Prospect Info: Grand Rapids Griffins 2013/14

[The Zetterberg Era]

McCollum very well could be on the Al Montoya path. Just about the time everyone gave up on him and granted he was a top 10 pick so he got even more chances he has carved out a nice career as a backup in the NHL.

Guys with McCollum's physical gifts and pedigree are given longer and he seems to be figuring things out. Maybe actually having Petr around helped him a great deal, also Osgood spent a great deal of time with both kids last year.

 

[Run the Jewels]

Theoretically, they could trade his rights which they still own since they offered him a QO. He'd still have to accept the other team's offer after that, though.

Howie, Gustavsson, Mrazek, Paterson. Mc Collum will be a wasted first round pick. Better to get some value for that pick rather than just kiss it goodbye.

 

[InjuredChoker]

no team is going to want mccollum. especially if they have to pay for him.

 

[Anchor Town*]

Yeah McCollum has little to no value at this point

 

[wingsnut19]

McCollum isn't even technically Wings property, he's on an AHL contract.

 

[InjuredChoker]

lol at sproul on that 0-3 goal. wtf is he thinking?

 

[waltdetroit]

McCollum isn't even technically Wings property, he's on an AHL contract.

Wings still own his rights

from Red Wings Central

NO LONGER TRACKED BY RED WINGS CENTRAL (rights still belong to Red Wings): G Thomas McCollum,

 

[wingsnut19]

Wings still own his rights

from Red Wings Central

NO LONGER TRACKED BY RED WINGS CENTRAL (rights still belong to Red Wings): G Thomas McCollum,

How does that work, if he isn't under contract with them?

EDIT: Nevermind, I thought they didn't qualify him but they did.

 

[Frk It]

That McCollum meme was totally tongue in cheek.

Guess I was the only who found it humorous haha.

 

[Shaman464]

Too bad those highlights skip Pulu's goal.

 

[ChadS]

Too bad those highlights skip Pulu's goal.

It was a sweet one. Accurate one-timer slapshot right off a perfect draw win by Emmerton.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

lol at sproul on that 0-3 goal. wtf is he thinking?

Sproul deservedly got basically benched after that, very few shifts. I love a lot of physical tools, but he was the worst player on the team last night, my buddy and I left going he is going to need every single day in the minors to work on his defense. Some of the simplest reads he doesn't even get. Marchenko is light-years ahead of him and he didn't even really play particularly well last night. Really the only guy that did was Ouellet and you should have seen him tear into Sproul when that mistake was made. He is actually pointing at the guy the entire time, the whole bench is yelling and McCollum is slapping his stick on the ice and he makes that change. Pretty much the entire team was floored by that sequence.

 

[jaster]

Isolated incident, small sample size, anecdotal evidence.... ehhhh, that play is still disconcerting. After hearing for a while now how mediocre his defense is and then seeing this play.... not very encouraging. I'm very hopeful for Sproul, but I'm worried he's going to turn into a bottom-pairing PP QB who can't be trusted with big minutes. Which really wouldn't be so bad normally, but given his potential, that would be disappointing.

On the bright side, defensemen often take a long time to develop, and he has plenty of time to do so. I think he's just going to be more of a project than many people expect.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Isolated incident, small sample size, anecdotal evidence.... ehhhh, that play is still disconcerting. After hearing for a while now how mediocre his defense is and then seeing this play.... not very encouraging. I'm very hopeful for Sproul, but I'm worried he's going to turn into a bottom-pairing PP QB who can't be trusted with big minutes. Which really wouldn't be so bad normally, but given his potential, that would be disappointing.

On the bright side, defensemen often take a long time to develop, and he has plenty of time to do so. I think he's just going to be more of a project than many people expect.

I think most of us that watch a lot of hockey expected this especially the lower levels and are familiar with more than stat watching. That is going to be a part of the problem, his offensive gifts and stat line suggest a player you want up right away. Watching him jump up into the play and skate was breathtaking at times. But he isn't just raw in his defensive zone, he is bad, have to be honest. He would get absolutely abused at the NHL level and he gets to play with a very responsible D-partner that takes on a lot of the tasks he cannot at that level in Evans.

