Prospect Info: Isles Prospect Talk PART XVII

[Felix Unger]

Saw the game. Ho-Sang was outstanding - best player on the ice. Niagara was buzzing and outskated and out worked Kingston.

What did you think of his competitiveness? From the highlights he looks like a bleeding terror. How about on a shift by shift basis?

 

[Lame Lambert]

What did you think of his competitiveness? From the highlights he looks like a bleeding terror. How about on a shift by shift basis?

More importantly did he look like a locker room cancer?

 

[Felix Unger]

More importantly did he look like a locker room cancer?

He could be a cancer for all I care, if he competed all game the way he did in the highlights.

 

[Caser]

Some saves from today by Sorokin:

 

[SI90]

Grabovski isn't injured!!! He can be seen at the 33 sec mark of the first sorokin clip

 

[redbull]

What did you think of his competitiveness? From the highlights he looks like a bleeding terror. How about on a shift by shift basis?

Shift by shift, he was still the best player on the ice for both teams and it wasn't close. He's still not physically strong (Lawson Crouse was a man among boys by comparison - but that's rare for junior) but Josh was driving all the offense with speed, confidence and battle. He looked like a leader, like Niagara's best player being their hardest worker and leading by example on the ice - best I've seen him play and left extremely impressed. Can't wait for the next game.

Speed kills in the NHL nowadays and Barzal is a big time skater, probably the best overall skater that we've had in a very long time. Grabner was all fast twitch muscle and could blaze in spurts, but Barzal has him beat when you consider all the facets of skating. Barzal also has high hockey IQ so he's not one of those players where his feet are too fast for his mind like Taylor Hall (had to add that dig ). Couple that with high end skill, this kid could be a gamebreaker at the NHL level.

He's never going to be a big goal scorer, but having the threat of potting a couple will open up his game. This kid's skating is flat out electric though, I can't get over it.

I think Barzal is similar to Ho-Sang, great skater, pass-first mentality and tremendous vision and hockey sense. Barzal "feels" like more of a sure-thing to me, not sure how much of that is simply due to Ho-Sang's questionable character-related history vs. pure on-ice ability. Barzal is also 16 months younger which is pretty significant at this stage of their development.

I like both players.

 

[Ultimate Warrior]

What did you think of his competitiveness? From the highlights he looks like a bleeding terror. How about on a shift by shift basis?

I also saw the game. Will start off saying that I am a HUGE Ho-Sang critic. Know his game well and I agree with a lot of what the scouts were saying during his draft year. With that said, the Ho-Sang I have seen this playoffs is something special. He is finally starting to improve his decision making and it was pretty evident in this game. Period 1 he was only average. He made a few bad passes (1 led to a breakaway by kingston that was stopped) and was clearly upset with himself for letting the team down. Fast forward to periods 2 and 3 he created offense on nearly every shift. Niagra has scored 8 PPG's this postseason, Ho-Sang has assisted on all 8. His skill set is very intriguing as he really is exactly what the current team lacks - a dynamic puck handling game breaker. His upside is massive and it honestly seems to me that his game has matured a bit this season. The one area he needs major improvement in - his play without the puck and his willingness to fight to get it back.

 

[PWJunior]

I also saw the game. Will start off saying that I am a HUGE Ho-Sang critic. Know his game well and I agree with a lot of what the scouts were saying during his draft year. With that said, the Ho-Sang I have seen this playoffs is something special. He is finally starting to improve his decision making and it was pretty evident in this game. Period 1 he was only average. He made a few bad passes (1 led to a breakaway by kingston that was stopped) and was clearly upset with himself for letting the team down. Fast forward to periods 2 and 3 he created offense on nearly every shift. Niagra has scored 8 PPG's this postseason, Ho-Sang has assisted on all 8. His skill set is very intriguing as he really is exactly what the current team lacks - a dynamic puck handling game breaker. His upside is massive and it honestly seems to me that his game has matured a bit this season. The one area he needs major improvement in - his play without the puck and his willingness to fight to get it back.

Wow, he even impressed an anti-JHS guy. Me likey, me likey a lot.

I've been saying for a while, he could be a very good fit for Tavares on RW. His ability to gain the offensive zone is HUGE, would take a ton of pressure off JT in that regard. He has the playmaking ability to get JT the puck. Add a goal scorer on LW, that is what I think is the optimal set up to get the best out of Tavares. A speedy playmaker who can handle zone entry duties and then get JT the puck, JT can either attack the net or find the sniper (Dal Colle?) to take the first shot and then follow up the play sniffing for rebounds in his office.

While Barzal brings the same skillset than JHS, he's a natural center so surround him with big goal scorers like Nelson and Lee to bring out the best in his game. Frans is looking very good on JT's LW right now, Okposo is not the right fit on RW. We lack that sniper on the right side, but it's nice to have 2 speedy RH shot playmakers in JHS and Barzal while all of our natural goal scorers are LH shots.

Maybe we draft a big RH shot player (Tage Thompson anyone?) this year. If Hammer does indeed go to Edmonton, I want their pick so we can grab someone like Laine or Puljujarvi. That would round out our whole top-9 group.

 

[SI90]

Ho-Sangs ability to stick handle at high speeds is incredible.

 

[SI90]

Imagine a PP of


Ho-sang---Barzal---Tavares

Pulock-------------Dal Colle.

 

[Riseonfire]

Imagine a PP of


Ho-sang---Barzal---Tavares

Pulock-------------Dal Colle.

Blah.

Only 1 of barzal or ho-sang are needed as the half wall puck distributor. Plus no big body in front of the net?

