How Good IS Kyle Connor

[LowLefty]

How would that impact the chemistry on the team. Chef and Ehlers specifically - How would they feel if KC and Laine sign monster contracts and detract from the teams chance to sign the players they need in a cup run? When they took team friendly deals to make the team competitive?

Both should be paid what they are worth - that'll be the challenge for the Jets.

Don't expect this team friendly concept to appear - IMO, the idea of taking less than you are worth is losing steam in the NHL.

TBH, I'm avoiding all discussions on what our contract talks are going to look like over the next couple of years - we may have more talent than we can handle. I'm going to take it one season at a time in this tight cap situation.

 

[MrBoJangelz71]

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I agree with the Russian Rocket -Ehlers is a top line winger for the Jets and should be on the 1st or 2nd line. He's great in most aspects of the game, has a great shot, and is a 30 goal scorer. Makes no sense to only play him 10 minutes a game with a guy like Vesalainen who is clearly not ready for the NHL just yet.

Ehlers is also the fastest skater on the Jets, and is the most entertaining to watch. I'm sure a lot of Jet's fans are not happy with how he's being used--and I'm one of them.

Your disapproval with Ehlers usage has zilch to do with Connor being the best player for that line.

If you believe he should have that spot over Connor, then i can 100% state you being bias by putting your wants over whats best for the team.

Connor easily deserves that spot, drives that line way better than either Laine or Ehlers, carries the load more, and fits perfectly between Wheels and Scheif. Anyone critiquing his play is so out to lunch.

Love Ehlers, but he has a great opportunity to give us a 3rd scoring line, he is a vet now and needs to carry a line, not rely on others to do it for him.

 

[Jet]

I disagree. I think you can 100% tell. It's all the little one on one plays he wins, the way he comes out of scrums on the dasher with the puck...the shot, the patience with the puck. the little plays he makes that tell me a very big story.

There are a lot of things at play, here. Yes, it's obvious that Connor is highly skilled and can think and execute at the NHL level. However you do need to see him on a different line for a few reasons:

• Playing with S and W gives him a ton of confidence and ice time
• When he's on the ice with those players, they attract a lot of attention giving him space
• Obviously they can do more with his passes, give him better passes and they have puck possession and can break down other team's D better through the cycle.

The real measure of KC will be when he's driving his own line, where he's the best player and he's the one being focused on. Will he continue to execute and make his linemates better? I think he can but it remains to be seen.

Then, and only then, we will know what Connors ceiling is. Either way I love our lil ginger.

 

[GNP]

Your disapproval with Ehlers usage has zilch to do with Connor being the best player for that line.

If you believe he should have that spot over Connor, then i can 100% state you being bias by putting your wants over whats best for the team.

Connor easily deserves that spot, drives that line way better than either Laine or Ehlers, carries the load more, and fits perfectly between Wheels and Scheif. Anyone critiquing his play is so out to lunch.

Love Ehlers, but he has a great opportunity to give us a 3rd scoring line, he is a vet now and needs to carry a line, not rely on others to do it for him.

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Actually I do agree with you Bo Jangles, and I think Connor is best suited for the 1st line for various reasons. What I'm saying is it's waste of money and talent to play Ehlers on a line with a guy like Vesa, and only play him 9-10 minutes per game.

I do agree it would be nice to get that 3rd line going -- but at least plug in Lemieux or Dano, and not a 19 yr old kid who's just getting the feel of the NHL. I think the Jet's usage of Vesalainen, will hurt jump starting that line.

Ehlers and Roslo are both great players --I'd love to see them get decent minutes.

 

[LowLefty]

There are a lot of things at play, here. Yes, it's obvious that Connor is highly skilled and can think and execute at the NHL level. However you do need to see him on a different line for a few reasons:

• Playing with S and W gives him a ton of confidence and ice time
• When he's on the ice with those players, they attract a lot of attention giving him space
• Obviously they can do more with his passes, give him better passes and they have puck possession and can break down other team's D better through the cycle.

The real measure of KC will be when he's driving his own line, where he's the best player and he's the one being focused on. Will he continue to execute and make his linemates better? I think he can but it remains to be seen.

Then, and only then, we will know what Connors ceiling is. Either way I love our lil ginger.

I have no problem measuring KC right now -
He's playing on the top line for a reason - actually a number of reasons that several posters have already mentioned.

I don't get the "yea but can he drive his own line?" At some point in his career, absolutely, based on the skill he's shown up to now.

I have no problem sticking my neck out at this point and calling him a sure thing.

 

[Spock]

There are only 60-65 minutes in a game. When you have (elite) depth, star players minutes are going to be lower than they would be on teams that don't have depth.
Unless he gets hurt, Ehlers will play a big role for the Jets this season.

