You think he has a shot at team USA at the WJC? Or at leaving school next year for a shot to make the big squad?
yes I think Harris makes the WJC team. No he's not ready to play in the NHL next year, we got to stop rushing kids, he needs to physically mature so I would put him in Laval but another year in the NCAA wouldn't be bad either as he needs to get stronger and add mass.
I dont disagree that its concerning. Its the last thing I expected from these two guys. Watching their skillsets and the way they play I just dont understand how they are not doing better.
Brook has been very surprising, that said he's shown a few flashes by rushing the puck up ice and you could see that once he gets comfortable and trusts himself or perhaps the coaching staff learns to trust him as they play a very structured defensive game so they may not want him doing too much risky plays but the problem is that's his bread and butter. I know I haven't seen enough of those rushes, and I wonder why, is it him not feeling it yet or not trusting himself as he clearly has had issues in his own end, or is the coaching staff telling him to worry about his D first.
Fleury struggled in his own end for much of the year but the offense was still there, so what's troubling is I expected around 30 pts for Brook which is now looking unlikely.
Poehling I was never as high on as others as I like him a lot but more as a very solid 3rd liner on a contending team at least. I just never saw high end offensive skills. What's troubling me so far this year is that many nights he's almost completely invisible and what a f***ing terrible idea it was to call him up imo. I have never seen a 20 year old rookie get benched for a brutal turnover that led to a goal and then get called up within a week. Sometimes I really worry about the decisions being made at the very top.
You would include Poehling/Brook over Harris/Norlinder? Poehling was MVP U20 and Brook deservingly made Canada U20 dominating the WHL offensively, don't think the other two could accomplish as much, adjusting to pro can be difficult.
The WJC MVP doesn't mean that much to me. Puljujarvi won it at 17 and was much more impressive then Poehling who did have a great game vs Sweden but I think it hurt him more then helped him along with his NHL debut as fans were going nuts this off-season putting him in with others for NHL rookie of the year this season which just seemed so unlikely to me.
Brook had an outstanding year and I've been higher on him then just about anyone on this board since the first time I saw him but his play in the AHL is concerning to say the least. I had him higher but Harris has just been so good and Norlinder is racking up the goals while Romanov is just a safe bet. If Brook was showing more of his game in Laval then he would be #3 for me as that's where I had him but until he shows a good bit more in the AHL I just couldn't rank him that high.
I do think Brook will get there but his defensive play has left me with some big questions/concerns. If he can iron things out by the end of the season he will certainly move back up as you can see from my previous rankings how high i've been on him.
Harris I watch a lot of and just can't get over how good he is. His defensive game, smarts, positioning, skating/mobility, poise, all are elite imo.
Norlinder looks like a forward he clearly has a lot of offensive skills but I worry a bit about his IQ, have seen him make some poor decisions in passing the puck to players that are either covered or in a bad spot which then led to turnovers. If he can get this worked out which I don't know if he can, if it's smarts then perhaps not, if it's just a learning curve then perhaps he can. If he does though, wow could he be a good one.
