Prospect Info: 2015 18th overall - Thomas Chabot (D) Saint John Sea Dogs

[DrunkUncleDenis]

It's comical that Chabot was ranked 3rd on our board's prospect poll. This happens every year. People get way too attached to the older prospects. Chabot and White are without a doubt the best 2 prospects in our system.

What's comical is the extreme positions people take on things like this. On the one hand, your particular position is that two 18 year olds we knew nothing about are without a doubt the class of our farm system. On the other hand, you have people chastising the aforementioned opinion, talking all about "shiny new toy syndrome".

And honestly, he was ranked third, are you really going to get upset over the fact that Chabot is ranked ONE spot lower than you would like?

You can't fault posters for going with a player they know way more about. Plus, there was and is always the influence of "NHL readiness" on the voting.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

It's comical that Chabot was ranked 3rd on our board's prospect poll. This happens every year. People get way too attached to the older prospects. Chabot and White are without a doubt the best 2 prospects in our system.

ROFL. Hilarious !

They were ranked in the top 5 along with Paul, Puempel and Prince... The "most NHL ready" aspect was a factor in the voting. Either way its not so comical.

 

[JessicaN]

What's comical is the extreme positions people take on things like this. On the one hand, your particular position is that two 18 year olds we knew nothing about are without a doubt the class of our farm system. On the other hand, you have people chastising the aforementioned opinion, talking all about "shiny new toy syndrome".

And honestly, he was ranked third, are you really going to get upset over the fact that Chabot is ranked ONE spot lower than you would like?

You can't fault posters for going with a player they know way more about. Plus, there was and is always the influence of "NHL readiness" on the voting.

AINEC bro

 

[Real Smart Sens Fan]

What's comical is the extreme positions people take on things like this. On the one hand, your particular position is that two 18 year olds we knew nothing about are without a doubt the class of our farm system. On the other hand, you have people chastising the aforementioned opinion, talking all about "shiny new toy syndrome".

And honestly, he was ranked third, are you really going to get upset over the fact that Chabot is ranked ONE spot lower than you would like?

You can't fault posters for going with a player they know way more about. Plus, there was and is always the influence of "NHL readiness" on the voting.

I mean, comical is a strong word but I think its a very lazy way to approach ranking players. If you ask 30 GMs who they'd rather have between Puempel, Paul, White, Chabot and Prince, I suspect 20 or so (at least 15) would choose from White and Chabot. This was one of the deepest drafts in a long time and we got two guys with really good upside and who are relatively safe in their own right.

Chabot, IMO, has more potential than Ceci and is just as likely to reach it. White has similar, slightly lower potential than Zibanejad IMO (nowhere near as dynamic but as to who plays more minutes down the middle? could very well be White) and is also just as likely to reach it. I'm confident Puempel will be a gritty 20 goal scorer, and I think he could have a Michalek in 2011-type impact if he finds a fit on the first line, but he will never be an all-situations player imo. Paul I think has slightly more upside than Puempel and could possibly end up above White on our depth chart, but I think White still has higher upside and is more likely to reach that upside. I dunno, maybe my opinions here greatly differ from that of the norm, but I feel like everything I've said in this post is pretty logical and reasonable... it just seems like many people didn't take these "facts" into consideration when voting, and instead just went for the guys who are closest.

FWIW, If you take Ceci and Zibanejad after their post draft years and include them in the current rankings, I'd rank our top 10 like this:

1. Zibanejad
2. Chabot
3. White
4. Ceci
5. Puempel
6. Lindberg
7. Paul
8. O'Connor
9. Gagne
10. Prince/Chlapik/Englund

I included three guys in the #10 slot to show what my actual top 10 ranking looks like.

 

[starling]

That Chabot lovefest is getting ridiculous. Seriously, he hasn't shown anything special yet. Stop it.

 

[Real Smart Sens Fan]

That Chabot lovefest is getting ridiculous. Seriously, he hasn't shown anything special yet. Stop it.

How has he not shown anything special? Clearly a favourite of our scouting staff, highly rated in a deep draft, one of the most improved players in his draft class, he stepped up significantly when Zboril went down and he was afforded more opportunity, he's extremely raw and talented, he's a cerebral player, he fills two/three huge needs (LD, mid-pairing puck mover, PP option with Karlsson), and by all accounts he's a hard working player. No one is saying he will be elite, but he is certainly the guy in our group with the best top 4/top 6 upside, and IMO it's not even that close. Obviously DMen are more likely to bust, but they're also more likely to be impact players.

