What makes Alex DeBrincat so good?

[Kamiccolo]

Arguably the best wrister in the league. He's also fantastic at his positioning and practices a ton with shooting while his body is in different positions.

Sorry but there is no argument that he has a better shot, wrister/snapper, and release than Matthews.

 

[Curufinwe]

Laberge seemed like a decent pick at the time, (potential first rounder they said) but now he's looking like a bust.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

He’s got a filthy release and he’s very, very smart on the ice.

 

[ColbyChaos]

Haven't seen him this year but based on last year - he just waits at the right circle for Kane to pass him the puck and then he shoots the puck into the back of the net allowing him to add a point to his statline, which in turn allows him to be perceived as "good".

This is pretty accurate except for the everything being wrong part

 

[ColbyChaos]

Sometimes, but stats can be VERY deceiving. That season he was glued next to McDavid and as we be seen in the past, ESPECIALLY in Junior, some very bad players have put up elite numbers next to the league's best players.

Another example is that junior stats can be very misleading due to icetime/usage and often some players don't work on their game the way they should be.

Conor Garland put up a stat line of 35G-94A - 129Pts leading the league in scoring by 27pts. Despite that he was drafted in the 4th rd. Next year he puts up 128pts leading his own team in points by over 60 and the league by 20 again. All this points to one hell of a future star if looking at CHL stats.

His next season..... 14pts .... in the AHL.

Reason being is that once you actually watched him you realize that he would play the full 2mins of EVERY power play. His coach also allowed him to cheat defensively, and by that I mean he would never even cross his own blue line most nights.

This is why scouting exists. With that said, something was definitely missed with Debrincat.

McDavid was already in the NHL for Debrincats 50 goal (2nd of 3 straight seasons) draft year performance. He had a 50 goal year with McDavid as his center (2014-15) then two with Strome as the Otters 1C (2015-16, 16-17)

 

[Kurtosis]

Haven't seen him this year but based on last year - he just waits at the right circle for Kane to pass him the puck and then he shoots the puck into the back of the net allowing him to add a point to his statline, which in turn allows him to be perceived as "good".

I think you may be the scout.

 

[Juxtaposer]

DeBrincat is always in the right place at the right time. Extremely high hockey IQ, fantastic shot.

Honestly this is a bizarre case, too. Because I watched quite a bit of him in the OHL and he was never very impressive to me. He wasn’t a very good skater, and usually undersized players need to be elite skaters (think Gaudreau) to be effective in the NHL. I’m a huge advocate of drafting undersized players, but DeBrincat was a guy that I considered passing on completely. Obviously me and the scouts got this one very wrong.

 

[Pez68]

Extremely high hockey IQ.

Ridiculous release.

Great hands.

 

[BillNy]

I remember really wanting him in his draft year, and so did all the numbersy people on Leaf twitter. We got a lot of stuff about how we needed to watch Korshkov play, and how he was actually very good, and blah blah, and I get it, and it looked like he WAS good and is now hurt a lot, but uhh boy, DeBrincat sure worked out fast.

 

[HansonBro]

I guess being so small his entire career, he had to find a way to craft his own game. Avoid contact, be in the right spot and dat shot. Its actually quite easy to see how his game translates into the NHL...hes just doing the same things

 

[BreadManPanarin]

Haven't seen him this year but based on last year - he just waits at the right circle for Kane to pass him the puck and then he shoots the puck into the back of the net allowing him to add a point to his statline, which in turn allows him to be perceived as "good".

What a completely worthless post by someone who obviously never watches hawks games (or even scoring highlights). We Hawks fans complained constantly all last year about Q refusing to put Debrincat and Kane together despite how much sense it made to do so. Lol

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Sometimes, but stats can be VERY deceiving. That season he was glued next to McDavid and as we be seen in the past, ESPECIALLY in Junior, some very bad players have put up elite numbers next to the league's best players.

Another example is that junior stats can be very misleading due to icetime/usage and often some players don't work on their game the way they should be.

Conor Garland put up a stat line of 35G-94A - 129Pts leading the league in scoring by 27pts. Despite that he was drafted in the 4th rd. Next year he puts up 128pts leading his own team in points by over 60 and the league by 20 again. All this points to one hell of a future star if looking at CHL stats.

His next season..... 14pts .... in the AHL.

Reason being is that once you actually watched him you realize that he would play the full 2mins of EVERY power play. His coach also allowed him to cheat defensively, and by that I mean he would never even cross his own blue line most nights.

This is why scouting exists. With that said, something was definitely missed with Debrincat.

You have a point, however...when everyone (experts,scouts&most fans) was saying McDavid carried DeBrincat
his entire rookie season, Otters head coach said, in one interview , that it was actually the other way around
(but i guess scouts/experts didn't see/hear/believe that interview (to be true)),
DeBrincat proved that next season by scoring 5 goals in a game and 12 goals in...4 or was it in 5 first games,
without McDavid. Even McDavid's injury didn't stop Brinksy to score goals and points in his rookie season.

And we cannot forget how in that next season, lots of people said DeBrincat's being carried by Strome,
now we know, who carried whom.

During in his final season in the OHL there were still doubters, that his game wouldn't translate to the NHL
and people said Strome was the better prospect, he was a 3rd overall pick after all, scouts can't be wrong, am i right?.

Last season Toews was horrible, this season incredible, now i'm not saying 1+1=2 (or 3)....still...

________________

i do understand what you meant with your post, but there are other factors in this case of scouts vs DeBrincat
and for me....the reason why he got snubbed by so many, is because of his size and that they believed
McDavid carried him in his rookie season. - Stereotype, "type casting" -

 

[Artorius Horus T]

DeBrincat is always in the right place at the right time. Extremely high hockey IQ, fantastic shot.

