Prospect Info: Sharks Prospect Info/Discussion Thread XIII

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Lebanezer

I'unno? Coast Guard?
Jul 24, 2006
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It’s hilarious how many people are big mad their team is ranked below ours. Avs fans especially.
Yeah, it’s a little weird. They’re too high on Timmins, Bowers and Kaut. If those 3 were Sharks’ prospects they’d all be in Norris territory. :laugh:
 

Juxtaposer

Outro: Divina Comedia
Dec 21, 2009
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Yeah, it’s a little weird. They’re too high on Timmins, Bowers and Kaut. If those 3 were Sharks’ prospects they’d all be in Norris territory. :laugh:

Yeah, the Shane Bowers love is baffling. He’s not that good. And apparently Timmins is a blue chip prospect. :dunno:
 

Lebanezer

I'unno? Coast Guard?
Jul 24, 2006
14,756
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San Jose
Sharks are 17.

High end: Merkley

Legit NHL prospect:
Chmelevski
Norris
Balcers

Have a chance:
Gambrell
Ferraro
Roy
Letunov
Chekhovich
Blichfeld
Simek
McGrew
Praplan
Gregor

Depth:
Basically everyone else, including Rod. I guess Pronman missed that he’s no longer Sharks’ property.
 

hohosaregood

Banned
Sep 1, 2011
32,281
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Summary: likes Merkley a ton, lots of guys that are "good/great hockey sense but (insert flaw here)". Also some intriguing prospects that may have more there.

In regards to suomella
Only saw him at Worlds and didn't do a ton for me, skill set looked average but I don't know incredibly well at this point
 

Maladroit

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May 9, 2018
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I guess it makes sense if he hasn't seen much of Suomela but including Praplan but not Suomela is crazy. Suomela scored way more points per game in a better league and they're the same age and size. I really don't see Praplan as a serious contender for a roster spot this year while Suomela definitely is.
 

Maladroit

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If only Roy didn't have these injury problems I think we'd even be higher. Merkley, Ferraro and a healthy Roy is a pretty damn good prospect trio for D. Maybe Roy finally gets some luck this year and stays healthy.

I still have hope for Roy. I had a chance to watch some of his games with the Barracuda in person last year and he looked really good. If he can just manage to stay healthy this season I think he can push for a #6 spot on the Sharks' defense in 2019-20. A 2020-21 blueline of Vlasic-Burns, Ryan-Roy and Middleton/UFA-Merkley would be awesome once Braun, Dillon and DeMelo's contracts finally expire.
 
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Juxtaposer

Outro: Divina Comedia
Dec 21, 2009
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I guess it makes sense if he hasn't seen much of Suomela but including Praplan but not Suomela is crazy. Suomela scored way more points per game in a better league and they're the same age and size. I really don't see Praplan as a serious contender for a roster spot this year while Suomela definitely is.

Not to be that guy, but how much have you seen Suomela play?
 

Maladroit

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Not to be that guy, but how much have you seen Suomela play?

I've only seen him play a couple World Championship games outside of highlight videos but I don't think that matters. I've never claimed to be a scout. But the fact is he led one of the better European leagues in scoring playing third line minutes and second unit power play while putting up terrific possession numbers. The odds of him succeeding at the NHL level are relatively high based on that, certainly higher than a player like Praplan.

Scouting is valuable but realistically no one watches more than a handful of games for most of these players, especially the ones playing overseas. I'll trust the numbers over a scout on this kind of European signing any day, especially in this case where Pronman openly admits he hasn't watched Suomela play. I have no issue with the rest of his rankings but this is clearly an oversight.
 
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OrrNumber4

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Jul 25, 2002
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It is a little disconcerting that Pronman didn't think very highly of Ferraro, considering he must often watch him play.
 

Juxtaposer

Outro: Divina Comedia
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I've only seen him play a couple World Championship games outside of highlight videos but I don't think that matters. I've never claimed to be a scout. But the fact is he led one of the better European leagues in scoring playing third line minutes and second unit power play while putting up terrific possession numbers. The odds of him succeeding at the NHL level are relatively high based on that, certainly higher than a player like Praplan.

Scouting is valuable but realistically no one watches more than a handful of games for most of these players, especially the ones playing overseas. I'll trust the numbers over a scout on this kind of European signing any day, especially in this case where Pronman openly admits he hasn't watched Suomela play. I have no issue with the rest of his rankings but this is clearly an oversight.

