LD Alex Vlasic (2019, 43rd, CHI)

[Frk It]

no just averaging all opinions together to come up with a ranking seems a bit odd..... but it sure gets people talking which is what TSN is looking for when they release Bob's and Craigs rankings....

How is that odd? I think it’s a smart idea.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I've been watching his play closely of late trying to figure out if I was wrong about Vlasic's skill-set because I'm much lower on Vlasic than most of the rankings.

I think he's more skilled than I initially gave him credit for being. I think he's pretty good with the puck on his stick. If he's in a smaller space, he can make some plays with the puck that you'd expect of a small offensive defenseman. He has really good hands for a big man, he has good creativity with the puck and the points he accumulates are definitely not because he plays on a high-scoring team. He's a good offensive player at this level. He's not a shutdown defensive player, but I think he defends well enough for a player his age to be able to eventually contribute to a penalty kill and not be a defensive liability. He's also 6'6, and he should be able to put on more weight. He doesn't play that physical right now, but he has the size to win a lot of corner and net-front battles.

The IQ is about average. A little naive on the defensive side of things, but nothing about his IQ particularly stands out good or bad. My concern still is the skating. Its bad. He's very slow. If he skated better, you could maybe project him as a first pair defenseman who can score 30-40 points per season and play decent defense, but I think the skating holds him back. Improving his skating would go a long way towards giving himself a better chance to be a top 4 NHL'er. If he doesn't become a better skater, he's going to have to learn to pick his spots better. He gets himself caught up the ice way too often at junior level for someone with his skating ability. And if he needs to pick his spots better, you have to wonder how much that'll impact his offensive production.

I'm going to revise my opinion and say he's a second round level prospect. I would've said he's a mid-rounder at the beginning of the season, but I think there's enough offensive and defensive potential that if his skating improves, he's a top four defenseman.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I don't like to proclaim big changes in draft stock based on the WJC18, but Vlasic is having a terrible tournament. It's as if I'm watching Adam Samuelsson from last year. I think he's better than that, but he's not distinguishing himself much from that comparison in this tournament.

 

[LastWordArmy]

Our look

Alex Vlasic Scouting Report: 2019 NHL Draft #27 - Last Word on Hockey

 

[MMC]

Welcome to Chicago!

 

[ColbyChaos]

Someone tell me how to feel

 

[CallMeShaft]

Welcome Pickles!

 

[CallMeShaft]

Someone tell me how to feel

Feel good. Seen a lot of mocks with him in the 1st round. Carlo from the Bruins seems to be a good NHL comparable to give you a rough idea.

 

[William H Bonney]

Feel good. Seen a lot of mocks with him in the 1st round. Carlo from the Bruins seems to be a good NHL comparable to give you a rough idea.

Vlasic would be a lot better prospect if he were like Carlo but he's not. Leaving aside what Carlo's already doing in the NHL, at the same age, Carlo was a better skater, better defensively, and much more physical.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I could see this guy never sticking in the NHL.

Very slow skater, defensive game is raw, above-average offensively for a player his size, but not great.

I think Chicago is having among the worst drafts in the league right now after having a great 2018 draft.

Chicago made sure to pick a local guy, but took the wrong one. Big gaffe.

 

[William H Bonney]

Here's what I said in another thread on him after the first round:

• I'm not a Vlasic fan. I honestly wouldn't consider him before the 4th round, so I'm not surprised he didn't go late 1st. I've been surprised by his ranking because it's not indicative of his play with the NTDP and it's overly optimistic on his potential. I just don't see it with him. Yes, he's huge, but he's not physical. He gets the defensive defenseman label but he's not really that good defensively. He's an okay skater for his size and he has some decent offensive ability but not anything that's likely to transfer to the NHL. I think he'll probably go in the 2nd round because teams love taking big players and hoping they're the rare diamond-in-the-rough with late blooming skills. I hope he proves me wrong.

As a USAH guy, I hope Vlasic makes me look like a fool. And like most of us, I'm wrong a lot when it comes to prospects. But I'm just not a fan of his game.

Even if I took a more optimistic look on Vlasic's potential than I believe he deserves, I certainly wouldn't have taken him over defensemen that have gone after him (Kolyachonok, Zach Jones, Ronnie Attard, etc.) or haven't even gone at all (Thrun, Warren, etc.). Those guys, among others that I haven't seen much of and are likely in the same boat, are all better now than Vlasic and have better potential than Vlasic as well. Not to mention some of the forwards that were also available.

Someone was going to reach on Vlasic in the 2nd round, that wasn't in doubt. But I wouldn't be excited about him if it was my team that did it.