Honestly this is a bizarre case, too. Because I watched quite a bit of him in the OHL and he was never very impressive to me. He wasn’t a very good skater, and usually undersized players need to be elite skaters (think Gaudreau) to be effective in the NHL. I’m a huge advocate of drafting undersized players, but DeBrincat was a guy that I considered passing on completely. Obviously me and the scouts got this one very wrong.

I saw him complete opposite, go figure - i always saw him as the most talented of all Otters players,
and as a tremendous skater, maybe McDavid's super sonic speed made DeBrincat look slow and not that great -

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Same thing that makes Marner so effective

their edge-work, speed, and escapability gives them apt time to use their skill and IQ

 

[Filthy Dangles]

great shot, shifty and speedy enough to get it off at the NHL level. Scouts were concerned about the latter. smart player who knows where to go offensively.

 

[SotasicA]

Great hands/vision.

Speedy.

He is what the new NHL is.

He is not speedy. You'd expect a player his size at least be quick, but he really isn't. Probably a below average skater in the NHL. It's mostly the way he shoots, and his offensive instincts he relies on.

Why did the scouts miss him? They didn't. Everyone just thought he was a product of McDavid, and those numbers were inflated. Then McDavid left the team, DeBrincat still scored 65 goals in 63 games, and people started to wise up. After that last junior year, I bet a lot of scouts had some sleepless nights thinking about what they'd done missing out on him.

There were still question marks about his size and if he'd be able to bring his game to the NHL. If he was 8 inches taller, he'd obviously be better. But he scored 28 goals last season, and will probably only build on that.

 

[Lenerdosy]

What were his Erie Otter linemates like or the team as a whole in his draft year? I wonder if that had something to do with it at all? Maybe teams felt the team was elite at the time and stats were over inflated? Not sure but he really does seem to be putting up some points.

 

[Fazkovsky]

The fact that the Stars passed on him to take Riley Tufte. God I was so pissed. Everyone the Stars pass on becomes good it feels like.

Passed on Barzal to take Gurianov, passed on DeBrincat to take Tufte, passed on Tolvanen to take Oettinger

You guys drafted jamie benn its all ok

 

[Eddy Punch Clock]

What makes Alex DeBrincat so good?


His cool name.

 

[Ainec]

Sometimes, but stats can be VERY deceiving. That season he was glued next to McDavid and as we be seen in the past, ESPECIALLY in Junior, some very bad players have put up elite numbers next to the league's best players.

Another example is that junior stats can be very misleading due to icetime/usage and often some players don't work on their game the way they should be.

Conor Garland put up a stat line of 35G-94A - 129Pts leading the league in scoring by 27pts. Despite that he was drafted in the 4th rd. Next year he puts up 128pts leading his own team in points by over 60 and the league by 20 again. All this points to one hell of a future star if looking at CHL stats.

His next season..... 14pts .... in the AHL.

Reason being is that once you actually watched him you realize that he would play the full 2mins of EVERY power play. His coach also allowed him to cheat defensively, and by that I mean he would never even cross his own blue line most nights.

This is why scouting exists. With that said, something was definitely missed with Debrincat.

McDavid was in the NHL that season

 

[Frank Drebin]

What a completely worthless post by someone who obviously never watches hawks games (or even scoring highlights). We Hawks fans complained constantly all last year about Q refusing to put Debrincat and Kane together despite how much sense it made to do so. Lol

Jokes on you for even replying to that nonsense

 

[SillyRabbit]

I really enjoy watching him play in the few games I’ve seen.

Loving that players of his size are able to showcase their skills in today’s NHL.

Guy can shoot the puck.

 

[CartographerNo611]

Outside of Kane Crawford and Toews, everyone around him is average or bad which makes him look great. Its like when that 6/10 girl surrounds herself with a bunch of overweight 2s and 3s and she magically becomes a 9/10.

 

[nbwingsfan]

You have a point, however...when everyone (experts,scouts&most fans) was saying McDavid carried DeBrincat
his entire rookie season, Otters head coach said, in one interview , that it was actually the other way around
(but i guess scouts/experts didn't see/hear/believe that interview (to be true)),
DeBrincat proved that next season by scoring 5 goals in a game and 12 goals in...4 or was it in 5 first games,
without McDavid. Even McDavid's injury didn't stop Brinksy to score goals and points in his rookie season.

And we cannot forget how in that next season, lots of people said DeBrincat's being carried by Strome,
now we know, who carried whom.

During in his final season in the OHL there were still doubters, that his game wouldn't translate to the NHL
and people said Strome was the better prospect, he was a 3rd overall pick after all, scouts can't be wrong, am i right?.

Last season Toews was horrible, this season incredible, now i'm not saying 1+1=2 (or 3)....still...

________________

i do understand what you meant with your post, but there are other factors in this case of scouts vs DeBrincat
and for me....the reason why he got snubbed by so many, is because of his size and that they believed
McDavid carried him in his rookie season. - Stereotype, "type casting" -

I'm not suggesting Debrincat was carried by anyone (even though it's ludicrous to think he was carrying McDavid), just pointing out why you should never ignore scouting and just look at the stats sheet like the one poster suggested.

 

[Kcb12345]

Watch Ty Smith becoming an all star while Dellandrea fizzles out into oblivion somewhere in the minors.

That one doesn't concern me as much. We didn't need Smith but we badly needed to take a forward. Farabee and Veleno are the ones I'm more concerned about