Prospect Info: Penguins #7 prospect - RUNOFF

[FreeBobbyFarnham]

Since it was a really close race for the #7 rank, then we're going to have our 1st runoff battle. Almari will be going up against Bjorkqvist for a 2nd straight year. Almari won that battle last year. Will he repeat?

The loser will be ranked 8th.

Click to read more...

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Almari again.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Juice.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Almari.

Some guys that need added.

Lindberg
DiPauli
Tiffels
Prow
Birks
Taylor

Dea's a weird one even tho he's still 24.
Lots of pro experience now so...
Personally believe he'll be a depth/AHL journeyman in North America or head overseas so i consider him not a prospect anymore.

 

[Peat]

Almari.

Some guys that need added.

Lindberg
DiPauli
Tiffels
Prow
Birks
Taylor

Dea's a weird one even tho he's still 24.
Lots of pro experience now so...
Personally believe he'll be a depth/AHL journeyman in North America or head overseas so i consider him not a prospect anymore.

For me this is a consistency thing. If Archibald was in the poll last year, then Dea should be on at some point. And if he should be on at some point, then I think he should be on ahead of all of those.

Lindberg is only a year younger with only a year less pro experience, but is nowhere near Dea's numbers.
Di Pauli is just as old, but nowhere near Dea's numbers
Tiffels is only a year younger and hasn't even proven he can crack WBS yet
Prow is even older
Birks had one last big year in college but was tracking to nothing before that
And Taylor is just as old and hasn't proven he can crack WBS yet

Dea's likely ceiling is higher than all of those.

 

[jmelm]

I think Bjorkvist has the chance to be a good 3rd or 4th line winger, which is fine, but he shouldn’t be above Almari, Riikola, Angelo or even Miletic IMO, all of whom have higher upside. Phillips may even have higher upside, and I think Phillips, Bjorkvist and Johnson are on that next tier.

 

[Peat]

I think Bjorkvist has the chance to be a good 3rd or 4th line winger, which is fine, but he shouldn’t be above Almari, Riikola, Angelo or even Miletic IMO, all of whom have higher upside. Phillips may even have higher upside, and I think Phillips, Bjorkvist and Johnson are on that next tier.

If every prospect left in the poll hits their ceiling, Phillips will be the best of them imo.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Almari offers little offensive upside. Am I wrong? He was picked in the 5th round. Unless you think he's going to be an elite or near elite stay at home guy how do you put him above Bjorkvist, who was drafted much higher, was thought of as a prospect in a much higher manner and from all accounts looked pretty darn good for Providence in his 2nd season. He's never going to be a great scoring line player, but his ceiling, IMO is a 2nd line glue guy who can do the dirty work for a couple of stars.

I simply don't see Almari as anything more than a ho hum 3rd pairing guy.

 

[dogthateats]

Bjorkqvist—cooler name

 

[FreeBobbyFarnham]

Almari for me. I'd rather have a potential 2nd pair dman than a potential 3rd liner any day of the week.

 

[PensandCaps]

For me this is a consistency thing. If Archibald was in the poll last year, then Dea should be on at some point. And if he should be on at some point, then I think he should be on ahead of all of those.

Lindberg is only a year younger with only a year less pro experience, but is nowhere near Dea's numbers.
Di Pauli is just as old, but nowhere near Dea's numbers
Tiffels is only a year younger and hasn't even proven he can crack WBS yet
Prow is even older
Birks had one last big year in college but was tracking to nothing before that
And Taylor is just as old and hasn't proven he can crack WBS yet

Dea's likely ceiling is higher than all of those.

Dea is a small AHL scorer. He'll never be a NHL player.

Lindberg is big and Fast, his game translates much better than Dea's, as he'll be able to play a 4th line role with ease.

 

[ImporterExporter]

What makes anyone believe Almari can be a 2nd pairing guy? To do that, he'll have to be Ian Cole or better, because from what I can tell he's not doing it from an offensive standpoint.

 

[Jacob]

Not sure why Almari is rated so highly.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I'll be pleasantly surprised if anyone from here on out makes it beyond the 4th line or the 3rd defense pairing.

