stickty111
Registered User
- Jan 23, 2017
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Random thought but curious to see how the San Jose defensemen factory will do with Keaton Middleton. Seems like the California teams do a good job turning random big body defensive prospects into serviceable NHL defensive defensemen which is something our system doesn’t seem capable of.
Big defencemen should still be able to produce decent numbers in the AHL, and Middelton hasn't.
He probably isn't making the NHL.
Kind of hard to do when you don't even give them a chance.
Obviously Hunter was not drafting the right ones, if they can't even make it to the AHL or quickly fizzle out. It's not like other big bodies have not been making the AHL.
Or we are not able to develop them, but it's not like our larger forward prospects (Korshkov, Gauthier, Engvall, etc.) have had trouble developing. So is is just large defensemen we suck at, or
Our system seems to prioritize smaller productive forwards who can make a contribution earlier and doesn’t have much patience for developing those Muzzin, McQuaid, Dillon, Miller types who take a bit more development.
Big defencemen should still be able to produce decent numbers in the AHL, and Middelton hasn't.
He probably isn't making the NHL.
I mean how many years did we spend with Justin Holl?
It's just that those types of guys are rare, and are going to become more rare as the game evolves
Our system seems to prioritize smaller productive forwards who can make a contribution earlier and doesn’t have much patience for developing those Muzzin, McQuaid, Dillon, Miller types who take a bit more development.
Or we are not giving our system the types of guys who can develop into those types of players. It's not like Desrocher, Mattinen or Nielsen are exactly excelling elsewhere. I think all three developed about as nicely as you could hope for outside of the AHL, but only one (Nielsen) showed enough to continue on to the Marlies. Our development team can only do so much; if the prospect simply does not have it, then he will never have it no matter what.
I think if you are drafting a larger defenseman, the prudent thing would be to either draft an advanced CHLer with skills to match his size and just take him early on, or you take a European/NCAA guy in the mid-later rounds so you can afford to let them simmer outside of the AHL until they are 22/23 before you need to make a decision on them. All of these larger body guys typically take longer, and later round ones take especially long. Taking these mid-late round CHL big guys are even longer shots than anything else you can really get.
The problem is that in order to get one of those big guys that also has speed and skill, you almost always have to take them in the top 10-15 of the draft. Unless you get lucky with a pick like Engvall, it's very rare to pick up a guy that skates well enough AND is over 6'2"-6'3" that can be effective at the next level after the first round. You get the odd guy in the 2nd round but it's harder than you think.I suppose we just need the scouting department to look for those body types as well because with the cap being what it is, we sort of need to have a bit of everything to fall back on.
The problem is that in order to get one of those big guys that also has speed and skill, you almost always have to take them in the top 10-15 of the draft. Unless you get lucky with a pick like Engvall, it's very rare to pick up a guy that skates well enough AND is over 6'2"-6'3" that can be effective at the next level after the first round. You get the odd guy in the 2nd round but it's harder than you think.
Its looking like Bracco has completely fallen off the map. He's now being out proudce (P/GP) by Liljegren....
That's more of an indication of how good Liljegren has been than anything.
So at the start of the season, you would have been satisfied with 0.75ish P/GP from Bracco?
Its a huge disappointment...
Yeah and his drop in production hasn't exactly come at the expense of his improvement in other areas. I would understand if he was killing penalties this year or doing something that could affect his scoring, but his game hasn't expanded one bit.Its looking like Bracco has completely fallen off the map. He's now being out proudce (P/GP) by Liljegren....
He can look in the mirror for that. All the guys he's played with are up the league or have had a cup of coffee with the leafs while he's an afterthought. His effort level and willingness to make the effort required to improve just are not there.Must be mentally tough for Bracco to see what's going on.