Alright quick recap on the Prospects Game.
Highlights
#CHLKTP Highlights: Team White (5) – Team Red (3) – Ontario Hockey League
Goalies
Disclaimer: I am not a goalie expert, but I can typically tell obvious flaws/strengths.
Daws did not play today for some reason. Gould got the entire game for Team Red. TBH, I think it's the type of performance that would strike him from a lot of Draft Boards... including mine. Besides giving up 5 (technically 6 since one was called back on an offside) goals, he just never looked competent in net at all. Awful positioning, gave up easy goals on both the blocker and glove side, choppy mobility... Besides the big body, which is negated with a really deep crouch anyways, I am not sure there is anything to really like.
Hlavaj was better than Gould, but I was hoping for something a little bit better from him. It was more or less what I saw at the WJC, which is probably not good enough for a D+1. He had more or less the same kinds of issues as Gould: choppy mobility, a slightly awkward crouching stance, a little bit of trouble tracking the puck... But there is some upside with his athleticism.
Both lived up to their billings as guys from this game who could go undrafted.
Garand was by far the best. Easily the best positioning, very athletic, strong at tracking the puck and recovering, mobile, etc.. The issue with him is always going to be that he is small (6'0"), and while he does stay upright with a more upper body crouch, he looks really small in net. That being said, I think someone takes a chance on him just like Calgary did with Dustin Wolf. He may even go a little bit higher than Wolf did, but he is still going to be taken in the later rounds more likely than not.
Defense
I don't know if it is because these guys can't defend, there is just so many offensively talented guys, or it is hard to put a cohesive defensive system together for one game when most of these guys have never played together, but man was defense really choppy from both teams. A ton of guys blowing assignments and leaving guys wide-open while they are either standing still in no-man's land or chasing the puck with 2 of their team mates. It was bad from both sides, and it was an issue that plagued most guys, so it's really hard to tell who was good and who was bad. Forwards were even worse at defending.
I think the best and simplest way of summarizing it is more or less the guys live up to where they are generally slotted on most Mock Drafts.
Drysdale was easily one of the most impressive guys back there. Even when he got beat, he was able to recover so well and shut down even the top guys like Perfetti. Definitely living up to his billing as the top defender in the class.
Schneider, Guhle and O'Rourke looked solid. Not amazing, but solid. Any of them should make their teams happy in the 20's or 30's, and one or more of them could even slip into the teens due to the weaker defensive crop. I liked Poirier's offensive upside, but his defense will need some work. The one guy who really impressed me was Lukas Cormier. Poirier probably still has the most offensive upside outside of Drysdale, but Cormier can make a serious claim for that spot. Moves the puck extremely well, he's packed his 5'10" frame, plays physical, and is solid defensively. He was projected to go late 2nd or early 3rd, and I would definitely take him with either of our picks in that round, but if that game is any indication, he could be out of our reach.
Prokop and Nickl were invisible, but they made a few nice plays with the puck. Prokop still has terrible WHL numbers which may hurt him, but those two looked like 3rd or 4th rounders.
The remaining guys: Sedoff, Puutio, Sebrango, and Thompson. All of them made some seriously costly errors at some point during the game. A few resulted in goals. I can't blame them for everything, because the forwards sucked at defending too and the goalies (especially Gould in Sebrango and Puutio's case) were trash at times, but they all may have been scratched off of some boards after this game.
Forwards
I'm not really going to point out everyone. There were some guys who were invisible, like Quinton Byfield, and some guys who really shined, like Lafreniere. I don't think too many forwards really helped their stock. They either played to about the standards of their expected draft position, or disappointed.
The biggest disappointment for me (outside of Byfield for being totally invisible) was easily Antonio Stranges. Made two cocky puck handling moves that resulted in him coughing up the puck and leading to two goals against. That alone may have kicked him down boards, because that is supposed to be what he is good at. Cuylle was another one. Missed easy defensive coverages and never really did anything except fight Sebrango. I never had this guy pegged as a 1st rounder, but he has all of the markings of those power forwards who can leverage their bodies in the juniors to be successful, but can't even hack it in the AHL once everyone is about as big as them. His skill looks like mid-round at best, and he has a lot of work to do in a lot of key areas.
Foudy, Bourque, Sourdif, Neighbours, Wiesblatt, Ponomaryev, and Pytlik did not have the types of games I expected out of players expected to go in their respective ranges. They were not awful, but for guys who are expected to receive 1st round consideration, they certainly did not play like it.
Tyson Foerster, the forward I would say helped his stock the most, l0oked better. However he was also playing with Connor Zary (who looked like he should have been a top 15 pick) and Lafreniere so he didn't do it all himself. Evangelista, Coe, Jarvis (at times) and Greig also impressed me to some degree.
