PKSpecialist
Registered User
- Feb 6, 2010
- 1,750
- 838
Right, but your argument is based on your opinion being right. You are talking about Podkolzin as a 17 year old who completely dominated the Hlinka, played very well at the Jr. A's, didn't get a lot of ice at the World Juniors, then is playing well but not producing in the U18's, and basically saying "I told you so". So because he isn't performing at this tournament like he did at the Hlinka you are right, but in the next breath you are saying that no one watches him in Russia, all people are basing their opinions off of is international tournaments and that isn't right because its a small sample. He was the most dominant player in his first international tournament, an all-star in the next, then struggles to produce in his last one and all of a sudden the 11 games he played in the first two tournaments don't count, just the last 4 in the most recent one matters.It's not that they've been wrong before, it's that they've had some really bad misses high in the draft. Like it's one thing if people would think that Krebs will be better than Zegras and then Zegras turns out to be a star while Krebs "only" becomes a 2nd/3rd liner, or whatever. That stuff you can't really predict accurately. But say if I would put Alex Vlasic in my top10 because he's 6'6 and can skate and have him ranked ahead of guys like York and Byram. If he then busts and the other two have solid NHL careers, would that just be chalked up to me just "being wrong", or is it a completely egregious error on my part to begin with? That's essentially my point.
I understand where you are coming from. You are trying to validate your position, and like Cozens earlier, you can find video that show certain things, but here's where I'm coming from. Think of Leon Draisaitl, if I cherry pick some of the videos of him not backchecking, and forcing bad passes that aren't there when his team is pressing, and post them on a forum for a Florida Panthers fan(example only) who has only ever seen his stats, they would probably have a pretty poor opinion of the player. That is completely ignoring the fact that when he's on his game he dominates the game, and that he's on his game more often than he's not on his game.
This is of course just an example, and we are not going to agree on Podkolzin, because as I have stated several times, he's number 3 on my board. He has a pro level shot, he is one of the draft's most powerful skaters, he is very good with the puck in traffic, he dominates board play, he has an extremely high compete level at both ends of the ice.
As an aside, since you brought up Krebs, there are a lot of scouts out there who see him as a 2nd/3rd line tweener like you described. They question his skill level a lot and wonder if it's his compete and ice-time/oppotunity that allowed him to produce like he did. One conversation I had with a scout compared him to Jakob Pelletier, and that he didn't think he would have a huge offensive role in the NHL, more as a third line checking type player because the skill wasn't there. Not saying I agree 100%, just passing on some information.