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Prospect Info: Grand Rapids Griffins 2014/15 Part II

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GoAwayDanCleary

GoAwayDanCleary

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Aug 6, 2012
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Mantha needs to be way stronger on the puck. He should be bowling through guys with his size and speed. Kid needs some stronger legs (I'm sure the injury made it even worse). He's got so much raw talent...

He should be a bull through the neutral zone when he has the puck.
 
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Anchor Town*

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Guru Meditation said:
You think so? I think AA is kind of a deceptive player. I think he does a lot of impressive stuff, and he does it consistently enough that you think "Wow, this guy is impressive!" But then you realize at some point that, in doing all of that impressive stuff, there was a lot of stuff he didn't do.

He almost never passes the puck. He consistently does risky 1 on 1 moves (that only sometimes work) when he could chip it around a guy and beat him 100% with his speed.
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Yeah, if the coaches thought there was a way he could 100% beat a defenseman 1 on 1 as you suggest then I would think he would do that more often. But alas, there's a reason he's a professional hockey player and Blashill is soon to be an NHL coach, and you're armchairing from your cubical.
 
Probie

Probie

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Feb 19, 2009
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Vancouver Is, Canada
haulinbass said:
He looks like a guy who has the skill, speed, size and shot that cannot find a way to be involved in the game and make an impact.

When I watched him in the Q I thought of him as having the upside to be a more dangerous version of Franzen. Bigger, faster with possibly a better shot. Neither one of those guys are possession driving players, they are scoring threats that open up space for the guys who drive the flow of the game. Hossa to me is a better version of Franzen. Hossa looks more involved in the play because he can skate and carry the puck up the neutral zone putting defenders on their heals at times. I think Franzen was a great player and it's ridiculous people gave him so much hate. You need guys like that. They aren't guys who are going to carry a line they are guys who complete a line. A guy who compliments another players game. Some players need the puck a lot to be effective creating the tempo of the game and some players work off those players being opportunistic. Mantha put up insane points because of his size, shot and having the speed he does on such a big frame in a league of kids. He was never a guy who had the puck a ton in the CHL. I watched many shifts go by without Mantha hardly even touching the puck while he was managing to score a million goals. He is the type of guy who is extremely effective when given an opportunity to score, he doesn't create them himself on a regular basis. He needs to find a way at the pro level to involve himself in the play and be in position to get the opportunities he needs to succeed at this level. I didn't expect Mantha to come into the AHL and tear it up. It's going to take time for him to adjust and find the less available open ice.

That's my opinion.
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That's an excellent post, very informative.
 
Unfriendly Ghost

Unfriendly Ghost

Kasper
Jul 30, 2005
17,692
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I mean, what is location, really
Anchor Town said:
Yeah, if the coaches thought there was a way he could 100% beat a defenseman 1 on 1 as you suggest then I would think he would do that more often. But alas, there's a reason he's a professional hockey player and Blashill is soon to be an NHL coach, and you're armchairing from your cubical.
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The guy has Helm speed and far superior hands. There's no reason he can't go wide on defensemen the way Helm does. (Which is really, really successful for Helm, even at the NHL level.)

Instead, he tries to go straight through defensemen, and it's not going to work for much longer. Hell, it barely works right now.
 
ChadS

ChadS

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Jun 30, 2009
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I'm kind of sceptical about McCollum as a championship goalie. He can be really inconsistent at times and in the playoffs that can have a real bad effect on your team. He's had a lot of great games during the season but things like last night's 1st period shouldn't happen, especially at this stage of the playoffs.
 
SpookyTsuki

SpookyTsuki

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Dec 3, 2014
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ChadS said:
I'm kind of sceptical about McCollum as a championship goalie. He can be really inconsistent at times and in the playoffs that can have a real bad effect on your team. He's had a lot of great games during the season but things like last night's 1st period shouldn't happen, especially at this stage of the playoffs.
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He's an AHL goalie for life if that helps you

He might be a backup for some bad team, I doubt it though
 
haulinbass

haulinbass

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Mar 6, 2014
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You think so? I think AA is kind of a deceptive player. I think he does a lot of impressive stuff, and he does it consistently enough that you think "Wow, this guy is impressive!" But then you realize at some point that, in doing all of that impressive stuff, there was a lot of stuff he didn't do.

He almost never passes the puck. He consistently does risky 1 on 1 moves (that only sometimes work) when he could chip it around a guy and beat him 100% with his speed.

I had a whole list, but it gets pretty nitpicky. Those two are his biggest flaws. and I say that because it comes across like he isn't even working on correcting them. He does them multiple times virtually every game. He had a move tonight that would have gotten him concussed in the NHL. He tried to deke out a guy, put the puck through his skates, and retrieve it by basically ducking under the guy's arm. Thankfully, he didn't get laid out, but the deke didn't really work, either. That stuff is just going to get him hurt.

Point is, AA has a lot to work on. Right now, I think he's far more flash than substance. Now, granted, I think he can become an NHLer, but he has to do some refining before he'll be NHL-level. I think his moves are more Jurco than Datsyuk, and so he's going to have to learn to play without them. That might take a while.
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I was only claiming he was the best player in last nights game not the best player on the team. AA is very early in his development, this is obviously his first pro season. To me it's about what kind of things are you doing right and what kind of things you are doing wrong. I think AA is doing the things right that make a future NHL player and the things he needs work on are minor adjustments that are easily made in time.

I do agree about AA getting selfish in the offensive zone and wanting to take a shot or drive the net himself. Last night there was a perfect example of it where all he had to do was make a very simple pass that would have given his teammate much more time and space than he had to take a shot. He chose to force a shot when his teammate would have had a very legit scoring opportunity.

Early in your pro career is where you figure out what your limitations are. I want to see this kid trying to find his skill game and taking chances at this stage. He competes hard and he wants to be the best player on that team and I think in time he will be. It's too hard to predict how good a player will be in the NHL but some players make it easy to determine that they will be NHL players. To me that's AA. If I had to put my money on who I thought would make the NHL out of AA or Mantha, my money would be on AA. Mantha has a lot more than adjustments to make, he has a ton of work to do on the things that make you an NHL player. AA has to keep improving on what he already is doing good and make some adjustments.

Jurco needed more time at the AHL level to develop his offensive game. Thankfully we don't need bodies as bad today as we did then. So AA should get more time to develop.
 
ChadS

ChadS

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Jun 30, 2009
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Bruce Joker said:
He's an AHL goalie for life if that helps you

He might be a backup for some bad team, I doubt it though
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Yeah, I meant the AHL and GR right now. Winning the title with a goalie like that will be a challenge to say the least.
 
ChadS

ChadS

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Jun 30, 2009
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Hendricks433 said:
Agreed, what happened to Coreau?
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He got a chance in the first round after Tommy gave up 7 in game 1, but gave up 5 and hasn't been in the net since. McC is the veteran so that was expected. Not sure what the plan is for next season but Coreau-Paterson is probably one option, though it's a bit risky.
 
waltdetroit

waltdetroit

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Jul 20, 2010
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Tommy bounced back from an earlier shelling in the PO so I think he can get it going again. The long layoff affected him early in the game but he was fine the remainder
 
SimplySolace

SimplySolace

"We like our team"
Jun 30, 2013
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Pulkkinen - Nosek - Larkin
Zengerle - Miele - Bertuzzi
Mantha - Athanasiou - Porter
Campbell - Aubry - Hoggan
 
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