Prospect Info: With the #81 pick, the Wild select RW Kurtis Gabriel

[rynryn]

I think the Wild management is seeing the value in goons who can play 7-14 minutes a night, so Gabriel would be best suited by making sure he can do more than "goon". Whether its PK, forecheck, faceoffs, or emergency goalie .... he will needs to make sure he practices other skills than just fighting.

IMHO the era of 2 minute TOI Boogey/Gratton/Mirasty etc. players is over.

oh, i don't expect him to focus on that. i hope it isn't like konopka where the first shift in the game he's out there picking a fight for no reason. just curious to see what he thinks the brass want out of him.

 

[rynryn]

BTW doesn't this go against what most fans keep saying? Don't pick on need, pick on who's available?

i though we already established this was a ******** way to kill your team. Edmonton. the best player available **** is subjective.

 

[Dampland]

Couple of very recent pictures of Kurtis Gabriel at the Owen Sound website:
http://www.attackhockey.com/photo_gallery/gallery/id/6000

Look at how skinny this 20 year old is. His arms are like toothpicks yet several articles imply he's a workout warrior in the weight room. He's willing to drop the gloves in the OHL but from the clips I looked at his fights were unimpressive; lots of punches thrown, few landed. He got smoked by a 5'8" guy (hard to do when you're 6'4").

If he wants to be an enforcer type in the AHL he'll be facing some legit heavyweights. Guess we'll see if he can hold his own or not. I'm doubtful by looking at his small frame and lack of muscle. Hope he's not an Aaron Voros type tough guy.

I think you are being overly critical of this guy. He does not have "toothpick" arms, he merely is built like a basketball player, instead of a linebacker (as people expect for enforcers) Think about Chara ..... he is not a brickhouse either, but he has the strength.

If this kid is indeed a workout warrior, then we should know in a couple years if he will ever be able to bulk up.

I do agree he is not a John Scott monster fighter, but at least he sticks up for teammates, and he seemed to have a great ability to stand in there and trade punches, even after getting smacked around a bit.

Bottom line all accounts point to a kid with a GREAT attitude, and you can never have too many of those on a team. Not expecting much from the kid, but wishing him well.

 

[thestonedkoala]

i though we already established this was a ******** way to kill your team. Edmonton. the best player available **** is subjective.

So Matt Kassian was the BPA?

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

So Matt Kassian was the BPA?

Maybe, or maybe they just liked him.

 

[Brock]

I'll throw in my two cents.

Incredibly surprised that Gabriel was even drafted, let alone as high as he went.

He's a VERY hard working player. Leaves it all out on the ice. He can kill penalties. He is a physical player. He's generally effective along the boards. A real "coaches" kind of player. Offensively, I don't see much NHL upside. The numbers are what they are because of his particular skill set. He's a crash and bang guy who gives you effort and determination, and not necessarily offensive production. The issue at play here is this, every OHL team has several of these types of players. I'm not entirely sure what makes Gabriel special (even though I probably should).

Much like you guys, I think a lot of people in the OHL community are left shaking their head at this one too.

 

[rynryn]

So Matt Kassian was the BPA?

do you know what subjective means? You must--you're articulate if nothing else. A team is going to find the player they want that has the best combo (in their minds) of attributes to fit into the team (however and whenever) and label them the best player available. You can safely tack on a "for us" at the end. they're not going to go by CSS or TSN or random internet troll consensus rankings.

 

[rynryn]

I'll throw in my two cents.

Incredibly surprised that Gabriel was even drafted, let alone as high as he went.

He's a VERY hard working player. Leaves it all out on the ice. He can kill penalties. He is a physical player. He's generally effective along the boards. A real "coaches" kind of player. Offensively, I don't see much NHL upside. The numbers are what they are because of his particular skill set. He's a crash and bang guy who gives you effort and determination, and not necessarily offensive production. The issue at play here is this, every OHL team has several of these types of players. I'm not entirely sure what makes Gabriel special (even though I probably should).

Much like you guys, I think a lot of people in the OHL community are left shaking their head at this one too.

appreciate it. the team goes on and on about character and drive so evidently they saw something in that respect where taking a risk they can make him generally useful as a hockey player was worth it. The team is going to be looking really soft a couple years from now...its relatively easy to find bottom line scrappy guys I know but they're usually prone to making bad decisions. Maybe they're confident Gabriel is going to play smarter than the average Staubitz or Konopka or Glass etc.

 

[MuckOG]

So Matt Kassian was the BPA?

On the Wild's board....maybe he was.

 

[LemaireisGOD]

Actually...

Eh in general most people on message boards don't scout heavily, so when someone tries to use "facts" which they made up or have a huge bias for to try and say why people who get paid money to do this are dead on wrong it sounds foolish. Its fine to not like the pick, but there are ways of stating that with out looking like a fool, this isn't everyone btw, just a few individuals who "know it all"

I do a fair amount of evaluation. Probably more than most of you do here. I also read a ton of material from proven talent evaluation organizations like International Scouting Service to name one of them. If he just 'oozes' potential then why did none of the major evaluating branches identify this guy. They identified other guys that didn't end up being drafted, I even have game reports where they mention who shined in individual games. I looked at every single Owen Sound game they had evaluated, something like 15 games yet he's not mentioned in a SINGLE one of them.