 

[Jet]

I have no problem measuring KC right now -
He's playing on the top line for a reason - actually a number of reasons that several posters have already mentioned.

I don't get the "yea but can he drive his own line?" At some point in his career, absolutely, based on the skill he's shown up to now.

I have no problem sticking my neck out at this point and calling him a sure thing.

Let me clarify:

Kyle Connor is a fantastic talent that is proving himself to be elite. He is 100% a sure thing.

What I was arguing is "Is he generational or near generational"

He has to pass some more tests to click that box.

 

[Maukkis]

There are a lot of things at play, here. Yes, it's obvious that Connor is highly skilled and can think and execute at the NHL level. However you do need to see him on a different line for a few reasons:

• Playing with S and W gives him a ton of confidence and ice time
• When he's on the ice with those players, they attract a lot of attention giving him space
• Obviously they can do more with his passes, give him better passes and they have puck possession and can break down other team's D better through the cycle.

The real measure of KC will be when he's driving his own line, where he's the best player and he's the one being focused on. Will he continue to execute and make his linemates better? I think he can but it remains to be seen.

Then, and only then, we will know what Connors ceiling is. Either way I love our lil ginger.

From McCurdy:

For comparison: Scheifele's impact on ES offense and defense is +10%/average, Wheeler's is +14%/-10% (amazing results). I am not all too familiar with this model, but it doesn't portray Connor as the one driving the line's offense at all. (the details: Model Description: Magnus )

 

[DRW204]

He's excellent, becoming one of my favorite Jets. I think he has the skills and offensive IQ to be able to play well with anyone in the lineup. Obviously it remains to be seen, but the way/area he scores goals leaves thinking he just needs adept NHL linemates to be successful. I think he could play with Little and still produce.

 

[mazmin]

How good is he?

Prediction: I think he's going to have the 3rd best career of all current Jets forwards (1 and 2 will be Laine and Scheifele).

 

[behemolari]

He is 1st liner

 

[haulinbass]

Connor is much better than Ehlers. Does everything better than Laine besides that shot (Connors is very deadly as well though).

Its looking like hes going to take another step this year. What doesn't this kid do well? Very good forechecker, wins battles along the boards, excellent puck handling skills, makes smart plays, handles the puck with confidants in tight areas, has a phenomenal shot, top notch speed, can make plays at full speed as good as anyone. I think a couple years down the road he has the potential to be the Jets best player. Could end up a top 5 winger in the league.

People trying to take something away from him because he plays with talent and doesn't carry his own line must also consider that he is also playing against teams top shut down line. That means something too.

 

[Gotaf7]

Farmboy OConner was easily the best Jet on the ice tonight!

 

[robertocarlos]

That shot! He must have been throwing hay bales all summer.

 

[Tommigun]

I missed his goal because I was late to turn into the second period. Is it available somewhere yet?

 

[kunekune]

Connor is much better than Ehlers. Does everything better than Laine besides that shot (Connors is very deadly as well though).

Its looking like hes going to take another step this year. What doesn't this kid do well? Very good forechecker, wins battles along the boards, excellent puck handling skills, makes smart plays, handles the puck with confidants in tight areas, has a phenomenal shot, top notch speed, can make plays at full speed as good as anyone. I think a couple years down the road he has the potential to be the Jets best player. Could end up a top 5 winger in the league.

People trying to take something away from him because he plays with talent and doesn't carry his own line must also consider that he is also playing against teams top shut down line. That means something too.

Much better than Ehlers?

They are both born in 1996 and when you look their resumes nothing suggest that Connor is better than Ehlers. It's the other way around.

His start to the season has been hot and people start talking about him being near generational. Please hold your horses. His career high is 57 points. I repeat 57 points. 0.65 ppg so far in the league.

I mean it could be possible that he somehow has a massive leap in talent but most likely scenario is that he ends up top 30 winger in the league, not top 5.

 

[haulinbass]

Much better than Ehlers?

They are both born in 1996 and when you look their resumes nothing suggest that Connor is better than Ehlers. It's the other way around.

His start to the season has been hot and people start talking about him being near generational. Please hold your horses. His career high is 57 points. I repeat 57 points. 0.65 ppg so far in the league.

I mean it could be possible that he somehow has a massive leap in talent but most likely scenario is that he ends up top 30 winger in the league, not top 5.