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

How has he not shown anything special? Clearly a favourite of our scouting staff, highly rated in a deep draft, one of the most improved players in his draft class, he stepped up significantly when Zboril went down and he was afforded more opportunity, he's extremely raw and talented, he's a cerebral player, he fills two/three huge needs (LD, mid-pairing puck mover, PP option with Karlsson), and by all accounts he's a hard working player. No one is saying he will be elite, but he is certainly the guy in our group with the best top 4/top 6 upside, and IMO it's not even that close. Obviously DMen are more likely to bust, but they're also more likely to be impact players.

This is a great post. I was lukewarm on Chabot when we drafted him TBH, and looking at his highlights I thought, while his skating was alright, he didn't play the game with the flash and tenacity that sometimes other highly-ranked prospects play with. But he had a good rookie tourney and has showed the positive signs as you have outlined. By no means am I saying this guy will join the team and have an impact in the next 2 years, but I think he has a chance to be a real beaut 3-4 years down the road.

 

[Jerrico]

What's comical is the extreme positions people take on things like this. On the one hand, your particular position is that two 18 year olds we knew nothing about are without a doubt the class of our farm system.

I don't mean to sound pretentious here, but why are people voting if they know nothing about the 2 prospects with the highest draft pedigrees in our entire system?!

And honestly, he was ranked third, are you really going to get upset over the fact that Chabot is ranked ONE spot lower than you would like?

What gives you the impression that I'm upset? Maybe the word comical was inappropriate, but I'm just commenting on an obvious trend. Chabot and White are simply higher quality prospects than Puempel and Paul. Small sample size, but an 18 year old Chabot just outperformed a 22 year old Puempel at the prospect tournament. That is a big deal.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Not taking anything away from Chabot. I think he had a really good weekend and he is a fine prospect, but I have seen kids that age absolutely look like they could do no wrong one weekend and within a week or so go flat where nothing seems to work. So I applaud his success and his potential I have to remind myself that it is a very small sample so far. I hope he has a great camp, a really good year, continues to improve, grows stronger, makes the WJC team and shows well in the tournament.
I have been high on White for all the positives (tangibles and intangibles) he can bring , again its potential, if he has a good year and rediscovers his offense from his 17 y/o year where he lit it up, and continues to strengthen his two way game he is going to be an excellent pick and player. I think he will get there... But with the picks this year its more about potential. With some of the slightly older guys like Paul, Lindberg, and a little more older Puempel and Prince .. these guys are closer to being NHL ready and while still about their potential, its more about where they are now or within 1 year vs 2,3 or 4 years. So when there are polls to rank the best prospect it is a pretty nebulous and inexact request. Some people may look at talent , upside and ceiling, where others may be looking at closest to making the big club ... with no specific guidelines ... one is not a better opinion than the other so ..I would not take it too seriously... or consider it to be invalid or comical given the the different ways people can be ranking them.

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

I don't mean to sound pretentious here, but why are people voting if they know nothing about the 2 prospects with the highest draft pedigrees in our entire system?!

Because we are all fans who are entitled to our opinions. The poll is set up in such a way that one doesn't have to give a reason for what selection was made, which encourages opinions from the prospect-obsessed, to those who don't have a clue about them. Like I said, in many cases votes were going to our prospects which were most NHL-ready. Go look at the top-30 thread, I myself ranked White and Chabot 1-2, so I actually agree with you. But I don't think calling the majority of posters' choices comical is appropriate, because there are clear reasons as to why those choices were made. That was the point I was trying to make.

What gives you the impression that I'm upset? Maybe the word comical was inappropriate, but I'm just commenting on an obvious trend. Chabot and White are simply higher quality prospects than Puempel and Paul. Small sample size, but an 18 year old Chabot just outperformed a 22 year old Puempel at the prospect tournament. That is a big deal.

Well hey, if you admit 'comical' was inappropriate, then I'll admit saying you are 'upset' isn't the right word either.

 

[Micklebot]

I don't mean to sound pretentious here, but why are people voting if they know nothing about the 2 prospects with the highest draft pedigrees in our entire system?!



What gives you the impression that I'm upset? Maybe the word comical was inappropriate, but I'm just commenting on an obvious trend. Chabot and White are simply higher quality prospects than Puempel and Paul. Small sample size, but an 18 year old Chabot just outperformed a 22 year old Puempel at the prospect tournament. That is a big deal.

Tournaments like this favour guys with more dynamic skill sets. I'd be more interested to see how they do respectively in the big camp.

That said, Chabot exceeded my expectations so far, and he's bulked up a fair bit since those rankings were done.

 

[Sens Rule]

Tournaments like this favour guys with more dynamic skill sets. I'd be more interested to see how they do respectively in the big camp.

That said, Chabot exceeded my expectations so far, and he's bulked up a fair bit since those rankings were done.

