Prospect Info: Red Wings Prospect Tracker - Part IX

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lucaseider

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Apr 15, 2006
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Call me crazy, I still think Nyquist could play center, a little small, but has the skating and defensive awareness, put him between tatar and mantha and watch 'em go.
 

Rzombo4 prez

Registered User
May 17, 2012
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Preach it, I wanted Fabbri in that spot. We drafted a buttload of centers, the thing is none of them have the offensive firepower of Fabbri. We seem to be stuck in Holland's vortex of mediocrity, ie draft guys who are solid two way pivots who have limited offensive upside.

We are officially the Nashville Predators. :shakehead

Have you ever watched Larkin play?
 

cjm502

Bingo Bango!
Jun 22, 2010
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Preach it, I wanted Fabbri in that spot. We drafted a buttload of centers, the thing is none of them have the offensive firepower of Fabbri. We seem to be stuck in Holland's vortex of mediocrity, ie draft guys who are solid two way pivots who have limited offensive upside.

We are officially the Nashville Predators. :shakehead

Give it time, Larkin is going to leave you shocked.
 

SirloinUB

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Aug 20, 2010
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Give it time, Larkin is going to leave you shocked.

Yup, People are reading into one quote far to much.

Might be better to wait and actually watch the kid before we start complaining about his offensive ceiling. Novel concept, I know :sarcasm:
 

detredWINgs

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Jan 1, 2004
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Funny, considering how St. Louis' main target this summer was a skilled center to boost their talent down the middle. Its not hard to look around the league and see that no one has won a cup in years without a center who has skill enough to put up ~70 points.


Reading comprehension is your friend. Both Krejci and Bergeron have put up ~70 points multiple times and thus have skill enough to do so.
 

19 for president

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Apr 28, 2002
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I think people forget how many opportunities Helm gets with his speed and play. You take a guy like Helm and give him average hands and he is easily a 60pt player. Helm & Draper both get a ton of offensive opportunities, they just can't regularly cash in. If Larkin has even remotely better hands, we could be looking at a 25/35 guy that could potentially compete for a Selke. That is a perfect compliment to guys like Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, Jurco, Pulu, etc.

I think people forget how much of a game changer Helm is without anything resembling hands, because he was gone for so long. They forget how many breakaways he had, how people had to respect his speed on the PK, how his speed could just take over a shifts possesion wise. Before the injuries, he was easily a top 3, 3rd line center in the league. So Helm + some offensive would be a really solid player. Sure I'd love another Z or Dats center clone, but guys like Helm get it done in the playoffs.

Also this isn't anything like Nashville. Nashville didn't have a single good winger outside of maybe Radulov for years. Legwand & Fisher were their leading guys. That would very likely not be the case for the Wings, with the skilled young wingers we have. It'd be closer to Boston, but even then Boston doesn't have the winger potential the Wings have. Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, and Mantha will hopefully all be at least 60pt wingers down the line. Boston had one last year, and that was an aging Iginla.
 
Jul 30, 2005
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I mean, what is location, really
I think people forget how many opportunities Helm gets with his speed and play. You take a guy like Helm and give him average hands and he is easily a 60pt player. Helm & Draper both get a ton of offensive opportunities, they just can't regularly cash in. If Larkin has even remotely better hands, we could be looking at a 25/35 guy that could potentially compete for a Selke. That is a perfect compliment to guys like Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, Jurco, Pulu, etc.

I think people forget how much of a game changer Helm is without anything resembling hands, because he was gone for so long. They forget how many breakaways he had, how people had to respect his speed on the PK, how his speed could just take over a shifts possesion wise. Before the injuries, he was easily a top 3, 3rd line center in the league. So Helm + some offensive would be a really solid player. Sure I'd love another Z or Dats center clone, but guys like Helm get it done in the playoffs.

Also this isn't anything like Nashville. Nashville didn't have a single good winger outside of maybe Radulov for years. Legwand & Fisher were their leading guys. That would very likely not be the case for the Wings, with the skilled young wingers we have. It'd be closer to Boston, but even then Boston doesn't have the winger potential the Wings have. Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, and Mantha will hopefully all be at least 60pt wingers down the line. Boston had one last year, and that was an aging Iginla.
Helm would be way more effective if he wasn't such a little guy. (He's more like 5'10 175 than 5'11 195.) He's just got a small-ish frame. He would be a monster if he didn't bounce off people when he hit them. So what's intriguing about Larkin is that he's pretty solid. He's Abdelkader's size, and maybe a little taller. That's why you get those power forward type comparisons.

So think of a version of Helm that could actually move players the way that Abdelkader does, including power moves to the net and things like that. That's a really intriguing player. Put him with two skill guys and that's a line with a lot of different ways to score.

I think we've become a little too focused on pure skill. We're asking for two pure skill wingers AND a pure skill center. But that doesn't actually work very often in the NHL. Most of the time, you get two-way guys or guys with crazy physical talent like power forwards working in. Some teams are lucky enough to have skill all over the place, but we're just not one of those teams anymore. So this team is making the decision to have raw skill on the wing (and we do have REALLY skilled wingers) and different types of guys down the middle. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
 

Brandel*

Guest
Reading comprehension is your friend. Both Krejci and Bergeron have put up ~70 points multiple times and thus have skill enough to do so.