See I actually watch hockey so I consider things outside of the stat sheet when analyzing a player. But while we are on stat sheets, Connor scored 31 goals in his first full NHL season. Thats very impressive, I don't care that they are roughly the same age. They took different development paths. So you cannot take anything away from Connors 31 goal rookie season in comparison to Ehlers being in the NHL before him. His first playoff run impressed me even more, his play continued to improve from the season into the playoffs. We aren't just talking stats here, we are talking about what he brings shift-to-shift. Again, considering stats are so important to your argument, he did out-performed Ehlers 0 goals in the playoffs. During the last series when nobody on the team could create any chances, Connor was doing so consistently even though they didn't always result in goals. He THEN comes into this season and looks to have taken another step forward. It's early, but considering his steady and consistent development, I don't think its a fluke that he looks even better this year over these first couple games.

Connor brings nearly everything to the table, Ehlers is very good at a couple things. Ehlers is a very good player for the Jets, just not as good as Connors overall package.

Jets aren't even my main team and I have watched nearly every one of their games. I follow a ton of prospects very heavily. I'm not trying to brag about how much I watch hockey, all I'm saying is that I follow a lot of players across the league extensively from pre-draft to many years into the league. So I have a lot of players to compare to and I feel pretty good about what I see in Connor. During his play in Michigan, I wasn't so sure how much he would bring to the NHL He was very hard for me to gauge. I figured he could atleast be a dangerous opportunistic scorer in the NHL but likely not bring much else to the table when he wasn't producing, but Connors game has evolved and continues to grow at a rapid rate. Its very impressive.

 

[kunekune]

See I actually watch hockey so I consider things outside of the stat sheet when analyzing a player. But while we are on stat sheets, Connor scored 31 goals in his first full NHL season. Thats very impressive, I don't care that they are roughly the same age. They took different development paths. So you cannot take anything away from Connors 31 goal rookie season in comparison to Ehlers being in the NHL before him. His first playoff run impressed me even more, his play continued to improve from the season into the playoffs. We aren't just talking stats here, we are talking about what he brings shift-to-shift. Again, considering stats are so important to your argument, he did out-performed Ehlers 0 goals in the playoffs. During the last series when nobody on the team could create any chances, Connor was doing so consistently even though they didn't always result in goals. He THEN comes into this season and looks to have taken another step forward. It's early, but considering his steady and consistent development, I don't think its a fluke that he looks even better this year over these first couple games.

Connor brings nearly everything to the table, Ehlers is very good at a couple things. Ehlers is a very good player for the Jets, just not as good as Connors overall package.

Jets aren't even my main team and I have watched nearly every one of their games. I follow a ton of prospects very heavily. I'm not trying to brag about how much I watch hockey, all I'm saying is that I follow a lot of players across the league extensively from pre-draft to many years into the league. So I have a lot of players to compare to and I feel pretty good about what I see in Connor. During his play in Michigan, I wasn't so sure how much he would bring to the NHL He was very hard for me to gauge. I figured he could atleast be a dangerous opportunistic scorer in the NHL but likely not bring much else to the table when he wasn't producing, but Connors game has evolved and continues to grow at a rapid rate. Its very impressive.

Ok, so it was based on your eye-test. No wonder you came in to that conclusion.

We are amateurs and our eye-test really means nothing. Even professional scouts are crap shooting when making projections based on eye-test.

 

[haulinbass]

Ok, so it was based on your eye-test. No wonder you came in to that conclusion.

We are amateurs and our eye-test really means nothing. Even professional scouts are crap shooting when making projections based on eye-test.

I don't think professional scouts have any troubles analyzing a player who is already in the NHL with over 100 game sample size that has no huge question marks to analyze. Players who come into the league and can't quite get it together and figure it out (ex: Sam Bennet), can be very difficult if not impossible to predict even for a pro scout. Sam Bennet is actually one of the very few players that my predictions weren't even ball park within the last few years. You are also getting confused with trying to analyze 17-21 year olds who are playing in lesser leagues where this is no telling how they will look at the NHL level. But whatever man, you can see it however you want for whatever reason you want. I know what my track record is analyzing players for my purpose and with that said, I'm comfortable with my opinion. Maybe in a couple years we can rehash this Connor vs Ehlers debate out, until then we are waisting our breathe.

 

[Tommigun]

See I actually watch hockey so I consider things outside of the stat sheet when analyzing a player. But while we are on stat sheets, Connor scored 31 goals in his first full NHL season. Thats very impressive, I don't care that they are roughly the same age. They took different development paths. So you cannot take anything away from Connors 31 goal rookie season in comparison to Ehlers being in the NHL before him. His first playoff run impressed me even more, his play continued to improve from the season into the playoffs. We aren't just talking stats here, we are talking about what he brings shift-to-shift. Again, considering stats are so important to your argument, he did out-performed Ehlers 0 goals in the playoffs. During the last series when nobody on the team could create any chances, Connor was doing so consistently even though they didn't always result in goals. He THEN comes into this season and looks to have taken another step forward. It's early, but considering his steady and consistent development, I don't think its a fluke that he looks even better this year over these first couple games.

