Scout's Perch: NHL Draft observations from the road

[HF Article]

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Thoughts accumulated on a two-week trip that took me through eight states and four provinces. Lots of snow and lots of coffee.



1. Two sets of attendance numbers: 6,306, 7,128, 9,288, 12,083, 11,855; 12,453, 13,014, 13,391, 13,578, 13,605. The first are the season lows from 2011-12 for five different NHL teams; the second are the season highs for the 2012-13 Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL. There are very few NHL arenas that can match the atmosphere of Colisée Pepsi, and the plans for the New Quebec City Ampitheatre look good. An NHL team in Quebec is good for hockey.

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[PacoSanchez15]

Bit surprised there's no mention of Darnell Nurse anywhere in this article.

Any particular reason why he wasn't considered for the last point in the article talking about OHL talent to go in the first round? He's been pretty highly ranked in any draft lists I've seen (ahead of Bigras and Domi).

Other than that a good read.

 

[haelwho]

Bit surprised there's no mention of Darnell Nurse anywhere in this article.

Any particular reason why he wasn't considered for the last point in the article talking about OHL talent to go in the first round? He's been pretty highly ranked in any draft lists I've seen (ahead of Bigras and Domi).

Other than that a good read.

That list was just meant to cover safe prospects, which are the majority of the top OHL guys for this year. Nurse is still very raw. The times I've seen him, he's had too many moments of poor discipline and overaggressiveness in his own zone for me to say he's anywhere near a sure thing. Not saying I wouldn't pick him in the top-10, just that he didn't really fit what I was going for there. Dickinson and Domi are two other examples of guys with upside without strong two-way ability right now.

I did a write up on Nurse here in November btw:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...ices-to-make-plus-ohl-prospect-scouting-info/

Have seen him a couple times since and my thoughts haven't really changed.

And thank you

 

[bidzey*]

I know Nurse is a really good defenseman, and can be top 10 pick, but I also noticed that he gets credit and a lot of it where credit is not due. The worse case scenario I seen was when I was in the Soo watching Owen Sound play and they gave him second star of the game. I must've missed something because he was totally invincible to me. Some players had 2 points in the game and were left out of the 3 star selection.

With all the pedal-stools I seen to place Nurse on, especially when done at this public level, is not exactly helping Nurse. He's just a kid and he might think he's doing really good given credit where credit is not due. Spoiling kids as never turned out good for anyone. At least he's doing a lot better this year on the score board, especially with his plus minus ratings. That was terrible last year but seems to me no one had anything to say but good things about it.

 

[PacoSanchez15]

Fair enough, I certainly can't dispute any of that as I had to give up my season tickets this season and as a result have only been to three games this year.

 

[bobber]

Nurse is a big tough kid. Plays on the power play and is tough in his end. Gets better every time I have seen him. Saw him in Kitchener as a midget in a tourney. Was one of if not the biggest kid there and really was noticeable even then. I don't think all the stars are picked by points in a game. Sometimes big D like him have a good game even when they aren't noticed because they haven't made lot of mistakes. Should be a good pro player with some seasoning.