If the Sledgehammer is such a huge force for his club wouldn't his high energy game get him some notice? Its not like they didn't mention other overagers who shined. But I'm supposed to believe that the Wild saw something in this kid that no one else saw? So what he works hard. It isn't accomplishing a lot. By the way the Lucic comparisons are laughable. Lucic did put up points for the Giants while also providing toughness and as others stated he was drafted when he was 18, not when he was 20.

By the way, Gabriel's agent has every reason to lie about the 'demand' this kid had. Even by his own statement the Wild drafted him 1-2 rounds higher than they should have.

I think there were some physical defenseman that we passed up on Florentino, Ausmus who would've been nice to have versus an overage nobody. By what I've read here from you guys it sounds like the Wild drafted Brandon Bollig. Anyone really want to say Bollig would've been a worthwhile 3rd round pick? Didn't think so.

I agree completely with Jarick that the blind defense of the Kurtis Gabriel pick is kind of sad and pathetic. Not everything this organization does, even with Brent Flahr calling the shots completely golden. They make their fair share of mistakes too. This was a Tommy Thompson like selection.

 

[rynryn]

brodin was a bust.

 

[LemaireisGOD]

As he would around you...

Guarantee he would skate circles around you. That being said this pick is a little perplexing

But who cares? Topping out with 13 goals as a 20 year old. Even if he likes to hit, it doesn't tell me he provides much else. Is an at best 4th liner the kind of return you want on your 3rd round pick? (shrugs) I don't think so...

 

[MuckOG]

I agree completely with Jarick that the blind defense of the Kurtis Gabriel pick is kind of sad and pathetic.

Blind denounciation is just as sad and pathetic.

 

[LemaireisGOD]

brodin was a bust.

I fessed up to that, but I still was right about Thelen, Gillies, and Pouliot long before anyone else was and my initial criticism of Granlund was well placed too. But go ahead and waste more time defending this blah overager.

 

[LemaireisGOD]

Blind denounciation is just as sad and pathetic.

So you say, but have you seen or heard anything about him to really defend him knowledgably at all? Probably not. Glad to see the homers still clog up this place...

 

[rynryn]

isn't the likelihood of a third rounder playing enough to be considered a "career" player (200 games) about 12%? If (big if) he makes that in any capacity it will be a success. a character guy with universally regarded elite drive and work ethic is more likely to accomplish that than a decent guy with a little size and some tools. if you want, call it picking a 6 C over a 7 F

 

[this providence]

No one generally cares about who was right/wrong about this and that player. Especially when the chances are that said person never put in even a percentage of time looking at a player that a real scouting staffs does. If they have at all.

Questioning the logic behind a selection is all well and good, acting like you know how a prospect is going to develop before ever seeing a player on the ice is the point where things get laughable and eyes are rolled.

 

[MuckOG]

So you say, but have you seen or heard anything about him to really defend him knowledgably at all? Probably not. Glad to see the homers still clog up this place...

No...and I don't really care. Talk to me in 3 years and I'll let you know what I think about Kurtis Gabriel.

 

[thestonedkoala]

The more I think about this pick, the more it feels like the Gillies pick. Minnesota is lacking toughness, so what do they do?

 

[thestonedkoala]

No one generally cares about who was right/wrong about this and that player. Especially when the chances are that said person never put in even a percentage of time looking at a player that a real scouting staffs does. If they have at all.

Questioning the logic behind a selection is all well and good, acting like you know how a prospect is going to develop before ever seeing a player on the ice is the point where things get laughable and eyes are rolled.

I like this post.

 

[this providence]

Nowhere within this entire thread has anyone treated this pick like the Wild have a hell of a promising prospect on their hands. It's been universally questioned. There's a difference between those people who do not understand the selection because he wasn't on most everyone's radar and why they choose to use a fairly decent resource on this player and those who are framing themselves as to say they know how this player will develop moving forward. The latter is especially humorous because said off the radar player was most definitely never seen by the latter grouping of posters.

Do we not understand the fundamental difference at play here?

 

[Jarick]

As I said above, none of us are professional scouts (okay, one of us). So nobody's pulling rank on anyone.

Everyone's opinion is valid here.

 

[Bookman]

As I said above, none of us are professional scouts (okay, one of us). So nobody's pulling rank on anyone.

Everyone's opinion is valid here.

Isn't that called an idiocracy ??

 

[Randy BoBandy]

I don't hate the pick

Very little chance a guy picked here even makes the show. So as I believe Ryn said, why not take a chance on a guy who works his ass off. They must love his character and him being an overager, maybe they want him and his hard work in Houston as soon as possible so it will spread to some of the prospects there currently and coming in this year. Hard work and dedication can be contagious.

Either way its not really a pick to get worked up over just yet. Sure it doesn't look like a great selection at this point based on where he was projected to go and as he was passed over a couple times. But hell anything can happen. I will wait and see how next year plays out before calling him a complete loser.

 

[Blizzard6411]

Someone is putting a very nice twist on how some were slammed for just questioning the pick.

Also, I am about to hurl listening to the he has a great "work ethic" argument as a reason to draft him in the 3rd. There are a whole **** load of players with great "work ethic" who also have skill to go along with it.

He has great "work ethic" is usually like saying to a friend before a blind date "she has a great personality."