Using NHLe without watching a player is lazy. NHLe is absolutely no guarantee of anything. Some players are really well-suited to European leagues but are ineffective in North American leagues. Suomela could be great but merely stat-watching doesn’t mean much to me. Stats are fantastic in conjunction with scouting. Someone who admits to ignoring one or the other but makes claims like you do here doesn’t really hold a lot of water to me.
 
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Maladroit

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Using NHLe without watching a player is lazy. NHLe is absolutely no guarantee of anything. Some players are really well-suited to European leagues but are ineffective in North American leagues. Suomela could be great but merely stat-watching doesn’t mean much to me. Stats are fantastic in conjunction with scouting. Someone who admits to ignoring one or the other but makes claims like you do here doesn’t really hold a lot of water to me.

Sure but on this particular player Pronman admitted to doing neither. I don't think it's a big deal and certainly the inclusion of Suomela wouldn't have moved the Sharks up the rankings but I think fans might be underrating his potential impact. Also it's largely guesswork as to which players' skills will translate from one league to another and which won't. I think Radil has an even higher NHLe than Suomela but I'm skeptical he'll be a NHL player just because his size will be less of a competitive advantage at the NHL level than it is in the KHL and his lack of footspeed is more likely to be exposed. But that's just me guessing. Suomela's statistical profile seems uniquely compelling to me - his points per 60 minutes were likely through the roof just knowing what we do about how he was used. I'd be considerably less excited about him if he scored the same number of points playing 20 minutes a game or whatever.

Also stats alone aren't going to tell you whether a guy will make it with anything approaching absolute certainty but I think you can pretty comfortably use stats to dismiss a player without watching them. Jake McGrew is a 5'10 winger who barely scored half a point per game in the WHL in his draft+1 year. No one with that kind of profile has ever made the NHL, I really don't understand what he's doing on this list. He's not even worth a contract slot at this point. Especially when John Leonard who scored nearly double the points per game in a much lower-scoring league at roughly the same age isn't on it.
 
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Sharksrule04

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Jul 23, 2010
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It is a little disconcerting that Pronman didn't think very highly of Ferraro, considering he must often watch him play.

He actually was pretty high on Ferraro. Based on his posts over the last year, I'm guessing he saw Ferraro 3-4 times last year. I know he went to a weekend series which was 2 games to see Makar, Ferraro and some other prospects. I think he mostly said positive things about Ferraro. We have to be realistic, Ferraro likely tops out as a 2nd pairing d-man, which is very good.
 

Juxtaposer

Outro: Divina Comedia
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Sure but on this particular player Pronman admitted to doing neither. I don't think it's a big deal and certainly the inclusion of Suomela wouldn't have moved the Sharks up the rankings but I think fans might be underrating his potential impact. Also it's largely guesswork as to which players' skills will translate from one league to another and which won't. I think Radil has an even higher NHLe than Suomela but I'm skeptical he'll be a NHL player just because his size will be less of a competitive advantage at the NHL level than it is in the KHL and his lack of footspeed is more likely to be exposed. But that's just me guessing. Suomela's statistical profile seems uniquely compelling to me - his points per 60 minutes were likely through the roof just knowing what we do about how he was used. I'd be considerably less excited about him if he scored the same number of points playing 20 minutes a game or whatever.

Also stats alone aren't going to tell you whether a guy will make it with anything approaching absolute certainty but I think you can pretty comfortably use stats to dismiss a player without watching them. Jake McGrew is a 5'10 winger who barely scored half a point per game in the WHL in his draft+1 year. No one with that kind of profile has ever made the NHL, I really don't understand what he's doing on this list. He's not even worth a contract slot at this point. Especially when John Leonard who scored nearly double the points per game in a much lower-scoring league at roughly the same age isn't on it.

It’s considerably less guesswork when you’ve scouted the player.

Obviously simply watching the player is largely meaningless, because scouting is more than just watching a player and many people suck at scouting, but I personally don’t like to dismiss a player without having seen them play at least a couple times. Absolutely, you can “all but dismiss” a player based on stats, but every once in a while a player will do something statistically unprecedented. I’m sure William Karlsson was written off by many (including me) as a third liner, tops, due to his stats. But he still did what he did. It may never happen again, but never say never.
 
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