I just don't put much stock into his stats with SC as he was not playing an offensive role and had to cover for and carry lesser linemates while playing the role of shut down center. We are in agreement that he is not going to be a huge point producer I just think that he will be a player who should make a bigger overall difference than Suzuki as he is far superior on two thirds of the rink.
I also believe that you may be surprised at how his goal/assist ratio should change in the pros. He scored 8 goals in 8 games when paired with superior linemates at the WJC and in his NHL debut. He is on record talking about how he buys into the role that he is given which was a shut down center at SC and a net presence at the WJC.
I absolutely think he is capable of scoring 30 goals in the NHL as he has all of the tools to be every bit as good as Gallagher in front of the net. If he gets PP time in this role he certainly has the potential to be a great weapon. I could absolutely see him having some 30-20-50 type of seasons while being a shutdown center. Much like Brady Tkachuk and Max Pacioretty, it is often not a linear statistical translation from the NCAA to the NHL. I am not putting a ton of stock into his NHL debut but he didn't surprise me either. That is exactly the type of game I expect him to play, obviously the points were fortunate as he won't score anywhere approaching that rate but the same chances are going to be there for him.
He was on the #1 PP unit and I believe they were among the top PP's in the NCAA but I'd have to look that up. In the first half of the season he was on the top line with Robby Jackson, the teams 2nd leading goal scorer and the guy he played all of the previous season with when he put up 14 goals. I just can't look past a 1st round pick that plays on the best team in the NCAA and the 2nd highest scoring and he goes out in the first half and scores in just 2 games.
In the 2nd half he was dropped down to play with his brothers, once again that's not a good sign that I can't overlook. Now he did manage to pick up the goal scoring with 5.
The WJC's he had a great game vs Sweden to get the hattrick but 1 goal vs Kazakhstan and 1 vs Finland the rest of the way with no points in any of the medal round games. I just wasn't too impressed outside of that great game vs Sweden and he did have another one vs Kazakhstan with 3 pts.
The NHL game was interesting, I just don't know how much we can read out of it as the leafs didn't have all their D dressed if I recall and they clearly didn't seem to interested. That said he did have a great game.
I would be surprised if he can pot 30 in the NHL because I just haven't seen him shoot enough or have a that good of a shot. That said I'd love it if he did, would be great for our future. Tkachuk certainly makes me hopefully Poehling can be much better NHLer then NCAAer as I wasn't too impressed with the few games I saw him although to be fair he was facing Primeau in all those games.
Pac I got to see in one USHL game and then a lot at Michigan, he was impressive for sure but also benefited from playing on what was considered to be the best line in the NCAA. I would have never expected him to change his game so much in the AHL when paired up with DD, that was crazy as he was clearly more of a playmaking winger although when you are a Freshman and your 2 linemates are ripping it up you likely will pass a lot to them. I know that when he left at the end of his Freshman year, his coach, one of the all time greatest coaches in NCAA history and former Hab Red Berenson told him he was making a big mistake and that he wasn't ready.
My point was that it is silly to exclude junior eligible players as prospects
these polls were always done with the HF rules for a prospect so it was just easier to go with that. I believe the cutoff was 60 NHL games or 40 I forget it's been so long.
