Prospect Info: The 2020 Entry NHL Draft Thread

Besides some of the Top Players, who are you looking forward to the most?


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S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
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Still confused on this Brad Lambert, how is he from Finland and his dad is from Saskatchewan
Not that hard; his dad was born in Canada, but wasn't a good player so he found himself playing in the UK for his entire career. After he retired he bounced around the Earth before he settled down in Finland marrying a Finnish woman. He worked in hockey in Finland, had his son which inherited his dad's surname of "Lambert", while the parents settled on "Brad" as his first name. However, if you take away his name he is 95% Finnish being not only born in the country, but he's played 99.8% of his entire hockey career in Finland except a random season in Saskatoon for his dad. However, his dad got a job with a Liiga team in Finland as a skills/development coach so they moved back to Finland and have been there ever since.

If you watch him in the interviews, he doesn't really have an accent. His mannerism and how he speaks is extremely Finnish though.
 

henchman21

Mr. Meeseeks
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Feb 24, 2012
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And Sasha Barkov being Finnish.

The one that's always thrown me off is Matt Niskanen. I always assumed he was Finnish but the first name should've tipped me off.

Tim Heed and Joakim Ryan are two that I always have to catch myself with.
 

henchman21

Mr. Meeseeks
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Ah, I didn't even know about Ryan, but did know about Heed.

Don't forget Douglas Murray!

Also, since he traveled practically everywhere his father played, Kasperi Kapanen is officially listed as Finnish but identifies as a Philadelphian.

Or Chucky! Probably more Russian than most Russian families, yet American!
 

UncleRisto

Not Great, Bob!
Jul 7, 2012
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And Sasha Barkov being Finnish.

The one that's always thrown me off is Matt Niskanen. I always assumed he was Finnish but the first name should've tipped me off.
Matt Niskanen is like Jake Virtanen. And Blake Pietila.

The Pietilas even removed an umlaut.
 

henchman21

Mr. Meeseeks
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*Long Beach.
giphy.gif
 

henchman21

Mr. Meeseeks
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If y'all want a fun, late round story to follow. Yu Sato. Japanese kid but has played in Russia and Finland the last couple seasons. Picked up by friend of the show Roy in Quebec and is going to play this year in the Q (is looking great in camp). Plus he grew up an Avs fan.
 

S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
30,725
16,245
Toruń, PL
If y'all want a fun, late round story to follow. Yu Sato. Japanese kid but has played in Russia and Finland the last couple seasons. Picked up by friend of the show Roy in Quebec and is going to play this year in the Q (is looking great in camp). Plus he grew up an Avs fan.
There's three amazing Japanese prospects; Sato, Iguchi, and Ando. I believe the latter two are eligible for 2021 draft. One of them is supposed to be amazing and one of them is very solid skill, but doesn't have top end skating ability.

Based upon my recollection, Sato is very talented, but doesn't have true high-end skating for a player on the smaller/average size frame. I keep hearing that Yusaku Ando is the best out of all three, he's much smaller being 5'8" and 140 lbs based upon last season, but extremely talented. A lot of good sources are pinning him to play in the USHL next season for the Youngstown Phantoms.
 
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henchman21

Mr. Meeseeks
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There's three amazing Japanese prospects; Sato, Iguchi, and Ando. I believe the latter two are eligible for 2021 draft. One of them is supposed to be amazing and one of them is very solid skill, but doesn't have top end skating ability.

Based upon my recollection, Sato is very talented, but doesn't have true high-end skating for a player on the smaller/average size frame. I keep hearing that Yusaku Ando is the best out of all three, he's much smaller being 5'8" and 140 lbs based upon last season, but extremely talented. A lot of good sources are pinning him to play in the USHL next season for the Youngstown Phantoms.

I know people love the youtube phenom in Iguchi, but same a Dhooge, nobody is going to take first stab at a 5'3" player. He's just too small, and he really needs to come over to NA and get playing against better competition... or at least head to a lower European league. I don't know if Ando is the best out of the 3, but he's got some skill, is in NA, and at 5'7" or 5'8" he's small but not impossibly small. Youngstown is very much a rebuilding team. They are losing a good amount of their roster from last year and there could be a role for him, but he probably ends up in Maryland for most of the season with some call ups (this new USHL/NAHL is going to be great). Next year he probably gets a full USHL crack.

I think Sato's big advantage is he is of normalish size for a hockey player. He'll measure out just below 5'10". So while on the smaller side, he's not going to have a huge detriment there. I think his skating is better than you'd think (it is probably slightly above average), but he's a big time effort kid. Feet are always moving and doesn't float, which will make up for some of that. I don't think he is really worth a pick at this point, but he's a kid that may get a 6th/7th round flyer taken on him if he displays reasonably well in the Q. More likely he gets a better look in 2021 if he can stay up in the Q.
 

S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
30,725
16,245
Toruń, PL
I know people love the youtube phenom in Iguchi, but same a Dhooge, nobody is going to take first stab at a 5'3" player. He's just too small, and he really needs to come over to NA and get playing against better competition... or at least head to a lower European league. I don't know if Ando is the best out of the 3, but he's got some skill, is in NA, and at 5'7" or 5'8" he's small but not impossibly small. Youngstown is very much a rebuilding team. They are losing a good amount of their roster from last year and there could be a role for him, but he probably ends up in Maryland for most of the season with some call ups (this new USHL/NAHL is going to be great). Next year he probably gets a full USHL crack.

I think Sato's big advantage is he is of normalish size for a hockey player. He'll measure out just below 5'10". So while on the smaller side, he's not going to have a huge detriment there. I think his skating is better than you'd think (it is probably slightly above average), but he's a big time effort kid. Feet are always moving and doesn't float, which will make up for some of that. I don't think he is really worth a pick at this point, but he's a kid that may get a 6th/7th round flyer taken on him if he displays reasonably well in the Q. More likely he gets a better look in 2021 if he can stay up in the Q.
You probably know this, but Iguchi isn't going to stop at 5'3". Someone who's close to the team in the prospect forum said that Japanese teens are genetically late bloomers. Of course he isn't going to be 6'3", but don't be surprised if next year he's 5'7" which is considerable. Whatever the case is, I am quite interested in them because the 2021 draft is looking to be super weak at this current point in time. Teams might give them more of a chance regardless if it's not in the first round.
 
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