Kloos not being there is a big head scratcher for me, unless he'll be at a different camp?
“I want to show them that I'm a puck-moving defenceman who's mean and tough,†said Gudbranson, whose aggressive, blue-collar style has made him a Greyhounds fan favourite. “I'm going to be very physical there. I want to open some eyes.â€
Excerpt from Russo's blog on 1st day of dev camp:
I didn’t mention Gabriel as a roster hopeful in the article just because he may start in the minors to get development. But no doubt he could see games next season. “I’m not putting anything by this kid,” assistant GM Brent Flahr said. “He’s probably one of the most determined kids I’ve ever met. He knows he’s probably going to go down and play, but he’ll cause some havoc in exhibition games. He works so hard and he wants to get there. He’s got things to learn. He knows that, but second half you never know.”
For me that's somewhere between surprising and shocking. Thought we drafted Gabriel a couple rounds too high and expected he would be at least a two year project in Iowa before he even had a shot at the roster.
The Folin - Dumba competition is going to be interesting.
I think Gabriel has the chance at an accelerated path to the NHL because he's huge and can throw bombs. He need not be as good at hockey (compared to other prospects) to provide value to the big club with those two attributes.
Flahr's comments suggest to me that if Gabriel can bang with NHL fighters, he'll be needed eventually.
Everyone who watches Gabriel play loves the kid. Everything he's done statistically has been completely forgettable. At some point in time, one or the other has to win out. You can't be amazing and put up mediocre numbers.
Unless he's the kind of player that the old time scouts love who passes the eye test but doesn't actually have a positive impact on the play. But we'll have to see him in the NHL for a while before we can judge that I suppose, because advanced stats aren't available in the minors.
I've looked at Gabriel's fight card and ... well ... I don't think he's much of a fighter. If we're looking for him to drop the gloves the results (at the NHL level) might not be very good.
I see where he fought Alex Gudbranson twice in the post-season last year in the OHL. Lost em both; one decisively.
http://www.hockeyfights.com/players/15850
Gudbranson is also participating in our developmental camp.
I'm no hockey fight expert, I'm just going off what I've heard of the kid and what he said in his radio interview during the Wild draft special. Either way, Gabriel would obviously be brought up as a physical presence on the fourth line -- not for his skating or stickhandling. Advanced stats don't do a lot of good measuring how well a nasty winger is doing at annoying the other team and taking them off their game.
Actually, they do. For example, if someone is able to take opposition off their game it would show in "goals against while on ice" or something, or in puck possession categories. While I'm no fancystats expert, I reckon you could see the impact a good pest/grinder has.
Everyone who watches Gabriel play loves the kid. Everything he's done statistically has been completely forgettable. At some point in time, one or the other has to win out. You can't be amazing and put up mediocre numbers.
Unless he's the kind of player that the old time scouts love who passes the eye test but doesn't actually have a positive impact on the play. But we'll have to see him in the NHL for a while before we can judge that I suppose, because advanced stats aren't available in the minors.
Maybe you could look at a spreadsheet and compare numbers -- or you could go to a game and see if the grinder in question throws his body around and facewashes a guy or three after the whistle. Pests are most effective without the puck. Let the Melvins adjust their glasses deciphering matrixes of stats for bottom-six guys around the league. All that number crunching can't evaluate a bone-crushing hit at a big moment versus lightly bumping a puck-carrier early in a 5-1 loss, or how the bench is affected after the grinder steps up for a teammate.
Actually, they measure both.
1. Penalties drawn vs penalties taken.
2. Puck possession stats. Hits by definition only occur when the other team has the puck. So if a hit were effective, your team would obtain possession afterwards, and you'd see positive possession numbers overall. Maybe you could look at Corsi-Rel compared to Hits or something like that.
Anybody know if today's scrimmage is going to be streamed online?
Or just watch.
Is this going to be the new refrain for 2015?