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Prospect Info: 2022-23 Prospect Development Tracker

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BG44 said:
That was answered earlier by the player and the agent. He's been training for next season while training for the combine immediately when the season ended (that's normal for draft eligibles going to the combine). Flew to North America to participate in the combine and returned home. Continued training for the season. Flew to North America for the draft, and then he immediately returned home, asked for a 2-week vacation, and then he was going to join the Swiss a week before the tournament.

Nothing about that seems odd. His only point was he's not had a break since the start of last season because he immediately began preparing for the combine, and he didn't immediately want to start a camp after returning home that would roll into a tournament that rolls immediately into the start of the SHL pre-season.

As you said, it's probably best for him, but I would imagine the answer to him not coming to Dallas was that no one involved thought the Swiss would be that petty. Otherwise, he would have just stayed in North America if they weren't going to let him participate. Instead, the Swiss rescinded his invitation formally at the last second after he'd already missed development camp in Dallas.

Considering most high-profile players are completely backing out of the tournament, and none of those national teams have said a peep, it's a pretty pathetic look for the Swiss IMO.

Part of me at least wonders if this has anything to do with him leaving the NLA. His home team wouldn't give him ice time so last season he felt like Sweden gave him the best opportunity to play. He ended up signing a 2-year deal. No clue if that could be it, but their flimsy excuse didn't make a ton of sense. It's hardly uncommon though for other Euros to go to Sweden or Finland to develop.

His logic for the move was sound. Even though the Swiss league and Sweden both have quite a few imports, the SHL more than the NLA is willing to play teenagers. He felt like it was his best opportunity to play against men, and considering the Swedish junior system does actually produce NHL draft picks, I would imagine their junior league is also better than the Swiss junior league which really doesn't produce many draft picks (I'm specifically talking at 18 years old).
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SHL teams may be more willing to play teenagers but not necessarily foreign ones. You have to be pretty good to earn a spot on an SHL team as an import player of that age. Bichsel could have easily played NL instead. If you're good, you're gonna play in Switzerland as well. Swiss clubs are always gonna play you if you're as good as Bichsel.

Of course the Swedish junior leagues are a lot better than the Swiss junior leagues and so is coaching. These are the main differences and I think they're tied together. Poor coaching at all levels is holding back Swiss hockey big time. Compared to Sweden it's like night and day. That has to get fixed before clubs can even think about investing more into developing talent. Right now, NL clubs can barely find competent coaches for their pro teams. The really good Swiss born coaches you can count on one hand. Then there's a few foreigners who know league and country and are proven to be competent but that's it. If you have to hire a coach and can't get one of those you can either hire a foreigner not knowing league or country or a Swiss with little to no coaching record.

As explained before by others, all national teams are run by the same idiots and if you don't do what they want, you're gone and are gonna get mobbed pubically. That happened to others before, both coaches and players. It would be best to fire them all since they're all completely incompetent but firstly they're all gonna help each other to hold onto their jobs and secondly it wouldn't be easy to find capable replacements for them all.

Might be best to just ignore Swiss national teams until those clowns are gone. Coaching has been beyond awful at all levels for years now and it's not gonna get any better. It hurt the chances of actually talented Swiss born players to show what they're capable of. It's always frustrating to watch. Might be best to stop watching as a fan and stop playing (if you're a player like Bichsel). Waste of time either way.
 
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I was interested in seeing what he could do this year. He was either upset with not getting much of an opportunity in the AHL last year or this has something to do with staying near home with what's going on in Belarus.
 
BG44 said:
Pretty rare. That's why I'm leaning towards something to do with Belarus. Maybe he wants to stay home.
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If he’s not good enough to get out of the ECHL and also can’t participate in any international play for additional experience, there probably is no point keeping him in the system.
 
Funny that this comes on the same day that I don't qualify him as a RFA in EHM...js
 
Satan said:
Did better than expected in the ECHL this year for a 20 year old but I bet that league is a grind.

He was a fun lotto ticket while it lasted I guess
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Yeah i don't think he'd have seen much playingtime in the AHL next season either. I doubt he wanted to play another year ECHL .
 
I certainly wouldn’t want to spend another year in Idaho traveling all around flyover country if I didn’t have to.
 
Most of the guys ahead of Johnston are top 10 draft picks, some of the guys in 20 are a little spicy, but it's just one opinion. What's funny is reading Wheeler's description of Johnston it's very glowing, said he voted for him as OHL player of the year and that it was a no brainer. He said he upgraded him from a middle 6 center to a top 6 center projection also. Keep in mind, I think Wheeler likes Johnston a whole lot, pretty sure he did a whole human interest piece on him right after the draft.

I don't think this is one of those situations where he isn't paying attention (would be impossible anyway). Maybe he's just lower on him than the guys ahead. I'm just happy to see four Stars prospects on a top 50. There was a whole ass decade where there would maybe be one guy on these types of lists, somewhere way near the back of the list. My biggest complaint is probably that the passage is so glowing, you really would like to see him list what limits Johnston from being higher up on his list. These lists are annoying to write, but I think they should come with a companion piece to talk about the order of certain guys, I think Johnston is one that deserves extra explanation, but the passages are mostly just the same scouting reports we've read multiple times.

One thing I like about Wheeler is he sticks to his guns. People are super triggered in the comments because he doesn't have Kaspar in his top 50 despite going 8th, he politely reminded them that he had Kaspar in the 20's on his own list, that no games had been played since, and that there's no reason to change his position. For contrast, I remember Pronman changing his Barrett Hayton ranking by quite a bit immediately after the draft, but it's looking more like that pick was as massive of a reach as it looked. At least Wheeler is steadfast in his rankings, they're unlikely to be hugely influenced by consensus.
 
I think Johnston at #32 is a joke, and I think what makes it more so is having Harley pretty close to him at #50. I like Harley and think he's a NHLer, but I'm not sure the separation between him and Johnston in this ranking makes any sense.

And I agree with @Captain Awesome that the picks in the 20s are spiciest ones and I dunno how you put alot of them ahead of Johnston.
 
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