Isles Prospect Talk 2020-21

[MJF]

Expect Greene to be re-upped and thrown into that mix.

Aho will however likely be on the Island. He's not waiver-eligible and well, gotta think his camp's readiness to re-sign was due to him having a top 7 spot for the time being.

With the D corps current makeup on November 26, I would expect Aho to be our 7th defenseman and Hickey returned to Bridgeport.

Ideally I would like to see if Lou can trade Aho and come up with a veteran 7D. It's not fair to Aho to have him sitting in the NHL and I just don't think Aho is good enough to crack our top 6.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

With the D corps current makeup on November 26, I would expect Aho to be our 7th defenseman and Hickey returned to Bridgeport.

Ideally I would like to see if Lou can trade Aho and come up with a veteran 7D. It's not fair to Aho to have him sitting in the NHL and I just don't think Aho is good enough to crack our top 6.

At the same time, gotta think a re-signed Greene isn't playing more than roughly 70% of the regular season games.

That would give Aho a window of opportunity.

ASIDE:
There are actually a TON of lower line NHL Dmen on the market. They're gonna be dirt cheap for any takers.

 

[MJF]

At the same time, gotta think a re-signed Greene isn't playing more than roughly 70% of the regular season games.

That would give Aho a window of opportunity.

ASIDE:
There are actually a TON of lower line NHL Dmen on the market. They're gonna be dirt cheap for any takers.

At the start of last season I thought for sure Trotz was going to spot Boychuk a game off every once in a while to save some wear and tear on him, but he kept playing JB as long as he was healthy. Greene plays a smoother, less physical game than Boychuk does so I wouldn’t be surprised if he dresses every night as long as he’s healthy.

 

[leeroggy]

At the same time, gotta think a re-signed Greene isn't playing more than roughly 70% of the regular season games.

That would give Aho a window of opportunity.

ASIDE:
There are actually a TON of lower line NHL Dmen on the market. They're gonna be dirt cheap for any takers.

Ben Hutton makes a TON of sense for us at $1-1.5 million

 

[PWJunior]

At the start of last season I thought for sure Trotz was going to spot Boychuk a game off every once in a while to save some wear and tear on him, but he kept playing JB as long as he was healthy. Greene plays a smoother, less physical game than Boychuk does so I wouldn’t be surprised if he dresses every night as long as he’s healthy.

It's not as if Greene will be relied to play a lot of heavy minutes either. Even the Pelech-Pulock top pair top out at 22 minutes per game so minutes are pretty evenly distributed. Greene should be getting 3rd pair duty and mentoring Dobson, he can handle that even at his advanced age. Considering the top-4 has 3 guys in their prime aged mid-20's and Leddy who doesn't turn 30 until late March, we should be good. Aho can get the B2B's to give Greene a rest too.

 

[MJF]

It's not as if Greene will be relied to play a lot of heavy minutes either. Even the Pelech-Pulock top pair top out at 22 minutes per game so minutes are pretty evenly distributed. Greene should be getting 3rd pair duty and mentoring Dobson, he can handle that even at his advanced age. Considering the top-4 has 3 guys in their prime aged mid-20's and Leddy who doesn't turn 30 until late March, we should be good. Aho can get the B2B's to give Greene a rest too.

100%.

 

[JRD76]

Saw that Whalstrom was in the line up today for AIK. Good to see him back playing.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Just wanted to mention that Ljungkrantz has played the past four games with Brynas in the SHL and although he has no stats, like not even PMs or +/-, I did see one game and his skating really jumped out at me. I thought he was a termendous skater.

In addition, he did nothing that was too risky or complicated. He definitely seemed to be following the KISS principle in every instance I saw him in.

Other than that, he did create one very strong offensive attack along the way. It really popped out at me, because he side-stepped someone pretty well in the neutral zone while accepting a pass and simultaneously entering the offensive zone and dished a long, but pinpoint pass for a quick one-timer by a teammate.

It was just one game and he generally had little ice time, but I came out of it with an "Ohhh, this is what the Islanders see in him" impression.

