Prospect Info: Shane Bowers history in Avalanche so far?

[Arto Kilponen]

(Yeah, this is not "prospect info" this is a "prospect question"):

I'm aware Shane Bowers has never played a single second in NHL, but beyond that, how close he has been? Does he have any practice games with Avalanche? Games as a healthy scratch? On-ice practices with Avalanche?

You might wonder why I'm asking. This came up as a discussion about NHL cards, where Upper Deck has a permission to use for 2020-21 cards players that have no NHL experience yet. Bowers has 126 different NHL cards made of him so far, so the question is that "how much he actually has NHL experience (obviously excluding the NHL-game ice-time, since there's literally none) that have justified the three figures of cards made of him". And the next question you might have is "well is 126 a lot?". Well, consider that Devon Toews has from this season a grand total of 13 cards (so less than 10 % compared to Bowers) and we're talking here about the #1 player in ice-time of the Presidents' Trophy winning team.

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[Metallo]

126 cards! That’s f***ing ridiculous!

 

[JLo217]

Seems like a waste of good trees if you ask me…

 

[Arto Kilponen]

126 cards! That’s f***ing ridiculous!

In case you are interested to see some of them, here's a place where people are selling them. As you can see, a lot of those are "same card, but different colors": Colorado Avalanche Hockey Cards matching: shane bowers from the 2020's

 

[henchman21]

I want to know how many NFTs of Bowers exist.

Bowers was a Black Ace in the bubble IIRC, and that is the closest he has gotten. I think he's going to get some games with the Avs, but I wouldn't put the odds real high of it being meaningful.

 

[Arto Kilponen]

I want to know how many NFTs of Bowers exist.

Bowers was a Black Ace in the bubble IIRC, and that is the closest he has gotten. I think he's going to get some games with the Avs, but I wouldn't put the odds real high of it being meaningful.

What's NFT?

But yes, that's good info. Obviously he has some on-ice experience with Avalanche since those cards displays him on-ice with Avalanche jersey, but maybe that's Black Aces practice?

It is also pretty interesting that considering Colorado put on ice 15 d-men last season Bowers wasn't any of them. Does this mean he wasn't a top-15 d-man in the organization last season, you tell me.

edit. Bowers is a forward, not a d-man.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

What's NFT?

Non-fungible token.

It basically is a way of certifying digital assets are unique based on blockchain technologies.

So people have been selling NFTs for memes (selling the original files), or digital artwork etc.

 

[henchman21]

What's NFT?

But yes, that's good info. Obviously he has some on-ice experience with Avalanche since those cards displays him on-ice with Avalanche jersey, but maybe that's Black Aces practice?

It is also pretty interesting that considering Colorado put on ice 15 d-men last season Bowers wasn't any of them. Does this mean he wasn't a top-15 d-man in the organization last season, you tell me.

Non-fungible token... unique blockchain digital assets.

I think those are rookie tournament and preseason games. He's played in those the last couple years.

He's a forward and probably somewhere around 20th in the pecking order.

 

[Arto Kilponen]

Non-fungible token... unique blockchain digital assets.

I think those are rookie tournament and preseason games. He's played in those the last couple years.

He's a forward and probably somewhere around 20th in the pecking order.

Oh, somehow I thought he is a d-man, my mistake

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I have 2 Shane Bowers Young Guns somewhere in my collection.


They are worth about $0.98 each

 

[Murzu]

I have 2 Shane Bowers Young Guns somewhere in my collection.


They are worth about $0.98 each

You want my two cents?

 

[The Kingslayer]

I have 2 Shane Bowers Young Guns somewhere in my collection.


They are worth about $0.98 each

I pulled 2 from 2 different tins the other day. Needless to say I was pretty pissed off haha.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Bowers was supposed to be the first overall pick in the Q draft before Veleno got exceptional status so I guess he had hype building back then. The Avs also sent him to the nhlpa rookie showcase where they do all the photos and promo crap for the card companies so that’s probably why so many of them were made up of him.

Bowers actually spent one official day on the NHL roster last season...so they could use his cap hit when they LTIRed Francouz. Other than that he hasn’t been close. The Avs don’t have much use for cerebral defensive forwards and prefer tryhard energy guys in the bottom six. Since this will be Bowers’ last year of waiver exemption I imagine he’ll finally get a game but will need a fresh start elsewhere to have a real shot at an opportunity.

 

[The Abusement Park]

You want my two cents?

My 10 cents is free.

 

[Pokecheque]

I think the fact that he can't seem to hold down a spot as a center in the AHL is souring the organization on him big-time. I'm guessing he'll be dealt at some point but I'm not sure what kind of player he'll be in the NHL, if he's an NHL player at all. Like Kaut, injuries seem to keep derailing his chances at a callup.