Wouldn't this have been Chabot's first times playing vs mostly men and not fellow teenagers? That makes his performance all the more impressive. While the 3 teams he faced might not all be stacked with huge talent, they are bigger and older and more polished on average then junior players. Since he wasn't on the WJ team this past year... This would have been the best players he ever played against or with probably. Playing many NCAA veterans, some NHL experienced guys. Guys with multiple AHL seasons. To consistently be among the best players the whole tournament is a pretty big deal for him. He is going to go back to junior with huge confidence. Especially if he gets a few real preseason games.

 

[Xspyrit]

I think a lot of it has to do with Bouwmeester looking more like an accountant or Radio Shack nerd instead of a hockey player. If he looked a little bulkier or was missing a few teeth or something, you probably wouldn't hear anyone ragging on him all that much.

I think it came mainly because he was never making the playoffs and then because he was "overpaid".

I mean, comical is a strong word but I think its a very lazy way to approach ranking players. If you ask 30 GMs who they'd rather have between Puempel, Paul, White, Chabot and Prince, I suspect 20 or so (at least 15) would choose from White and Chabot. This was one of the deepest drafts in a long time and we got two guys with really good upside and who are relatively safe in their own right.

Chabot, IMO, has more potential than Ceci and is just as likely to reach it. White has similar, slightly lower potential than Zibanejad IMO (nowhere near as dynamic but as to who plays more minutes down the middle? could very well be White) and is also just as likely to reach it. I'm confident Puempel will be a gritty 20 goal scorer, and I think he could have a Michalek in 2011-type impact if he finds a fit on the first line, but he will never be an all-situations player imo. Paul I think has slightly more upside than Puempel and could possibly end up above White on our depth chart, but I think White still has higher upside and is more likely to reach that upside. I dunno, maybe my opinions here greatly differ from that of the norm, but I feel like everything I've said in this post is pretty logical and reasonable... it just seems like many people didn't take these "facts" into consideration when voting, and instead just went for the guys who are closest.
.

I know exactly what you mean... NHL readiness is one factor out of several but as evidenced by many comments in these polls threads over the years, it seems like the biggest factor for many people when in fact, skillset and potential/upside should be the biggests by far.

 

[Micklebot]

Wouldn't this have been Chabot's first times playing vs mostly men and not fellow teenagers? That makes his performance all the more impressive. While the 3 teams he faced might not all be stacked with huge talent, they are bigger and older and more polished on average then junior players. Since he wasn't on the WJ team this past year... This would have been the best players he ever played against or with probably. Playing many NCAA veterans, some NHL experienced guys. Guys with multiple AHL seasons. To consistently be among the best players the whole tournament is a pretty big deal for him. He is going to go back to junior with huge confidence. Especially if he gets a few real preseason games.

My point though is that those dynamic offensive players tend to stand out in the less strutured environment.

It's not to say Chabot didn't look good, or anything of the sort, but rather that the stuff that's most noticable at this kind of scrimmage is the stuff we already knew he had.

 

[aragorn]

I don't mean to sound pretentious here, but why are people voting if they know nothing about the 2 prospects with the highest draft pedigrees in our entire system?!



What gives you the impression that I'm upset? Maybe the word comical was inappropriate, but I'm just commenting on an obvious trend. Chabot and White are simply higher quality prospects than Puempel and Paul. Small sample size, but an 18 year old Chabot just outperformed a 22 year old Puempel at the prospect tournament. That is a big deal.

Chabot & White being higher than Paul & Puempel is just an opinion at this point, no different than anyone else's opinion but if it turns out that way, great for Ottawa. I'm not sure how you arrived at the Chabot out performed Puempel at the tournament though. Puempel scored two goals in 3 games, that is what he is suppose to do is score goals & he did. Chabot being a defenceman is suppose to get the puck out of his zone & start the offence going the other way which he also did well. He had a good tournament as an 18 yr old, no question but he didn't dominate in my opinion & didn't score any goals. I would give them an equal rating but I guess more was expected from Puempel because he is older, unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way.

Harpur led this tournament in scoring last yr yet I don't remember anyone saying he dominated the tournament. Two different positions, two different expectations & both did fairly well. I thought the line of Puempel, Dzingel & Lindberg were really good together & think Lindberg is going to be a very good player for this organization too. It's nice to see Ottawa has so many good young prospects coming.

 

[HavlatMach9]

Chabot reacted really well to whatever was going on on the ice. I was really impressed. He's got a good frame too. Jumps up more than EK does.