 

[xECK29x]

Some notes:
- Wahlstrom is back and healthy
- Dufour is very impressive

+ = on IR or just hurt

PLAYER	POS	ACQUIRED	HFB RANK	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM	+/-
Oliver Wahlstrom	RW/LW	2018 round 1 #11	3	AIK / HockeyAllsvenskan	8	3	3	6	4	-3
Simon Holmstrom	RW	2019 round 1 #23	8	HC Vita Hasten / HockeyAllsvenskan	11	1	1	2	2	0
				* Bridgeport (AHL)	0	0	0	0	0	0
				Sweden U20 Team	0	0	0	0	0	0
Anatoli Golyshev	LW/RW	2016 round 4 #95	NR	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg/KHL	26	9	12	21	26	7
Ruslan Iskhakov	C/RW	2018 round 2 #43	9	TPS / Liiga	15	2	5	7	8	0
Robin Salo	D	2017 round 2 #46	20	Orebro HK / SHL	18	2	7	9	6	2
William Dufour	RW	2020 round 5 #152	NR	Drummondville Voltigeurs / QMJHL	8	6	4	10	18	1
Alexander Ljungkrantz	LW	2020 round 3 #90	NR	Brynas IF J20 / J20 Nationell	16	8	7	15	12	7
				* Brynas IF / SHL	6	0	0	0	0	0
Matias Rajaniemi	D	2020 round 6 #183	NR	* Pelicans / Liiga	18	0	2	2	8	2
				Pelicans U20 / U20 SM-Sarja	0	0	0	0	0	0
Otto Koivula	C/LW	2016 round 4 #120		HIFK / Liiga	13	3	8	11	10	3
Reece Newkirk	C	2019 round 5 #147		Portland / WHL	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jacob Pivonka	C	2018 round 4 #103		Univ. of Notre Dame / NCAA	4	0	0	0	2	-4
Collin Adams	LW	2016 round 6 #170		Univ. of North Dakota / NCAA	0	0	0	0	0	0
Logan Cockerill	LW/RW	2016 round 7 #201		Boston Univ. ("C") / NCAA	0	0	0	0	0	0
Christian Krygier	D	2018 round 7 #196		Michigan State Univ. / NCAA	4	1	0	6	2	3
Benjamin Mirageas	D	2017 round 3 #77		Providence College / NCAA	0	0	0	0	0	0
Alex Jefferies	LW	2019 round 4 #121		Merrimack College / NCAA	0	0	0	0	0	0
GOALIES					GP	GAA	SV%	SO	W-L-T
Henrik Tikkanen	G	2020 round 7 #214	NR	IPK / Mestis	9	2.55	.901	0	6-2-1
Jakub Skarek	G	2018 round 3 #72		Pelitat / Mestis	4	4.44	.833	0	0-3-1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[JRD76]

Fell bad for Ljungkrantz. He was doing well and they sent him to the SHL but he's getting like 2 mins a game or a healthy scratch. The coach did say he will get his time to play. Is that good for his development at a young age? I guess the isles did it with Dobson and seemed to be fine.

 

[buud]

Fell bad for Ljungkrantz. He was doing well and they sent him to the SHL but he's getting like 2 mins a game or a healthy scratch. The coach did say he will get his time to play. Is that good for his development at a young age? I guess the isles did it with Dobson and seemed to be fine.

i've heard it said that a player learns more practicing with the big club, than playing in a lower league. i am sure that there are always extenuating circumstances, such as the kids size, attitude/confidence, skating ability, etc... for an 18 year old, i would love to see him with kids his age, and given a chance to really excel at all facets of the game. but i am happy to hear that he is up with the big club too.

Chapin alluded earlier to his play, albeit a small sampling. it seems like he was impressed, and i think Chapin is one of the more level headed, knowledgeable, posters around here.

for a 3rd round pick, it seems like 'Krantz' is off to a pretty good start.

p.s. i have been suppressing my desire to be a scout, but i would absolutely LOVE to give it a try. what do you guys say? let's start our own scouting service. i would even do it for free, lol. just cover the cost of admission, and i am there!

 

[JRD76]

i've heard it said that a player learns more practicing with the big club, than playing in a lower league. i am sure that there are always extenuating circumstances, such as the kids size, attitude/confidence, skating ability, etc... for an 18 year old, i would love to see him with kids his age, and given a chance to really excel at all facets of the game. but i am happy to hear that he is up with the big club too.

Chapin alluded earlier to his play, albeit a small sampling. it seems like he was impressed, and i think Chapin is one of the more level headed, knowledgeable, posters around here.

for a 3rd round pick, it seems like 'Krantz' is off to a pretty good start.

p.s. i have been suppressing my desire to be a scout, but i would absolutely LOVE to give it a try. what do you guys say? let's start our own scouting service. i would even do it for free, lol. just cover the cost of admission, and i am there!

