Intangir
Registered User
I agree.
Sam Harris has had some very strong showings this year against actual good teams in ND and Wisconsin. To put it plainly, Harris looks to be much improved from the last year and deserves a lot of praise for it. If he continues improving like that each year he could perhaps make the NHL one day.
But we have to admit that at the same time he's also getting some favorable deployment for arguably the best team in the NCAA and recent champions, which makes him look quite a bit better than he would look if he played for a team like Northeastern for example.
Then we start looking at Harris' tools in isolation, and it quickly becomes apparent that he doesn't have a single element to his game that projects to be more than "above-average" for the NHL barring drastic development.
I mean, I like Harris' dogged puck-pursuit and the way he manages to hold onto the puck even when challenged. He also has quite a bit of sandpaper to his game despite not having "+ size", which I like in a goalscorer. Harris' board play and work in front of the net are also definitely strong points of his at the NCAA level, and I overall like his Hockey IQ.
Playmaking-wise though I'm not Harris' biggest fan as I think he doesn't have the greatest sense of timing and placement for his passes, but he's also not Josh Anderson out there so there is at least that.
Then comes the problem of the team quality surrounding him, and how much Harris inflated his stats against weak programs like Anchorage, Yale, and Lindenwood to start the year and how it has skewed current perceptions of him.
I witnessed DU's two games against Yale in early November and it was a slaughter each time. I actually thought the scoreboard looked flattering for Yale, and that DU majorly took their collective feet off the pedal after getting a sizable lead in each game.
With less mercy to their opponents, I genuinely feel that Denver could have won each game by double-digits.
I mean, the out-of-shape, middle-aged beer-leaguer that I am could have suited as-is for Denver in those games and not looked too horrible out there. That's how much they dominated Yale.
So yeah, we should reserve judgment yet on Harris and be patient for a couple more years before we start making a big deal out of what he's doing in the NCAA, as you've said.
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