 

[DontToewzMeBro]

I could see this guy never sticking in the NHL.

Very slow skater, defensive game is raw, above-average offensively for a player his size, but not great.

I think Chicago is having among the worst drafts in the league right now after having a great 2018 draft.

Chicago made sure to pick a local guy, but took the wrong one. Big gaffe.

I could see this guy really sticking in the NHL. Great size, good first pass, hockey relatives that are defensive players.

I think Chicago is having one of the best drafts in the league right now after a decent 2018.

Chicago made sure to pick a local guy, and they took the right one because Dachs upside is far higher than I thought.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I could see this guy really sticking in the NHL. Great size, good first pass, hockey relatives that are defensive players.

I think Chicago is having one of the best drafts in the league right now after a decent 2018.

Chicago made sure to pick a local guy, and they took the right one because Dachs upside is far higher than I thought.

Why are you sour about it? It's an opinion. I thought Chicago had a great draft a year ago, and said so. Your fans liked what I had to say a year ago when I praised your team, but when you go off the board in the second round for a guy who was always going to be over-drafted due to size and then also make an even more questionable pick at #3OA, what do you expect?

 

[DontToewzMeBro]

Why are you sour about it? It's an opinion. I thought Chicago had a great draft a year ago, and said so. Your fans liked what I had to say a year ago when I praised your team, but when you go off the board in the second round for a guy who was always going to be over-drafted due to size and then also make an even more questionable pick at #3OA, what do you expect?

Eh, drafted for need with that pick.

 

[CallMeShaft]

Why are you sour about it? It's an opinion. I thought Chicago had a great draft a year ago, and said so. Your fans liked what I had to say a year ago when I praised your team, but when you go off the board in the second round for a guy who was always going to be over-drafted due to size and then also make an even more questionable pick at #3OA, what do you expect?

We liked you because you were Boqvist's biggest fan. As long as you kiss our prospects' asses, we're good with you. But when you deviate from that, we'll turn on you in an instant.

Just like any other fanbase here.

 

[crazyhawk]

Why are you sour about it? It's an opinion. I thought Chicago had a great draft a year ago, and said so. Your fans liked what I had to say a year ago when I praised your team, but when you go off the board in the second round for a guy who was always going to be over-drafted due to size and then also make an even more questionable pick at #3OA, what do you expect?

To say Dach is a questionable pick is a tad off.
Dach / Byram / Turcotte were in most minds interchangeable for the 3 - 5 range.
Hawks went with the big R shooting C. It was clearly an issue of preference for those attributes over those of Byram and Turcotte's.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

I happened to watch a BU game this weekend, Vlasic logged a ton of ice time and looked pretty good. Why does no one talk about this kid, and it seems like he doesn't even make some of the top 20 prospect lists for Chicago?

 

[TLEH]

Started this year in the NHL. Great skater for his size and has some puck skills. Was matched against Matthew’s line all night and thought he played his best game as a pro.

Alex Vlasic is developing into the defenseman the Blackhawks hoped he'd be

Outside of Connor Bedard, Vlasic has arguably been the Blackhawks’ most impressive player over the season’s opening.

theathletic.com

Any Athletic subscriber can watch the clips that Scott put together. He’s been the story this season in Chicago other than Bedard.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

It's funny cause this season so far I've already watched more Hawks games than any other year due to the Bedard obsession on tv and the one guy I continue to notice every game(other than Bedard) is Vlasic... What a solid dman he is... He's the type of guy every team would love to have

I bet Hawks lock him down long term this season... Hawks will give him a 8 year deal at some point... similar to a Mattias Samuelsson type situation in Buffalo

 

[Hattrick Kane]

Yeah his skating is good for a guy his size. And he’s honestly been quite physical as well, his two major issues that he’s managed to figure out.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

He's been one of the more impressive rookies in Chicago. His skating and puck skills have really improved.

 

[Mrfenn92]

4 games in and looking good. Obviously still lots of time to go.

 

[TLEH]

Biggest change in his game for me that is making him more successful is just his willingness to engage physically. I always disliked the player due to how soft he was. Hasn't been the case in the NHL at all.

His skating and puck skills were there for his size. Year in the AHL to learn some positioning and how to use his body and it looks to be paying dividends.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Very impressed with his play against the Leafs yesterday. Seems to be a great fit beside Jones

 

[Chelios]

He has been excellent so far, could make a case ea has been our best defenseman. His skating is excellent for his size, closes down on opposing forwards quickly, has a really effective stick and has been surprisingly calm with the puck on his stick (as he showed on that Perry goal). I was pretty indifferent on him prior to this season, but he has completely won me over.