We will see, but he is looking more and more like a stay until out of waivers options. I know people will love him when they see him skate and fire the puck, but the subtle plays you get to see in person are quite alarming. That is not to say he isn't improving because I think he is, but he is going to take a while and a bunch of us have warned people about it, I just hope he can round most of it out at the AHL level.

But even while his performance was very poor last night, I have to say the kid has all of the tools in the world, we just need to work on his toolbox. I think his teammates and his coach did him a favor last night, you could see they demand he be better than he was, they were very hard on him leading up to the mistake and then extremely hard on him when it happened. They are driving him to be better than he is, in particular Ouellet seems to talk to him an absolute ton on the bench.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

It was an obvious mistake, but everybody has made a bad change at some point.

 

[jaster]

I think most of us that watch a lot of hockey expected this especially the lower levels and are familiar with more than stat watching. That is going to be a part of the problem, his offensive gifts and stat line suggest a player you want up right away. Watching him jump up into the play and skate was breathtaking at times. But he isn't just raw in his defensive zone, he is bad, have to be honest. He would get absolutely abused at the NHL level and he gets to play with a very responsible D-partner that takes on a lot of the tasks he cannot at that level in Evans.

We will see, but he is looking more and more like a stay until out of waivers options. I know people will love him when they see him skate and fire the puck, but the subtle plays you get to see in person are quite alarming. That is not to say he isn't improving because I think he is, but he is going to take a while and a bunch of us have warned people about it, I just hope he can round most of it out at the AHL level.

But even while his performance was very poor last night, I have to say the kid has all of the tools in the world, we just need to work on his toolbox. I think his teammates and his coach did him a favor last night, you could see they demand he be better than he was, they were very hard on him leading up to the mistake and then extremely hard on him when it happened. They are driving him to be better than he is, in particular Ouellet seems to talk to him an absolute ton on the bench.

That all jives with how I view Sproul too. When I hear people desiring a Sproul call-up, I think facepalm. Those of us who have played at competitive levels usually know how challenging the transition on defense is, especially at higher levels, even if we didn't play the position. It's a lot easier, and less dangerous, to throw forwards into the fire a little bit early. Doing that to defenseman can be devastating, to both the player and the team. Like many of you, I typically preach patience with young defensemen, but some people don't want to hear it

 

[jaster]

It was an obvious mistake, but everybody has made a bad change at some point.

Bad? Sure. But that was one of the worst changes I have ever seen, at least at the professional level.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Bad? Sure. But that was one of the worst changes I have ever seen, at least at the professional level.

Should be stressed he was not having a good game before that either. In the building it is even worse than you can imagine. You could actually hear (I was in the corner about 15 rows up right near McCollum) the bench, McCollum all yelling at him and he goes anyway like he was completely unplugged. Ouellet who is out with him was furiously pointing while screaming, it was bad, it was worse than the highlights can even show.

He had already been ripped off the 1st PP unit for an ad-lib up ice that Blashill chewed him out for, this came at the tail end with second unit and he didn't hit the ice again for another PP. He also rotated every other shift with Marchenko taking his spot half the time with Evans.

The Milwaukee bench was laughing at him and chirping up a storm, his teammates were undressing him as you could tell his initial response was to attempt and laugh it off and they would have none of it.

It was something you wouldn't expect at a high school game and to watch it unfold was pretty funny to everyone in the building not named Ryan Sproul and at the time his teammates although I am sure they had a field day with it on the bus later. So a bad line change yes, but we are talking one worst changes like Jaster said you will ever see out of professional and being in the arena it is hard to understand how it happened given the fact I know he was being communicated with not to make the change.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Three most disappointing Griffins for me last night were Sproul, Frk and Tootoo. Ferraro was also not good but those three mentioned first were absolutely terrible last night. Will eventually sit down and right everyone up, but fair warning it is going to be pretty hard on them, I think I might have witnessed their worst game of the year last night.


I can say this though, it is time to worry about Martin Frk, he might be a rookie professional, but he was out of shape and pretty pitiful the entire night.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

I noticed the fourth line center had the most SOG?