Prospect Info: Prospect Info and Discussion VIII - Future Canes and other Jurcos

[NotOpie]

I know nothing about this fellow. He scored 30 goals in his draft year on a meh team, is 6’2 and got picked late in the 6th round. Is my assumption that he makes Viktor Rask look like Pavel Bure an accurate one?

Not really....seems like his skating is characterized as "good" to "very good". The issue seems to be consistency.

 

[Lempo]

Don't sleep on Blake Murray. He's got as many goals as Rees and was touted as a goal scorer when he came into juniors. He put up 30 last season and has 12 markers this year on a pretty pedestrian Sudbury team.

Sleep on Blake Murray, and then you must pay.
Sleep on Blake Murray, the Devils will take Blake away.

 

[DaveG]

I know nothing about this fellow. He scored 30 goals in his draft year on a meh team, is 6’2 and got picked late in the 6th round. Is my assumption that he makes Viktor Rask look like Pavel Bure an accurate one?

Nope, his skating was average to a hair above at both the prospects tournament and camp. Nothing special but not even as slow as I would say Wallmark was as a prospect

 

[Unsustainable]

Kochetkov

 

[Unsustainable]

 

[Unsustainable]

And Ned:

 

[Joe McGrath]

Nope, his skating was average to a hair above at both the prospects tournament and camp. Nothing special but not even as slow as I would say Wallmark was as a prospect

Interesting. Hard to imagine a guy scoring 30 as a 17 year old going that low without some kind of massive, unlikely to be corrected, deficiency in his game.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Interesting. Hard to imagine a guy scoring 30 as a 17 year old going that low without some kind of massive, unlikely to be corrected, deficiency in his game.

He likes pineapple on pizza

I actually don't judge about such things. I just wanna watch the world burn.

 

[DaveG]

Interesting. Hard to imagine a guy scoring 30 as a 17 year old going that low without some kind of massive, unlikely to be corrected, deficiency in his game.

There was some concern about his work ethic and consistency. He's not really the most physically engaged player either. Led to a lot of scouts being torn on him with opinions ranging from "skating is just OK and he struggles to compete", to "He can shoot the puck and he scores, keep it simple when scouting him and forget all the other noise".

 

[Joe McGrath]

There was some concern about his work ethic and consistency. He's not really the most physically engaged player either. Led to a lot of scouts being torn on him with opinions ranging from "skating is just OK and he struggles to compete", to "He can shoot the puck and he scores, keep it simple when scouting him and forget all the other noise".

kind of like Suzuki. It’s looking like the concept is get talent at all costs and see if they grow out of the “other noise”.

Stark contrast from the JR/RF days.

 

[geehaad]

I’d have Rees pretty high in mine. To me he’s almost neck and neck with Suzuki, and has passed Geekie and Goat.

Curious how he passed Geekie after 15 games in Junior. He hasn't had the success Geekie had in Junior, Geekie has proven himself in the AHL, and Geekie has been a beast in the playoffs, both in Junior and with the Checkers.

 

[DaveG]

kind of like Suzuki. It’s looking like the concept is get talent at all costs and see if they grow out of the “other noise”.

Stark contrast from the JR/RF days.

Yeah and in some cases the compete level talk can be wildly overblown. In a lot of cases that's just code for "big guy that plays a finesse game and doesn't hit a lot". If someone can play they can play, that simple usually. I'm always more concerned about if they can skate than if they play with an edge.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Yeah and in some cases the compete level talk can be wildly overblown. In a lot of cases that's just code for "big guy that plays a finesse game and doesn't hit a lot". If someone can play they can play, that simple usually. I'm always more concerned about if they can skate than if they play with an edge.

Hey, that sounds like Dougie. 6'6, ridiculous skater for his size, cannot hit to save his life, soft, no grit!

 

[bleedgreen]

Curious how he passed Geekie after 15 games in Junior. He hasn't had the success Geekie had in Junior, Geekie has proven himself in the AHL, and Geekie has been a beast in the playoffs, both in Junior and with the Checkers.

Geekie is a solid power forward with hands, I don’t know if he’s a good enough skater though. I think he’s being groomed for at most the third line spot. Rees to me is a third line guy as a base with possibly the second in reach. Rees also has a pretty good body of work to go back and look at. I think his baseline is just a more skilled player. Doesn’t mean it translates into anything, I’d agree Geekie is probably more likely to make the show in general. This isn’t shiny new toy syndrome. I just think of the two Rees has the higher ceiling. Even if Geekie is more likely to hit his I count the higher ceiling in this case as the better prospect because I think it’s on the table that he actually does hit it. I think there’s a good chance next years third line center is potentially a home grown guy if they don’t find the right fit out there.

 

[NotOpie]

I read comments from two scouts who had slightly different opinions on Murray's skating. One said he was "good, not great" and the other said his skating was "very good". Both mentioned consistency as the issue that pushed him down the draft boards...I took that to mean consistency of effort. They both also said he had great hands and a very good shot.

My point was that he was once touted pretty highly, fell in this past draft, and it feels like he's trying to prove some critics wrong. He's a young kid too with a July birthday.

 

[spockBokk]

Not much fanfare for everyone’s favorite 5’7” D since prospect camp, but he finally got his first NCAA goal last night:



He still looks like a tiny waterbug out there.

