Prospect Info: Pontus Aberg

[Good in Osgoode]

I am just curious to get some opinions on this player.

When he was first signed, I thought that it was a good signing for Belleville.
After looking more at his numbers, specifically 17-18 in Edmonton and 18-19 in Anaheim:

He put up 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points over 53 games.
Those are pretty good numbers over a decent sample size.
The equivalent of 20 goals, 22 assists over 82 games.

Still young at 27, decent size and looks like he could play Right Wing.

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[DanyHeatley]

Good, he’ll fit right in Belleville’s second or third line

 

[IranCondraAffair]

The guy can play, but he's always suffered from the classic issues of:

1. If he's not scoring he's not contributing so while he can be a top-6 in the AHL he's not been good enough to beat out a 'real' top-6 in the NHL and he doesn't bring enough to the bottom-6 to get consistent NHL minutes.
2. Teams don't want to play Aberg when they have a younger/better prospect who needs minutes.

Some guys do eventually make it. I remember Marchessault was passed around Columbus, Tampa, and Florida before finally breaking through in 2016-17 when he turned 25. Mike Knuble was like 30 before he took off in Boston. Streit was like 27 before he finally made it into the NHL full. Derek Ryan took until he was 30 as well.

I doubt it will happen, but some guys do just take a while and there is a pretty open hole in the 3rd line RW spot if he wants it.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

AHL fodder until proven otherwise.

 

[God Says No]

I say he's got a shot at being our starting 3RW. Him or Sokolov.

 

[Xspyrit]

The guy can play, but he's always suffered from the classic issues of:

1. If he's not scoring he's not contributing so while he can be a top-6 in the AHL he's not been good enough to beat out a 'real' top-6 in the NHL and he doesn't bring enough to the bottom-6 to get consistent NHL minutes.
2. Teams don't want to play Aberg when they have a younger/better prospect who needs minutes.

Some guys do eventually make it. I remember Marchessault was passed around Columbus, Tampa, and Florida before finally breaking through in 2016-17 when he turned 25. Mike Knuble was like 30 before he took off in Boston. Streit was like 27 before he finally made it into the NHL full. Derek Ryan took until he was 30 as well.

I doubt it will happen, but some guys do just take a while and there is a pretty open hole in the 3rd line RW spot if he wants it.

I would add to this that he's the classic case of "can do very well in stretches" but will fail when he gets a full time job

Aberg is a pretty good hockey player in a vacuum but very much like guys like Bobby Butler, Ryan Shannon or Brian Gibbons, it seems there's always something missing in their game to land a long term NHL job

Look at Brian Gibbons who scored 6 goals 14 pts in only 20 games with Ottawa in 2018-19. Gets a contract with Carolina the following year and doesn't register a point in 15 games. Missed his chance to get another NHL contract. Players like this need to bring secondary scoring.