 

[BigBush*]

Chabot & White being higher than Paul & Puempel is just an opinion at this point, no different than anyone else's opinion but if it turns out that way, great for Ottawa. I'm not sure how you arrived at the Chabot out performed Puempel at the tournament though. Puempel scored two goals in 3 games, that is what he is suppose to do is score goals & he did. Chabot being a defenceman is suppose to get the puck out of his zone & start the offence going the other way which he also did well. He had a good tournament as an 18 yr old, no question but he didn't dominate in my opinion & didn't score any goals. I would give them an equal rating but I guess more was expected from Puempel because he is older, unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way.

Harpur led this tournament in scoring last yr yet I don't remember anyone saying he dominated the tournament. Two different positions, two different expectations & both did fairly well. I thought the line of Puempel, Dzingel & Lindberg were really good together & think Lindberg is going to be a very good player for this organization too. It's nice to see Ottawa has so many good young prospects coming.

Thats totally just someone's opinion. From what I saw after watching all the games, my guess is Chabot will go on to have a far better NHL career then Puempel. You never know though

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

That Chabot lovefest is getting ridiculous. Seriously, he hasn't shown anything special yet. Stop it.

Why?

It's a lot more fun to hype up a guy and fell like we might just have something special, then to sit around *****ing and moaning.

I mean, we're not going to win a Cup this year or next, so we need something to get excited about. Besides, all the other fan bases ridiculously overhype their kids and stars, so why can't we get in on the fun?

 

[BondraTime]

That Chabot lovefest is getting ridiculous. Seriously, he hasn't shown anything special yet. Stop it.

It's more people thought that it was a bad pick when we took Chabot because we never drafted Konecy/Schvnikov or someone else they said was better. Now, when those who never watched Chabot actually get to see him play, they understand.

Chabot is the best prospect we've drafted since Zib, and before that Karlsson. He is going to be a great player, I've been saying it for a year now.

 

[Boud]

It's more people thought that it was a bad pick when we took Chabot because we never drafted Konecy/Schvnikov or someone else they said was better. Now, when those who never watched Chabot actually get to see him play, they understand.

Chabot is the best prospect we've drafted since Zib, and before that Karlsson. He is going to be a great player, I've been saying it for a year now.

High potential but lots of questions marks surrounding his game and I don't know what you mean by "I've been saying it for a year" but it makes no sense at all since Chabot was dreadful defensively 2 years ago in St-Johns and at the beginning of this year he was scratched again because of the same reason. Only halfway through the season , and especially when Zboril got injured he got more attention. He was a big riser but a year ago I wouldn't have seen him in the 1rst round and nobody had him in the first round either.

 

[Minister of Offence]

That Chabot lovefest is getting ridiculous. Seriously, he hasn't shown anything special yet. Stop it.

This is in no way meant to draw a direct parallel between Karlsson and Chabot, although some of you will probably still take it that way.

But, I remember some of our own fans, who watched Karlsson every game, still couldn't see anything special out of Karlsson into the early goings of his first Norris year. Whereas some people saw "special' in the first half of his rookie year.

There's absolutely no arguing that some people see the game a little bit more clearly than others. This coming from a guy that hasn't watched any of Chabot, just know there were reasonable professional scouts that believed he was the best value pick where he was taken and arguably could have been taken in the top 10.

People call Dorion a cheerleader, but I'm pretty sure the last time he used the word "special" was in regards to a player that became special.

 

[topshelf15]

Kid has elite or close to elite skating ability.Add in some developing vision ,skill ,awareness and some decent size .I think we have a very good prospect in him ,i hope he continues his upward trend and makes the WJC team

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Kid has elite or close to elite skating ability.Add in some developing vision ,skill ,awareness and some decent size .I think we have a very good prospect in him ,i hope he continues his upward trend and makes the WJC team

Where is the WJC this year? If it's on international ice, he'll probably be a lock to make the team. That kind of skating is absolutely required on the big ice.

 

[SixthSens]

Where is the WJC this year? If it's on international ice, he'll probably be a lock to make the team. That kind of skating is absolutely required on the big ice.

Finland it is.

Hope he makes it and impresses everyone.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

I don't mean to sound pretentious here, but why are people voting if they know nothing about the 2 prospects with the highest draft pedigrees in our entire system?!

What gives you the impression that I'm upset? Maybe the word comical was inappropriate, but I'm just commenting on an obvious trend. Chabot and White are simply higher quality prospects than Puempel and Paul. Small sample size, but an 18 year old Chabot just outperformed a 22 year old Puempel at the prospect tournament. That is a big deal.

I feel like this exact conversation happens every year related to ranking prospects. Some people value pedigree or future high end, some people value NHL readiness. There's no right answer. At the end of the day its just rankings on here so who cares.