A couple of things on Beargloves:
-TCT is good if you know what you should look for. It's an unorganized chaotic game in a sense played late in the summer with players that don't each other, if you are coming from a pro league to a large extent you will skate around a lot wondering what's going on around you. If you scout a player, you cannot pull up a score card and chalk up "good" and "bad" plays and then check the bottom line. It's ridiculous. Watch the player, how does he moves etc. Buch was trashed in Traverse last season, why? People saw him play 5 shifts in a row and not make a good play, maybe lose a puck, so they trashed him and declared him a bust. We got a thread on it, just go back and check.
When you read reports from TCT from a fan that goes like, "we gave up another one, who has number xx? He sucks he just stood there", it's a completely worthless report plain and simple. If nobody on the ice is doing the right things really, the right way to play is not to do the right things. Then you are counting on others to do their job, which they aren't.
Last year our best kid was declared a bust, it's not possible to get it more wrong than that. My point in, don't read too much into reports of Beargloves being a completely worthless player. Take my word for it.
-Second of all, of you have any history of following Europeans and especially Russian players go to NA you know that it's very difficult to estimate how long it will take for them to adjust to the NA game -- and certainly to some extent how well they will be able to adjust too. I covered this at length before Buch made that jump, it can take some time.
For a D like Beargloves there are two main issues. One is that the NHL game is much quicker than the KHL games. When the play turns, you really need to move those legs to get back nowadays. This is an adjustment for him, there is no time to think, evaluate what's happening, if it looks like someone is beating your team to a puck in the attacking zone, bam bam bam bam you must hammer those backskating strides against the ice to gain a good 10 frets before in no time the puck can be shipped out and the race is off.
Another issue is that net battles are much tougher in NA than in Europe. Smaller ice, less finesse plays, from a young ice you practice on partly different type of plays. NAs have improved their ability infront of the net more than Europeans. There is room for more specialists in NA hockey there. A KHL D must pick it up in this area, in a situation where the puck goes into the goalies lap, in the KHL you might be able to turn up and shield the goalie, while in NA it might be more about stopping someone kamikazying into the crease right.
The notion driven by many is that Beargloves was the worst ever at TCT which was proven by the fact that he was cut from camp. I don't agree with that notion at all. We know that Clarke and Gorton was really high on him, I've seen a lot of him myself and there is a reason for it. It's a very capable young defender who combines a solid defensive game with great reach and a heady game with the puck really well. I've seen him play a lot at a very high level. He is certainly capable in many ways. The other guy we where hunting, Andreas Borgman, have done a great job in Toronto and about a week ago I heard that he might make that team. I liked Borgman a lot like I reported many times, and in a sense he might be the type who stands out more in a smaller sample size and has a bit easier time to prove himself in the NHL than Beargloves. But Borgman could not even remotely handle the same role as Beargloves did in the KHL. Play 25 minutes against really really good players, get the job done defensively, move the puck up ice fairly well, and so forth. Borgman would have made 10 great plays and finnished a series against SKA -15 if put in that role, and everyone knows I like him and think he has NHL potential. My point is just that there -- without any doubt -- is a lot of quality in Beargloves as player even if it is fair to raise some question marks too. But there is no basis for speculating on if the KHL really sucks and Beargloves happened to be a worthless player.
Will he come back and prove a lot of people wrong? Who knows. First of all, he definitely do not have potential to become a top D. At most his potential have always been that prototypic 4th d style, more of a stay at home guy. Second of all, as a prospect I would compare him to like Anisimov in terms of quality. There are no guarantees at that level. The kid need to deliver, stay healthy and have a little luck too. With the competition we have on the blueline right now, I think any kid on D that can come in and play will have to perform really well, let's hope that Beargloves can do that.
In the end I can only speak for my self and the above is my opinion. This place was created for discussions like this. Let's all follow the topics we cover and try to learn from them. I could be wrong for sure, then I should learn from it. Maybe BGs lateral movement is way too bad, and I missed it because I underestimated the difference between the NHL and KHL in that sense. But as of today, I definitely still stand by the above.
