Red Wings Prospect Tracker - Part VII

[drw02]

Thing I like about Pulky is he doesn't play scared. He's not afraid to go into the tough areas, he's not intimidated. He reminds me of Tatar in that sense, not to mention their overall games are fairly similar. Pulky should make the Wings in 2015-16, if size was an issue I doubt they would have drafted him. He's developed probably as well as anyone could have hoped. Would be foolish and a complete waste of a draft pick and time spent developing him to just toss him aside because his size isn't ideal.

 

[FissionFire]

True but the version of Cleary on the 3rd line with Hudler was a guy who would put up 15+ goals consistently. That's excellent production for a two way grinder in the middle 6. And really it all depends on team composition. Tatar and Pulk may have a guy like Sheahan centering which gives you that big body. Maybe Mantha plays with Pulk. Maybe Sheahan moves to win to play with one of them to make room for a guy like Jarnkrok. And then you have Jurco who has plenty of size as well and Franzen is probably still going to be around. Even Frk is still in the picture. I don't see a lack of size being a big problem to fill out 3 scoring lines unless some players simply stop developing.

 

[joe89]

I agree that 3 scoring lines + 1 grind line is definitely the way to go. But with a guy like Babcock he still wants some "two-way" and "heavy players" in that top 9.

For example when our 3 line had Hudler on it, the off wing was a guy like Cleary to chip in 2 way play and win battles.

So if our future 3rd line has a guy like Tatar on it, I have a hard time seeing that off wing being a guy like Pulkkinen. I mean I'm all for having as skilled of a team as possible, but I think Babcock looks for other things when constructing a team. Mix of "heavy guys", and guys that are responsible with the offensive playmakers.

I don't think it really matters if that heavy guy is in the middle or the other wing. If Sheahan or Andersson is in the middle it should be fine. See: Nyquist-Andersson-Brunner. And even if not necessarily "heavy", there's Franzen, Mantha and Jurco who also have size after all.

The biggest problem is probably finding spots, period, for all the prospects "graduating" this summer or next. Especially as we have a highly touted guy like Mantha, who shouldn't be destined for three years in the minors. To this point no moves have had to be done to keep them all, but we're getting there. I hope they have a good read on what guys are expendable in the grand scheme of things. We don't want to trade away the wrong player just because he happened to be small.

 

[DatsyukToZetterberg]

I don't think it really matters if that heavy guy is in the middle or the other wing. If Sheahan or Andersson is in the middle it should be fine. See: Nyquist-Andersson-Brunner. And even if not necessarily "heavy", there's Franzen, Mantha and Jurco who also have size after all.

The biggest problem is probably finding spots, period, for all the prospects "graduating" this summer or next. Especially as we have a highly touted guy like Mantha, who shouldn't be destined for three years in the minors. To this point no moves have had to be done to keep them all, but we're getting there. I hope they have a good read on what guys are expendable in the grand scheme of things. We don't want to trade away the wrong player just because he happened to be small.

I agree with all of those points especially the last one. There have been times in all sports where the management misidentifies a player & trades him away for essentially nothing just to have them thrive in their new location, or conversely under-perform in the new place.

I mean look at the TB-OTT trade last year. Ottawa traded away Bishop last year & while most people thought he'd be an ok #1G he's been outstanding this year. You could argue if he was on Ottawa for this season instead of with TB they could be in opposite positions.

Then of course there's the JVR/Schenn trade or the Hodgson/Kassian trade. Both of those trades have worked out extremely well for one team & horribly for the other. If we move one of our small offensive wingers we have to be sure that we get the best return possible & if possible we trade them out of conference. I personally wouldn't be opposed to using some of our future waiver eligible players to try & move up in the draft if it's possible as we can't keep them all, assuming we can't use them to make a personal upgrade. At least that way we spread out the age of the talent in our prospect pool.

 

[Chance on Chance]

I think trying to move up in the draft would be our best option

 

[SimplySolace]

Mantha with 1 goal and 1 assist thru 2 tonight.

 

[SimplySolace]

Also, if anyone cares I decided to add up all of Mantha's hits for the season. Through 40 games (incl. tonight) he has 43 hits, with a game high of 5 both on 9/21 and 10/20.

Obviously since the Q doesn't post the numbers on a league wide scale we can't see how it measures to others, but I thought it was interesting to see.