How were they? Nobody ever talks about our prospects.
lol, that's exactly what this thread is for. In fact, I think I can be guilty of going on long rants about some of our prospects, so why not continue that trend
Jarry: this will be shorter, because he only played one of the 2 games, didn't face too many shots after the first 2 goals, so it's hard to comment on a small sample size. He's good and confident at handling the puck. The first (breakaway) goal beat him clean through the legs, and you can say what you want about that, but it would have been good for him to make that save. It was one of the very first shots of the game though, so perhaps it's hard to come in cold and make that save, but it wasn't a crazy deke, just a clean 5-hole shot. The 2nd goal, I agree, absolutely should not have counted. BUT, Jarry should never have let that puck through his body anyway. It's only because it squeaked through that it caught the post and went in. I would say it shouldn't have counted, but he also should have stopped it. The rest of the game, he was not tested a lot but held the fort and didn't allow anymore goals. I think a lot of that credit goes towards just how much the WHL team carried the play and didn't give up too many shots against.
Pouliot: OK, I've got one major concern about this guy: his speed. No, he's not a huge player, but he's got a wider than normal body (think a little like Kasparaitis style body, maybe not quite as wide, but you get the just of it). He's got A+ hockey IQ, he's good positionally, and he's a pretty chippy player who doesn't mind the rough stuff. He moves the puck well and seems to make the right decision most of the time. He's got a pretty good shot, too, which we saw on the PP goal, although he's definitely quite pass-first on the PP. I didn't see any of his shots get blocked, though, so he's probably pretty heads up and smart in that regard to know when he's got a lane. Perhaps the best compliment to Pouliot is the fact that Brent Sutter had him 1st over the boards on both the PP and the PK, so he viewed him, at least for those games, as a top-pairing guy. But...
So Pouliot is a "great" skater in the sense that he's got pretty good quickness across short distances (traversing a small distance to step up on a play, pinch in, get somewhere in the defensive zone, etc.), and is a very elegant skater in the sense that his turns, pivots, the way he moves, etc., are all very fluid and smooth. But my biggest concern is his overall speed. He just does not have that extra gear. If he steps up into a play on a bad pinch or gets caught, most of the time he's got no chance of getting back into the play. It's also seen in the sense that he does not have the type of escapability to break away from opposing forecheckers with a lot of speed if he's rushing the puck. But it's most apparent when he has to face an offensive player with serious speed coming at him, and even more so when he has to recover (think about how Letang can recover if he has to get back).
This wouldn't concern me if he was a big player -- think about Larry Murphy for example, who was not particularly fast, but perhaps had enough range & reach to make up for it. But for a guy like Pouliot who loves to jump into the play as much as he does and is 5'11, this concerns me a lot, especially when he's at the NHL level and dealing with much faster players. And he doesn't have those really quick strides that some smaller guys like a Tyler Kennedy has with quick feet, or the type of long legs & long stride that allowed a Dustin Jeffrey to really improve his skating. Now, that being said: I don't know exactly how much he has/hasn't done in terms of power skating and/or off-ice conditioning to work on this issue. Can he work on his lower body power to get the kind of power Letang has in his stride?
There are 2 ways scouts look at players physical performance at the NHL combine: they either see a guy who is in great shape and excellent level of conditioning, or they see a guy who is not very physically developed or in exceptional shape and think one of 2 things: either that player raises some concerns about what performance level he can reach, or that there's a lot of room for growth if they work on their physical conditioning. I really hope in Pouliot's case, it's the latter. And of course I don't just mean upper-body hockey strength to play physically, because that part is easy. I just hope he can significantly improve his skating speed because I think this is the biggest area of weakness for him when I look at him now and try to project him at the NHL level. Also, when you draft or have smaller/skilled players, you like for them to make up for lack of ideal size with a certain level of speed that Pouliot just does not possess at this time.
I really look forward to seeing what he can do to improve in this area (and I'm sure some level of improvement must be possible) because I think it will be a big factor. He may also need some time to physically mature in the AHL. I would expect him to spend at least a season there, if not a full 2 or 3 years. Don't get me wrong: he's obviously a player, but I think this might just determine if he's a really good 3rd pairing Dman and PP-QB, or if he's a legit top-3/4 Dman.
