Prospect Info: Kings Prospects in CHL/College/Europe Part 3

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Sleeping Dog

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Raccoon Jesus

Todd McLellan is an inside agent
Oct 30, 2008
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Frolov 6'3

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I was constantly very high on Cozens. Readable in his own thread.

For some reason you saw his name as a potential bust very often.

That could still happen but still.
 

Vino

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If you're that worried about a small sample size, you should be focused on the head-to-head matchup where Turcotte et. al. clowned them head to head, leaving Cozens -1 and Turcotte +2 with the Golden Goal.

That was one game a month ago, a really small sample. Now Cozens is playing (and scoring) in the NHL and Turcotte is injured.

I always saw him as a high floor/low ceiling type.

Trevor Linden. I think Cozens ceiling is Trevor Linden. A very good C/RW, but not a true star. Reliable 60-70 pts per season and a leader on and off the ice.
 

Raccoon Jesus

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That was one game a month ago, a really small sample. Now Cozens is playing (and scoring) in the NHL and Turcotte is injured.



Trevor Linden. I think Cozens ceiling is Trevor Linden. A very good C/RW, but not a true star. Reliable 60-70 pts per season and a leader on and off the ice.



That's exactly my point, though. It's silly to get worked up about a small sample size. But if you're going to, there's encouraging stuff to see as well.

I'm not going to lose much sleep about Cozens debuting earlier, yawn, we've done this with a million prospects over the last couple of years. It's about 20 years, not 3 months.

I like the Trevor Linden comp. And the Sabres have enough high end talent that he doesn't need to be 'the guy' so that'll be good
 

Brodeur

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Feb 27, 2002
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I just noticed these World Junior Championship stats....

2021 World Junior U-20 Championships complete player statistics at hockeydb.com

Did we lose by taking Turcotte over Cozens? Thanks!!!

U20 and U18 tournament stats can get skewed depending on which Group a team ends up in. I remember Tyson Jost setting a Canadian U18 record leading up to the 2016 Draft but he really feasted on the lesser competition. Cozens had a 6 point game against a shorthanded German team dealing with Covid protocols who were also playing for a second straight day. Take that game away and Cozens still had great production but it doesn't quite jump off the page as much.

Different type of players, I'm sure everybody will be happy with what they got. Almost a prime Richards vs. prime Carter type debate.
 

Eagle Fang

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Exciting stuff!

Vilardi, Grundstrom, Andersson, and Clauge have looked good to real good in the NHL so far. Kupari, Madden, Kaliyev, Thomas, Hults and Bjornfoot have looked good in the AHL preseason so far. Turcotte and Faber with really strong WJC performances. Chromiak doing well. Fagemo waiting for his chance, but has done nothing to disappoint thus far since being drafted. Spence having a solid jr career since being drafted.

Not sure what to think of Byfield yet, but if he's truly the best of the bunch... watch out.

And with 9 picks (3 in the first two rounds) in 2021, it'll just add more to an over abundance of potential talent.
 

No Name The Nameless

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Exciting stuff!

Vilardi, Grundstrom, Andersson, and Clauge have looked good to real good in the NHL so far. Kupari, Madden, Kaliyev, Thomas, Hults and Bjornfoot have looked good in the AHL preseason so far. Turcotte and Faber with really strong WJC performances. Chromiak doing well. Fagemo waiting for his chance, but has done nothing to disappoint thus far since being drafted. Spence having a solid jr career since being drafted.

Not sure what to think of Byfield yet, but if he's truly the best of the bunch... watch out.

And with 9 picks (3 in the first two rounds) in 2021, it'll just add more to an over abundance of potential talent.
Not trying to be that guy but what has made Clague look good so far? I'm truly curious. I'm no scout.
 

Eagle Fang

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Not trying to be that guy but what has made Clague look good so far? I'm truly curious. I'm no scout.