Connor brings nearly everything to the table, Ehlers is very good at a couple things. Ehlers is a very good player for the Jets, just not as good as Connors overall package.

Jets aren't even my main team and I have watched nearly every one of their games. I follow a ton of prospects very heavily. I'm not trying to brag about how much I watch hockey, all I'm saying is that I follow a lot of players across the league extensively from pre-draft to many years into the league. So I have a lot of players to compare to and I feel pretty good about what I see in Connor. During his play in Michigan, I wasn't so sure how much he would bring to the NHL He was very hard for me to gauge. I figured he could atleast be a dangerous opportunistic scorer in the NHL but likely not bring much else to the table when he wasn't producing, but Connors game has evolved and continues to grow at a rapid rate. Its very impressive.

I am starting to think that Connor is currently better than Ehlers. But it’s not fair to compare their starts to this season with Ehlers being on the rookie fourth line while Connor clocks 20+ mins with the captain and Scheifele. Also, Connor produced half of what his linemates did in the playoffs, but so did Ehlers and that without scoring goals. So I give the playoffs to Connor, but iirc they started a bit slow for him while Ehlers became invisible towards the end. It’s still too early to say who will be the better player but I give the edge to Connor right now. At least he’s the hotter player atm, I can’t remember when Ehlers scored the last time.

 

[PhilJets]

Connor is much better than Ehlers. Does everything better than Laine besides that shot (Connors is very deadly as well though).

Its looking like hes going to take another step this year. What doesn't this kid do well? Very good forechecker, wins battles along the boards, excellent puck handling skills, makes smart plays, handles the puck with confidants in tight areas, has a phenomenal shot, top notch speed, can make plays at full speed as good as anyone. I think a couple years down the road he has the potential to be the Jets best player. Could end up a top 5 winger in the league.

People trying to take something away from him because he plays with talent and doesn't carry his own line must also consider that he is also playing against teams top shut down line. That means something too.

Easy there.....

Ehlers on Schiefele line he probably a point a game player.

Connor is good, but Ehlers have done a lot more with a lot less.

 

[haulinbass]

I am starting to think that Connor is currently better than Ehlers. But it’s not fair to compare their starts to this season with Ehlers being on the rookie fourth line while Connor clocks 20+ mins with the captain and Scheifele. Also, Connor produced half of what his linemates did in the playoffs, but so did Ehlers and that without scoring goals. So I give the playoffs to Connor, but iirc they started a bit slow for him while Ehlers became invisible towards the end. It’s still too early to say who will be the better player but I give the edge to Connor right now. At least he’s the hotter player atm, I can’t remember when Ehlers scored the last time.

Something to consider though, subtract both Wheeler and Connors PP points and Connor only produced 11 less points than Wheeler last season. Wheeler has a bigger role on the PP because he has obviously earned it long before Connor showed up. I'm not posting those numbers to say Connor is better than Wheeler, because right now he is not. But it is certainly something to consider when evaluating Connor, especially when you factor it being his rookie season.

 

[Tommigun]

Something to consider though, subtract both Wheeler and Connors PP points and Connor only produced 11 less points than Wheeler last season. Wheeler has a bigger role on the PP because he has obviously earned it long before Connor showed up. I'm not posting those numbers to say Connor is better than Wheeler, because right now he is not. But it is certainly something to consider when evaluating Connor, especially when you factor it being his rookie season.

That is true and one of the main reasons I was opposed to Wheeler’s huge contract. His career year points were hugely inflated by PP assists to some of the most lethal weapons in the league.

 

[haulinbass]

That is true and one of the main reasons I was opposed to Wheeler’s huge contract. His career year points were hugely inflated by PP assists to some of the most lethal weapons in the league.

Ya it could hurt them down the road.. But hey, when you got as good of a team as the Jets you can't let a guy like Wheeler walk and he obviously isn't going to accept less term. But regardless, Wheeler seems to have some good seasons left. If your going to sign a player to that term at his age, Wheeler is as good as any.

 

[Tommigun]

Something to consider though, subtract both Wheeler and Connors PP points and Connor only produced 11 less points than Wheeler last season. Wheeler has a bigger role on the PP because he has obviously earned it long before Connor showed up. I'm not posting those numbers to say Connor is better than Wheeler, because right now he is not. But it is certainly something to consider when evaluating Connor, especially when you factor it being his rookie season.

Hmm but then again, I just checked the stats and Ehlers had one point more than Connor in even strength situations, while playing on a really bad line (albeit with some more games played). He also had vastly better Corsi (Connor was in fact negative). Not wanting to take anything away from Connor but it may make more sense to compare his even strength production vs Ehlers than Wheeler considering that is what was being discussed, and Ehlers actually performed really well in that comparison.