Its not hard to look around the league and see that no one has won a cup in years without a center who has skill enough to put up ~70 points.

Who cares if they've scored 70 pts at some point in their career? How do you quantify the skill required to put up 70 points in an individual season (cup winning season) if they didn't put the numbers up that season? They didn't do it the year they won the cup, or even the year before they won. Bergeron did it 4 years before the 2010-2011 cup winning team and Krejci did it 1 time, 2 years prior and both have never put up 70pts since. Just because they had the ability at one point doesn't mean they maintained the ability. Your assessment makes no sense, it is an absolute statement which is quantifiably invalid.
_________________

Anyway, Axel Holmstrom is playing excellent in his Champions League game. Has a very nice assist on his team's only goal so far (second period) and also tried the Forsberg move when he was in 1 on 1 and almost had it. Commentator just mentioned that he's been the best player on the ice.
 
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opivy

Sauce King
Sep 14, 2011
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Hey there, straw man.

Doesn't change the fact that teams don't win Cups in the modern era without at least one center who has 1C-level skill.

Ask the St. Louis Blues. Now that they have Stastny they're scary imo.

This also ties into the skilled winger conversation, a great 1C center is really needed for the wingers to truly be effective, especially in a Babcock system. Steen and Oshie an high skill wingers and their point totals are not huge, that man in the middle is a huge role. Big Joe being a perfect example, look at people when he's not playing with them. 1C is much more dynamic than just being that flashy scoring machine. To me they are the one player outside of a goalie who can take over a game when it has to be done.
 
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joe89

#5
Apr 30, 2009
20,313
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Wings sign Hicketts to an ELC.

A good addition, by the time he hit the pros we have graduated our top defensive prospects and we didn't draft a defenseman this year. NHL play is a long shot for a 5'8 defenseman, but he will probably turn out to be a very good player for the Griffins at least.
 

Brandel*

Guest
Wings sign Hicketts to an ELC.

A good addition, by the time he hit the pros we have graduated our top defensive prospects and we didn't draft a defenseman this year. NHL play is a long shot for a 5'8 defenseman, but he will probably turn out to be a very good player for the Griffins at least.

Might be able to grow another inch or so

Actually, he hasn't grown an inch in over a year :(
 
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Brandel*

Guest
progessivehockey added ahl stats and martin frk begins to cry

of 50+ game players he has the worst t relative gf%

in the entire league
 

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
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progessivehockey added ahl stats and martin frk begins to cry

of 50+ game players he has the worst t relative gf%

in the entire league

Last year was last year.

I think he will be much better this year. His struggles served as an eye-opener for him, and he probably needed that.
 

ChadS

Registered User
Jun 30, 2009
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Melén with two apples in a 5-3 loss. He has 5 points (1+4) in 5 games, next best for Växjö has 3 pts.

Ehn got to play with the men's team in the Champions Hockey League. They won 6-2 but no points for him.
 

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
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Helm would be way more effective if he wasn't such a little guy. (He's more like 5'10 175 than 5'11 195.) He's just got a small-ish frame. He would be a monster if he didn't bounce off people when he hit them. So what's intriguing about Larkin is that he's pretty solid. He's Abdelkader's size, and maybe a little taller.

Larkin's official combine measurements were 6.075" and 190 lbs.

Now that was in May, and he was 17 at the time. So that will change. But he's not Abdelkader size just yet.

Would guess he gets to 6'1-6'2" and 210-220 lbs?? But a ton of things factor into that, so hard to say.
 

vicehf

Registered User
Sep 14, 2013
76
6
Wings sign Hicketts to an ELC.

A good addition, by the time he hit the pros we have graduated our top defensive prospects and we didn't draft a defenseman this year. NHL play is a long shot for a 5'8 defenseman, but he will probably turn out to be a very good player for the Griffins at least.

Think this is the writing on the wall for Ben Marshall, unless he has a huge senior year.
 

Konnan511

#RetireHronek17
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Jul 29, 2008
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Might be able to grow another inch or so

Actually, he hasn't grown an inch in over a year :(

He was a ton of fun to watch at the prospect tourney. Quick, good pick control and outlet pass. Didn't why away from the physical stuff. He may never make the NHL, but he will be a fan favorite.
 

MBauer

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Feb 19, 2012
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How can we sign a draft eligible player? I thought they had to be like 20 before you can sign them

He would only re-enter for next years draft once the regular season began, during the off season he was pretty much a free agent and could sign with whoever offered him a contract.
 

Brandel*

Guest
He would only re-enter for next years draft once the regular season began, during the off season he was pretty much a free agent and could sign with whoever offered him a contract.

Are you sure? I thought any team could sign him throughout the season. We had his rights exclusively until a certain date or when he goes back to Junior, though.
 
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