 

[Vagrant]

as the wise kahz once said, paraphrasing, major junior hockey is full of future accountants and strength coaches. i know it's really exciting to see a draft plus one performing really well, but projections are super difficult to make considering how little context is available. mattheos and geekie are examples. by no means am i piling on mattheos after his diagnosis (and he's a year younger than geekie) but they were both blasting their respective leagues for 90 points and the response to being elevated to the next level was highly successful for one and more of a struggle to find footing for the other. 8 goals and 19 points in 18 playoff games for charlotte and winning the calder cup in his first season cemented geekie as a dyed in the wool prospect. he just has elements to his game that are more projectable than we thought coming out of junior. in other words, putting up a dominant stretch in the chl is something that your average echl scoring line player could do easily. that's how big the jump is from the chl to the ahl. in no possible way, devoid of other worldly production (like 2.5 ppg over a full season) could convince me that a player was surpassing a player that had the dominant playoff year that geekie had in just 15 games in his d1 season.

it's exciting to feel like you've found a potential gem, but for a guy who was already around a point per game at 17-18, it's not exceedingly uncommon for a player drafted in the top 50 to then go on to have a full season of 1.5 ppg or better. that would just mean they're holding serve and their progress towards improving is on track. and not to say it's not fine to have an opinion regarding a chl player as compared to an ahl one, but it certainly needs to be balanced by strength of competition. geekie didn't miss a single beat going from one league to the other and his ppg averages are maintaining/improving despite the team getting much worse and coaching in charlotte learning on the fly.

 

[geehaad]

^

 

[bleedgreen]

I think there’s a misconception that I don’t get Geekie as a prospect, haven’t noticed the body of work, or noticed how he’s grown every step of the way, or how the organization loves him and is pumping the tires. He’s obviously moved high up the chart. I’ve never been prone to shiny new toy or been remotely impressed by production in juniors. Curious either if you two would even go in that direction with me as I’m generally the one telling everyone else to calm down about that sort of thing, and I never move a guy up a list because he’s putting up pts in junior.

In Rees’s case it’s style of play that caught my eye. He’s a good prospect for us in that he’s feisty, aggressive and a really good skater. The thing that was supposedly lacking was the offense, and in the past his production has been good but more in line with what you two are saying in terms of “it really doesn’t mean much, it doesn’t translate”. His offense is hard work based and now has a higher touch of skill with it. None of us have any idea what will translate but one thing I’ve noticed over the last three years about the NHL is youth and pace. It’s becoming more important than well rounded right now. I’m the last person here who would’ve ever said that. I never cared about guys who could burn but have two cent heads. Rees isn’t that guy anyways. He’s a guy Rod will love.

I was the guy on the Geekie train last year. I’m still on it. It’s no insult to Geekie to say Rees has moved up, Rees clearly has the more natural skill set. He’s the better skater. He plays with the intangibles that do translate. To me he’s been a more likely prospect than Suzuki, who to me falls more in line with what you guys are saying. He’s pretty in juniors and has great hands, pretty highlights. If he isn’t a top two line guy he may never fit in though. Rees has versatility through the lineup. Of the new class to me he was the best all around offensive prospect, and the most likely to play guy of the bunch.

So no.....I didn’t put him high on my list because he’s scored a bunch of neat goals early in junior this year so Ima gonna jump on his train and hype him. Give me a break, a little surprised there.

Geekie is going to get his shot, and I honestly see him as the guy who scores the ugly goal that gets us in the playoffs or wins a series. I just haven’t seen enough quickness to think he’s going to have a chance to be on the top two lines yet. As usual I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to see both of them on the team, and honestly I think they’re two of the most likely guys to be Canes two years from now. Ceiling matters to me when I’m making a prospect list. Rees looks like he has a higher ceiling. That’s it.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Since we made the playoffs last year I stopped caring about 18-year-olds unless they’re gonna make the team.

Frankly, if Rees sucks, if Suzuki sucks, if Bean sucks, idc. We have Aho and Svechnikov. For the first time in a long time, we don’t really need a “savior.”

If this team is gonna be picking in the teens and 20s in the first round the next couple of years, we should be looking at drafts holistically like we did this last one - did we get enough guys to be confident in having an NHLer or two out of the bunch, not getting excited about individuals/shiny new toy syndrome.


Not shitting on the Rees excitement per se, because the kid is certainly playing about as well as he could be, that’s not a bad thing. Just that there’s not really reason to put insane expectations on him, the team’s no longer in a position to need to do that.

 

[bleedgreen]

I don’t think there’s any real expectations on them, not for me anyways. It’s fun discussion. This board is “Hockey’s Future”. All the old school folk found this place to talk about the prospects!

Also it’s the prospects thread obviously. You’re right, there’s not the intensity of need that we’ve had in the past. The next wave needs to be cheap labor that fill valueable roles behind Aho and Svech. For the team to be continually successful the pipeline needs to get restacked continually. These guys will be anywhere from Necas to Foegele in the future.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I don’t think there’s any real expectations on them, not for me anyways. It’s fun discussion. This board is “Hockey’s Future”. All the old school folk found this place to talk about the prospects!

Also it’s the prospects thread obviously. You’re right, there’s not the intensity of need that we’ve had in the past. The next wave needs to be cheap labor that fill valueable roles behind Aho and Svech. For the team to be continually successful the pipeline needs to get restacked continually. These guys will be anywhere from Necas to Foegele in the future.

It wasn’t a callout of anyone, I think a bunch of us are “old enough” to remember when there was a whole prospects site associated with these boards, and it’s always a fun topic. It was more an add-on to Vagrant’s post regarding not overreacting to OHL production.

 

[ookhaab]

Puistola has 2 goals and 3 points after 4 games on his new team, kid just needed an opportunity.

Here's the goal from today's game.

Jukurit tasoittaa 2-2

 

[CandyCanes]

 

[bleedgreen]

It wasn’t a callout of anyone, I think a bunch of us are “old enough” to remember when there was a whole prospects site associated with these boards, and it’s always a fun topic. It was more an add-on to Vagrant’s post regarding not overreacting to OHL production.

I don’t think anyone is. I’m definitely not. Last guy to fool me that way was Jeff O’Neill.