In the 90s i remember the gopher teams all featuring high schoolers from the year before. Now there is the US devolpmental league. The USHL is almost maditory for the average player. Shattucks has really taken off. Now longer are guys 18 year old freshman from the iron range. Guys are coming in as late as 21 years old. American hockey in itself has really taken off too. And now we are seeing, Vaneks, Heatleys, Zajacs and Toewss in the NCAA. It is alot difrerent. This year i see Crosby breaking the record or coming pretty dang close. If he accelerated his schooling like most stars do i see just shy of 2 per game in his freshman year.
How many points would Crosby have scored in NCAA...
- Thread starter derbyfan
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Jaded-Fan said:I bascially had the same reaction. He is going to approach 100 points and likely not only crack the top ten but be nicely within it by the time the season ends. Do people actually think that he would have a harder time and score fewer points in college than he would at the NHL level?
Yeah but college is 40 games or so. The NHL is 82. Crosby has 42 more games to get to that 100 point mark in the NHL. 42 games makes a big difference.
Here's what i don't get...
How can people say that Heatley was astronomical as a freshman and that Kessel has been so bad?
Kessel has one more game and just 5 less points than Heatley had as a freshman.
And Heatley's not doing too shabby in the NHL, is he?
Not saying that you're not wrong. I didn't see Heatley play in college. But I'm just a tad bit miffed.
How can people say that Heatley was astronomical as a freshman and that Kessel has been so bad?
Kessel has one more game and just 5 less points than Heatley had as a freshman.
And Heatley's not doing too shabby in the NHL, is he?
Not saying that you're not wrong. I didn't see Heatley play in college. But I'm just a tad bit miffed.
AdmiralPred said:
It would have been "more" of a challenge, yes, but in the same way that it is "more" of a challenge to get a 50% on an exam than 30% (numbers are just to show a point, not to compare the CHL with the NCAA or to say definitively just how easy Crosby would have put up the points) when you're top of the class. Crosby didn't just put up unreal point totals, he put up unreal point totals in comparison to every single player in the league; moreover, he did it at 16 and 17, which is literally unparalleled (Gretzky probably would have done it if the draft age was 18 back when he played junior hockey, but, since it wasn't, he came second in scoring as a 16y/o and moved to the WHA as a 17y/o). Crosby is not your typical dominant Q scorer. His numbers would have taken a hit if he played in the WHL, but there is no doubt in my mind and I don't think that there is any doubt in anyone's minds (especially now that he has shown what he can do in the NHL) that a 16 and 17y/o Sidney Crosby would still have led the dub in scoring, running away with the title in his 17y/o season.
And we're not even talking about a 16 or 17y/o Crosby; we're talking about Crosby as an 18y/o freshman. He's top 10 in scoring in the NHL. How many points do you think Brendan Shanahan or Alexei Yashin or Saku Koivu or Markus Naslund would have in the NCAA? Do you think they'd be even close with Potulny, Chris Collins, and Scott Parse, or do you think they'd be dominating the league like no one ever has before (assuming they don't just go through the motions because they're bored)?
I don't think anyone thinks he would score at a similar clip that he did in the Q. He scored 2.29ppg in the Q at 16 and 2.71ppg in the Q at 17 (despite a prolonged "quiet" stretch of scoring after a knee on knee hit from Cabana). This year, especially from what we've seen of him in the NHL and since the Q seems more wide open (weaker?) than it has for the past few years (check the top 10 scorers' stats, not named Crosby), he could probably have put up 3.5-4ppg in the Q, maybe even rivalling Lemieux's numbers, just falling short, if everything fell into place (and if he didn't just go through the paces). So he wouldn't be matching his Q numbers, or even coming remotely close to them, but he still probably could have led the nation in scoring at 16. At 18, where he is now, it would be no contest. His numbers wouldn't be anywhere close to his Q numbers (at the same ages), but they wouldn't have to be to put up the point totals people are suggesting he would probably achieve.
That may be, but at the start of this thread people were talking about record-breaking, or at least Karyia-beating numbers in the NCAA. I was only stating an opinion that if he skated in the WCHA, as speculated, it would have been a challenge, as a freshman, for Crosby to hit 80 pts (or roughly two points per game). But, I see that we pretty much agree on the whole.Genghis Keon said:
I also don't think it would be a contest, the top NCAA scorers hit what, 60-65 this season? About the same over the past two seasons. Crosby would certainly have topped the NCAAs last year and the year before.
As for the above post on Heatley, he was a phenominal player, I'll even say he was better than Kessel (I only saw Kessel skate the 5 games against UW and of those 15 periods he put effort into about 2.5 of them). Of coarse, for those who remember, Heatley did kind of go throught the motions his two years in Madison as well. His sophomore season, however, he had no one to play with and Sauer was at the end of his run so no decent recruits around him.
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TransportedUpstater said:
Eaves wasn't their coach when Heatley played there. Second, Dany wasn't even their best player his freshman year - Reinprecht was. Plus, that year UW played a more wide-open game with the talent they had.
Shuld-a scrolled down a few more posts, see #24Zine said:
Eaves wasn't their coach when Heatley played there. Second, Dany wasn't even their best player his freshman year - Reinprecht was. Plus, that year UW played a more wide-open game with the talent they had.
Legionnaire
Help On The Way
The real question is: How many points would AO at 18 in the NCAA have compared with Crosby at 18 in the NCAA??
Don't forget the HFboards Gospel, you cannot mention one without the other. Warning points should be given.
Don't forget the HFboards Gospel, you cannot mention one without the other. Warning points should be given.
Hunter Gathers
The Crown
That's being quite generous to AO.Jon Prescription said:
Crosby at 18 = 85 points in 73 games in the NHL.
Ovechkin at 18 = 23 points in 53 games in the RSL.
tom_servo
Registered User
IcedTea said:
It's hard to draw any conclusions with those numbers. Crosby might've had even less points in the RSL if he played Ovechkin's minutes. I don't know.
tom_servo said:
He was on the first line, at least for a good part of the year,second line for the remainder.
aparc said:
Where did I say Kessel had a bad freshman season?
I thought he was terrific.
Regarding Heatley, I'm not wrong. He was a man among boys in the NCAA. Ask WCHA fans about this.
Zine said:
Eaves wasn't their coach when Heatley played there. Second, Dany wasn't even their best player his freshman year - Reinprecht was. Plus, that year UW played a more wide-open game with the talent they had.
My bad on the Eaves thing. I'll admit when I get pwned. TU = pwned.
Regarding his play, I was talking more about his second season, after Atlanta picked him. And he WAS dominant.
But I will not agree that Wisconsin played a more wide-open game. I could be wrong, but I don't remember it that way.
Westcoasthabsfan
Registered User
HabLover said:
The kid has 91 points as an 18 year old in the best league in the world.... not many better seasons at his age in the history of the league.... Way to go Sid
I'll say Heatley was still better than Reinprecht his freshman season, but I wasn't able to catch too much of that season before Christmas. Sure Reinprecht had more points and was a tremendous college player in his own, but Heatley was a pure college talent.TransportedUpstater said:
As to the wide-open game. UW played a bit more open than usual under Sauer that season, I think because of the offense that they could generate. That and I can only think of Brooks and Brian Fahey on D for them off the top of my head combined with Melanson's outstanding season in the nets.
Sorry to carry on off topic.