I'm definitely no scout either, but at least for me, having watched the sport for almost 30 years now, you can kind of see little things here and there that make players stand out over others. Definitely it's a very short sample size, but the one thing I really have liked so far about Clague is his transition game. He's been one of our better defensemen in terms of making quick, accurate passes from the d-zone to the forwards to get the offense going. He uses both long outlet passes and those short little 3 foot passes to break out of the d-zone and does it crisply. Compared to say Anderson (who I'm not knocking), his passes have zip.

Also I don't have the actual analytics and am only going off what I see, but he seems to get his shots through at a pretty decent rate and he carries the puck well. You'd have to assume that area more so than any other will continue to get better as he gains more experience since he's strength is that of an offensive minded d-man.

That along with his excellent skating make him a potentially effective d-man in today's NHL. My uneducated opinion has him as a 3-4th d-man who plays 2nd unit PP. One example of this that stands out is vs. the Blues when he stayed stride-for-stride with Kyrou, followed him behind the net and broke up the play. Kyrou is an excellent skater and I remember thinking, dang, that's pretty good of Clauge to be able to do that.

Granted his defensive play needs work, but he hasn't looked totally out of place in relation to our other d-men thus far. That being said, I did think he had a weak game vs Minnesota recently.
 

No Name The Nameless

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I'm definitely no scout either, but at least for me, having watched the sport for almost 30 years now, you can kind of see little things here and there that make players stand out over others. Definitely it's a very short sample size, but the one thing I really have liked so far about Clague is his transition game. He's been one of our better defensemen in terms of making quick, accurate passes from the d-zone to the forwards to get the offense going. He uses both long outlet passes and those short little 3 foot passes to break out of the d-zone and does it crisply. Compared to say Anderson (who I'm not knocking), his passes have zip.

Also I don't have the actual analytics and am only going off what I see, but he seems to get his shots through at a pretty decent rate and he carries the puck well. You'd have to assume that area more so than any other will continue to get better as he gains more experience since he's strength is that of an offensive minded d-man.

That along with his excellent skating make him a potentially effective d-man in today's NHL. My uneducated opinion has him as a 3-4th d-man who plays 2nd unit PP. One example of this that stands out is vs. the Blues when he stayed stride-for-stride with Kyrou, followed him behind the net and broke up the play. Kyrou is an excellent skater and I remember thinking, dang, that's pretty good of Clauge to be able to do that.

Granted his defensive play needs work, but he hasn't looked totally out of place in relation to our other d-men thus far. That being said, I did think he had a weak game vs Minnesota recently.

That's a nice write up. It was something that I was truly trying to determine. I find myself going back and forth on this but I honestly don't know what I'm looking for unless I lock in a player. I've been an avid hockey fan for 23 years, however hockey is one of those sports that the game changes every few years. And of course each defenseman has I different role on each line and each situation. I am always wrong when evaluating how a defenseman is playing.
 

King'sPawn

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Not trying to be that guy but what has made Clague look good so far? I'm truly curious. I'm no scout.

I know WTF already answered, and I really like their response. My take (keep in mind I'm no scout either):

I look for net improvement: competitiveness, sense, talent, and execution.

One thing I really liked with Muzzin, for example, was not so much whether or not he was mistake-free, but he was pushing himself to be in a position to make mistakes. He was negative in his execution, but the sense and competitiveness were there.

I love my Dwight King story, too. I used to go to the TSC to watch the Kings develop at development camp. The first camp I saw King, I thought "this kid's terrible relative to the rest of them. They're doing warm-ups and he is lazily going through the motions." A year or two later, he was putting forth genuine effort in the warm-ups. There was a very clear growth in his effort and competitive level.

With Clague, he is playing within his means while not being deferential. He's utilizing his tools to hold onto the puck just a moment or two longer to make effective plays, as opposed to treating it like a hand grenade.

I wouldn't put him in the "Muzzin" level yet, but he looks more like he's willing to make a mistake, while at the same time becoming a better player.
 

ru4reals

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Jul 4, 2007
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Not getting my hopes up because Russian, but hot damn, broken ankles galore.



Not one player on this team except maaaybe Lias and Kempe can pull this off. Like you said not getting my hopes up, but for sure it's still something to smile about for now.
 
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