 

[dahrougem2]

This guy can hardly produce at the AHL level, I don't think there's any real possibility of him playing for the Avs.

Maybe he needs a fresh start elsewhere, but I don't believe the Avs are all that interested in him.

 

[Murzu]

My 10 cents is free.

You send for me?

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Bowers was supposed to be the first overall pick in the Q draft before Veleno got exceptional status so I guess he had hype building back then. The Avs also sent him to the nhlpa rookie showcase where they do all the photos and promo crap for the card companies so that’s probably why so many of them were made up of him.

Bowers actually spent one official day on the NHL roster last season...so they could use his cap hit when they LTIRed Francouz. Other than that he hasn’t been close. The Avs don’t have much use for cerebral defensive forwards and prefer tryhard energy guys in the bottom six. Since this will be Bowers’ last year of waiver exemption I imagine he’ll finally get a game but will need a fresh start elsewhere to have a real shot at an opportunity.

You just love saying this any chance you get don't you, even when it's obviously not true.

 

[McMetal]

Bowers just plain doesn't have the offense to be a regular NHLer. Even a 4th line defensive specialist needs to be able to score once in a while, and Bowers can't find consistency at the AHL level despite lots of opportunities. I had the same concerns when he was in college. He's probably going to find his way to the NHL a little bit this season but honestly I never was a big fan of his game.

 

[Richard88]

Bowers just plain doesn't have the offense to be a regular NHLer. Even a 4th line defensive specialist needs to be able to score once in a while, and Bowers can't find consistency at the AHL level despite lots of opportunities. I had the same concerns when he was in college. He's probably going to find his way to the NHL a little bit this season but honestly I never was a big fan of his game.

Any chance he could turn into a Darren Helm type forward for us, where you just use him in a pure defensive 4th line role due to his defensive skillset, and overlook the fact that he won't post more than like ~10 points?

Whatever the case, the difference between a veteran like Helm at $1m x 1 and Bowers on an ELC isn't that great financially/capwise so Bowers would need to make a significant impact to take that sort of role by next offseason.

 

[tigervixxxen]

I think the fact that he can't seem to hold down a spot as a center in the AHL is souring the organization on him big-time. I'm guessing he'll be dealt at some point but I'm not sure what kind of player he'll be in the NHL, if he's an NHL player at all. Like Kaut, injuries seem to keep derailing his chances at a callup.

They want the vets at center. They played Dries at center ffs.

Every player gets injured in the AHL btw. It’s a constant hazard which nobody escapes. If someone is out only a month with one injury there they should consider themselves fortunate. Bowers was only out a couple games midseason with a sore knee. He was absolutely blown up with a dirty hit a couple weeks left in the season, which isn’t uncommon in the AHL. He was available for the vast bulk of the season.

 

[tigervixxxen]

You just love saying this any chance you get don't you, even when it's obviously not true.

How is it not true? Are we counting the over 30 year old vets as contrary evidence?

 

[The Kingslayer]

I don't know how it plays out but I want them to atleast give him a look before he gets traded. They gave guys like LOB a look and continued for years giving Megna and Dries a look. I see no harm slotting Bowers on the 4th line to sink or swim on the back end of a back to back or something.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Bowers just plain doesn't have the offense to be a regular NHLer. Even a 4th line defensive specialist needs to be able to score once in a while, and Bowers can't find consistency at the AHL level despite lots of opportunities. I had the same concerns when he was in college. He's probably going to find his way to the NHL a little bit this season but honestly I never was a big fan of his game.

Kaut got the top line, pp1, special situations where vets pick up cheap points like in OT and with the net empty and wouldn’t you know it his production increased! Bowers was on the third line, some pp2 time, no special situations. He’s not an offense driver but he could have been put in a much better position to get cheap points. Funny thing his 7 goals was third on the team and nobody but Tynan got any assists. It’s all individual offense on that team to begin with. But no I’m not holding out hope myself.

 

[Pokecheque]

They want the vets at center. They played Dries at center ffs.

Right, and obviously you've seen way more of the Eagles than I have, but they've tried Bowers at center two years in a row and his scoring drops off a cliff. They put him back on wing and the production starts back up again. Don't know what this says about any other aspect of his game at center but he's clearly not wowing the coaches in Loveland whenever he's there.

I get that injuries are commonplace in the AHL but the timing for Bowers and especially Kaut have been a huge obstacle. Both could've been called up last season when the injury bug completely ravaged the team early on, and could've done so again at various times during this season, but both times they've been injured. With Bowers, I can't say for sure he would've gotten a fair shot at a roster spot this season, but I'm fairly confident Kaut would've.