 

[Konk]

Wow, he even impressed an anti-JHS guy. Me likey, me likey a lot.

I wouldn't say I'm an anti any prospect, but I've been critical of Josh in the past as well and I agree with Ultimate Warrior. As I said in the 1st round, it goes to the start of the playoffs -- Ho Sang has cleaned up his act quite a bit. He's starting to win over a lot of his critics and playing a more focused game. He isn't overhandling the puck as much and his turn overs have dwindled down as a result. Hopefully he keeps this going.

 

[SI90]

Blah.

Only 1 of barzal or ho-sang are needed as the half wall puck distributor. Plus no big body in front of the net?

You couldn't just me have that for a moment? Lol

 

[Riseonfire]

You couldn't just me have that for a moment? Lol

How about an OT team of Ho-Sang, Tavares and Leddy, followed by Barzal, DalColle, and Pulock?

 

[SI90]

How about an OT team of Ho-Sang, Tavares and Leddy, followed by Barzal, DalColle, and Pulock?

 

[periferal]

How about an OT team of Ho-Sang, Tavares and Leddy, followed by Barzal, DalColle, and Pulock?

Personally I'd like to have as few OT games as possible.

Second...That first trio is the definition of high risk/high reward. They could score immediately or turn the puck over leading to breakaways.

 

[Sorge Georos]

What did you think of his competitiveness? From the highlights he looks like a bleeding terror. How about on a shift by shift basis?

What of his heart, soul, and mental wiring?

 

[Riseonfire]

Second...That first trio is the definition of high risk/high reward. They could score immediately or turn the puck over leading to breakaways.

Hah, well isn't that the entire purpose of 3v3? **** being conservative.

 

[Felix Unger]

He looked like a leader, like Niagara's best player being their hardest worker and leading by example on the ice - best I've seen him play and left extremely impressed. Can't wait for the next game.

Awesome!

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

What's going on? I thought Kingston was a powerhouse. Are they choking or what? Wow.

Kingston's notorious for choking in the playoffs. This is a franchise that, until this year, hadn't won a playoff series since 1998. And even in 1998, when they had arguably the best "on paper" roster in the OHL, they severely underachieved all season and got ousted in the second round after barely getting by a brutal Oshawa team in round 1.

As for this specific team, they're the type of team that has to play hard each game in order to win. They're not blessed with tremendous amounts of skill through their lineup where they can take nights off and still score 4 or 5 goals on skill alone. They need to work hard, and so far Niagara has outworked them.

It seems yet again, no matter how "stacked" Kingston is, they underachieve.

 

[PWJunior]

Kingston's notorious for choking in the playoffs. This is a franchise that, until this year, hadn't won a playoff series since 1998. And even in 1998, when they had arguably the best "on paper" roster in the OHL, they severely underachieved all season and got ousted in the second round after barely getting by a brutal Oshawa team in round 1.

As for this specific team, they're the type of team that has to play hard each game in order to win. They're not blessed with tremendous amounts of skill through their lineup where they can take nights off and still score 4 or 5 goals on skill alone. They need to work hard, and so far Niagara has outworked them.

It seems yet again, no matter how "stacked" Kingston is, they underachieve.

I'm really surprised STK, it's a blowout so far. They could very well be swept by Niagara. I don't have interest in them like you do, I mostly only care about Dal Colle yet I expected more from this team. They were killing it in the regular season, it's just double take worthy that they're down 3-0.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'm really surprised STK, it's a blowout so far. They could very well be swept by Niagara. I don't have interest in them like you do, I mostly only care about Dal Colle yet I expected more from this team. They were killing it in the regular season, it's just double take worthy that they're down 3-0.

Keep in mind that while the actual lead in the series makes it look like a blowout at 3 games to nothing, the series itself has been close. Two of the three games went to OT. A bounce here or there and it could have just as easily been 2-1 Kingston right now.

Having said that, I'm not surprised at the result given Kingston's effort. IMO, they haven't played a full 60 minute game yet. With the way Kingston is built (heavy game that wears the opposition down), they need to work hard the entire game. They don't have the natural skill to win games when they only show up for 15 to 20 minutes.

It's hard to describe -- I'm probably not doing so well at it -- but Kingston's record is misleading in that it makes them appear more dominant than they are. But IMO, they've always appeared to be the type of team that was good, but not great. They just worked extremely hard most games and were difficult to play against. It's a contrast to teams like London or Erie, who actually have the talent to win games even when they're not playing their best.

As far as the Islander prospect showdown, Ho-Sang's winning it quite handily, and not just because his team is up 3-0. I've never been high on Ho-Sang because I didn't think his game translated well to the NHL, but he's doing the things now that I didn't see him doing prior. Instead of being a one-man show who did his own thing, he's applying his skills to playing within a team game.

 

[Wanderson]

Linus Söderström has signed a 1 year contract with HV71 in SHL

 

[SI90]

Linus Söderström has signed a 1 year contract with HV71 in SHL

That's great to hear. He's still young and he will be developing as a pro in a good league.

We have a bit of a log jam at goaltender in NA. So it's good that we have him stay in Europe for now.

 

[Wanderson]

That's great to hear. He's still young and he will be developing as a pro in a good league.

We have a bit of a log jam at goaltender in NA. So it's good that we have him stay in Europe for now.

I don't understand why Djurgården didn't resign him. He was out on loan to Vita Hästen this season, he only played 17 games last season - but he did well. Djurgården just lost Mantas Armalis to San José. He will be the backup goalie behind Fredrik Pettersson-Wentzel in HV71. I expect him to play around 20 games next season. However, as you said, it will be good for his development.