Thanks for the info

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Fell bad for Ljungkrantz. He was doing well and they sent him to the SHL but he's getting like 2 mins a game or a healthy scratch. The coach did say he will get his time to play. Is that good for his development at a young age? I guess the isles did it with Dobson and seemed to be fine.

Fortunately, it's not like an AHL -> NHL thing. As a junior player, he can play one day with the juniors and the next with the pros. He can play anywhere the oganization sees fit and there have been plenty of instances of players being on the U18, U20, and pro teams simultaneously, so to speak.

That all said, Ljungkrantz hasn't played any junior games since having been called up.

As for Dobson, what we will never know is if he would have been in the AHL this past season if he were allowed to be. He wasn't, due to a clause between the NHL and CHL about players of a certain age and eligibility not being plucked into the minors at the cost of the junior programs (which are also businesses). As such, it was NHL, QMJHL or loan to Europe. The AHL was not an option.

In addition, Dmen are something different than forwards. They generally need a good bit more time before they hit their NHL maturity and, of course, there are far more forwards in the line-up who can be spoonfed ice time in breaking them in while a team can't spend much time playing just five Dmen while spoonfeeding a 6th. The intracacies of the position often outweigh the challenges of a forward, so there's that as well.

I think Dobson was progressing just as the organization had hoped. Thanks to this past season, I think most of us have full confidence in seeing him take a regular shift on the third pairing this upcoming season. He is a special player.

I am assuming we'll see Ljungkrantz get a little more ice time with the SHL club successively OR be sent back down for the bulk of the season. Even in Europe, they see little reason to have a young guy of future value sitting around too long in a situation where he's not getting the competitive minutes he needs to develop, even if practicing with the SHL team surely has intrinsic value as well.

 

[MJF]

 

[SI90]

Wow. Was there an outbreak?

 

[MJF]

Wow. Was there an outbreak?

The Maritimes has a spiking infection rate.

 

[xECK29x]

Wow. Was there an outbreak?

*gestures broadly*

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

All the places we were told had handled Covid better than we did are showing spikes . . pandemics either burn themselves out or we apply a vaccine and live with it. HIV was never 'solved', those with it have longer lives because of the drug cocktails that prolong life but they don't permanently solve the problem.

I can say that we've been experiencing major spikes here in Germany and although we're not in shutdown modus like in March/April, we're pretty darn close to it.

 

[PK Cronin]

Relate the conversation back to hockey specifically please.

 

[leeroggy]

Relate the conversation back to hockey specifically please.

It was a response to the QMJHL shutting down, it is hockey-specific . . . Canada was one of the countries I was referencing

 

[PWJunior]

Would be nice to see him in the WJC around X-Mas. Other than Wonder Woman on HBO Max (for those who have an AMEX, there is an offer for $7 off for the $14.99 monthly fee for it - good for 3 months), it will be what I'll be watching during the Holiday season.

 

[Tahoeblue]

Would be nice to see him in the WJC around X-Mas. Other than Wonder Woman on HBO Max (for those who have an AMEX, there is an offer for $7 off for the $14.99 monthly fee for it - good for 3 months), it will be what I'll be watching during the Holiday season.

Sure would. Quick question: Any other Isles prospects selected to attend any WJC camps? Is Krygier a possibility for team USA. Thanks in advance

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Sure would. Quick question: Any other Isles prospects selected to attend any WJC camps? Is Krygier a possibility for team USA. Thanks in advance

Short answer: Nope

 

[JKP]

The Maritimes has a spiking infection rate.

Yeah, after months of no positive tests, there have been a few so they shut down all rinks here in Halifax for a couple weeks and the "Atlantic Bubble," which had allowed for the 3 Maritime provinces + Newfoundland to have intra-provincial travel unfettered by any quarantines, has been paused as well. Thus the 6 Maritime teams (3 in NB, 2 in NS & 1 in PEI) can't easily play anymore.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Fell bad for Ljungkrantz. He was doing well and they sent him to the SHL but he's getting like 2 mins a game or a healthy scratch. The coach did say he will get his time to play. Is that good for his development at a young age? I guess the isles did it with Dobson and seemed to be fine.

There are all kinds of factors to consider, one of the biggest bring his attitude. As long as he's willing to work hard he's almost guaranteed to learn more just practicing with better players and coaches.

If you're much better than your teammates and opponents, you tend to develop bad habits, that are hard to shake.