruined him. Sure you can say that we never gave him the perfect opportunity to be a #1 C and that is the reason why he never became one. It's a fair point for sure. That being said, while he was never a #1 C, he played wing on a line with Plekanec and Gally quite often and had good to great linemates for the vast majority of his time here. He was not a #1 C, and you can say we ruined him in that, but he was undoubtedly a top 6 winger and a good one at that. Now? He's been dumped twice by 2 teams and is probably going to the KHL. Can't really blame MB, MT and CJ that Galchenyuk went from a good top 6 player to pure garbage once he left MTL.
CristianoRonaldo
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You are right, my point was more about the "look in hindsight", it's easy to say today that Galchenyuk was dumb and lacked "hockey I.Q" unlike Kotkaniemi. In reality, his first two seasons, we were all happy and nobody was talking about his lack of hockey sense.
Now Kotkaniemi is praised for his I.Q but who knows ? In two years from now, we may read that he was dumb, not skilled enough.
Galchenyuk had to develop his centre game from the wing... We are waiting for that #1C since forever and what MT and MB do when we got a potential one ? They play him on the wing because we have a talentless dwarf leeching points from our best wingers.
MT and MB did not put him in the best possible conditions, they preferred to focus on DD rather than the talented young prospects.
They did not ruin him like I said initially, but we tried our best not to develop him as a centre.
The Great Weal
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I agree that the Galchenyuk situation was mismanaged poorly. I don't think many of us would be that upset if he stayed what he was during his time here. A 55ish point winger that was poor defensively but a threat on the PP. Nowadays he's KHL bound.
Supersonic
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If we land #3-7 in the draft lottery and one of LA or NJ win the lotto, would you be willing to trade our 1st + Caufield for Laffy (so they can unite Turcotte or Hughes)?
CristianoRonaldo
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Of course, but it's not enough for Laffy.
Supersonic
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I would agree. Thankfully we kept all those impending UFAs at the deadline! Wouldn't want anymore 1st round picks.
The Great Weal
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That's a no brainer even at 2nd overall and I had Caufield in my top 10 last year. Laffy is an incredible prospect. He's the full package. Caufield is a tremendous goalscorer that had a good year, but Laffy has serious potential to be a top 10 and maybe even top 5 player in the league. No team would trade him, he's a foundational piece.
KK’s 1st season showed us his smarts. His vision is great and he showed some of that in the AHL again this year. He is not strong enough, it’s not a secret. The 10-15 lbs he added in the summer was obviously not good for him as he looked slower than last year. He has good physical tools obviously but he hasn’t fully developped yet as he still is 19. He needs to work on his legs big time.
For Caufield.. Finding open space when the other team’s top pairing’s duty is to not let the 5’7 guy shoot the puck needs IQ. He is not the 2way complete forward but still requires to use his brain to do what he does best. I said that he relies on it to perform, not that his IQ is thru the roof.
Just curious, what are the IQ qualities that you saw in Galchenyuk in his D+1 and D+2 season?
He never progressed...he's still the same player today as he was when he entered the league.
Same strengths and weakenesses, just older.
Slow skater & doesn't play a 200 ft game, not committed to defence. DO NOT DRAFT- TT has spoken! Terrible singer also
Kudo Shinichi
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DAChampion
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That is completely incorrect.
Galchenyuk was a far better player in 2012 than he was in 2019.
LaP
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Probably the dumbest move i've seen since the mid 80ies. I get you can't trade everyone but not trading anyone outside of two guys you just acquired for nothing was dumb.
The Great Weal
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That's quite the exaggeration. Let's wait until we see what happens with the players before saying saying absurd things like that.
I don't think Ouellet/Folin gets a first. Unless you are talking about Petry/Tatar who will be impending UFA only next year.
Absolutely. Remember what they were saying about Bergevin's inability to trade Pacioretty early on and how he would get absolutely nothing for his Captain now that every team knew there was an impasse with Montreal for Pacioretty?
Bergevin makes better trades during the offseason than at the deadline. That's likely because Berrgevin makes better 'hockey trades' than short term rental deals and teams have more financial flexibility (and time) to iron out deals in the offseason.
I wouldn't rule out an offseason 'hockey trade' where we improve our D-Corps. Of course, any successful bid on a worthwhile UFA could help solve some of our problems before needing to resort to a trade. However, our luck on that front with impact players doesn't suggest we will solve our issues that way.
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