Slim pickins.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Not sure why Almari is rated so highly.

 

[ImporterExporter]

I keep asking why people view a 5th round, no offensive output Dman is getting this kind of traction here....nobody must know, because there hasn't been a legit answer yet.

Bjorkvist at least was drafted in an area where you expect him to become a solid bottom 6'er if not a 2nd line type with all the stars aligning. Everything I've read out of Providence seems to back that up. Gritty power forward, skates well enough, can play in any situation, isn't a black hole offensively, great work ethic, etc.

 

[Jacob]

You can even compare these two apples to apples:

Almari: 151st overall pick
Bjorkqvist: 61st overall pick
Almari: didn’t make WJC team at 19
Bjorkqvist: made WJC team at 18
Almari: #7 d-man on a bad SM-Liiga team
Bjorkqvist: led Friars in goals as sophomore on good team in tough division

 

[ImporterExporter]

You can even compare these two apples to apples:

Almari: 151st overall pick
Bjorkqvist: 61st overall pick
Almari: didn’t make WJC team at 19
Bjorkqvist: made WJC team at 18
Almari: #7 d-man on a bad SM-Liiga team
Bjorkqvist: led Friars in goals as sophomore on good team in tough division

Bingo, was going to post something similar. This really isn't close in all reality. At least not on paper or production.

Obviously we all hope they both pan out very well, I just don't see any logical reason for voting Almari here, or really even in the next few rounds.

 

[Jacob]

There’s like 1 guy in the Pens org that thinks Almari is the bee’s knees and it’s the same guy that drafted Connor Hall & Lauzon.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

I'll be pleasantly surprised if anyone from here on out makes it beyond the 4th line or the 3rd defense pairing.

Slim pickins.

I wouldn’t die from shock if one of the remaining D turns into something good. He drafted 8 in 2016 and 2017.

Lauzon (51)
Phillips (93)
Palojarvi (186)
Reilly (217)
Not Hall (77)
Jones (121)
Almari (151)
Masonius (181)
And Riikola I guess

They might have hit on something. Statistically unlikely but at least there are numbers.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Riikola > Almari

 

[Peat]

Dea is a small AHL scorer. He'll never be a NHL player.

Lindberg is big and Fast, his game translates much better than Dea's, as he'll be able to play a 4th line role with ease.

Lindberg is 23 and has yet to show he can play the 4th line with ease. As long as they both look like AHL players, I'll tout the better AHL player.

Not sure why Almari is rated so highly.

You can even compare these two apples to apples:

Almari: 151st overall pick
Bjorkqvist: 61st overall pick
Almari: didn’t make WJC team at 19
Bjorkqvist: made WJC team at 18
Almari: #7 d-man on a bad SM-Liiga team
Bjorkqvist: led Friars in goals as sophomore on good team in tough division

There’s like 1 guy in the Pens org that thinks Almari is the bee’s knees and it’s the same guy that drafted Connor Hall & Lauzon.

Okay.

First off - where you got picked only means so much, or Lauzon should have already been voted in and Bellerive is officially worse than both. Particularly when Bjorkqvist was a giant reach, made by the same guy that drafted Connor Hall & Lauzon.

And its not just Sexton who's high on Almari. Guerin is and the reports from the WBS watchers over the few games he played there were very complimentary. DK also believes the org is high on him, based on what I can see before the paywall kicks in (I'm aware that probably hurt my argument). Pronman reckons he's decent too. Plus, as a prospect playing in Europe prior to being drafted, Almari was probably a result of the European scouts championing him more than Sexton.

As for making the WJC team - Finland's defence that year was stacked. He still maybe should have made it, but it wasn't as easy as getting onto a less loaded forward group as a 4th liner.

Almari was HPK's 6th most used dman - and also their second highest goal scoring dman. He was also the 4th highest used U20 dman in the Liiga - its not a league where young dmen are rushed out. What he's done there definitely puts him ahead of the curve.

Yes, Sexton's comments play a big part in people's thoughts. But there's no shortage of comments bigging him up. And what he's done in a man's league shows he has a decent chance of being a top 4 dman.