Then you suck at drafting if you just go for junior superstars, which is, in my mind the issue with a lot of picks we did. No drafting guys that transfer that well. Development is one element that might be the issue but there needs to be something that can be developed.
He might become what I hoped Jacob Perrault will become - hopefully!
Junior superstars tend to go top-10. Those prospects have fewer flaws in their games and can usually overcome bad development teams, kinda like an honor roll student stuck with a bad teacher will always succeed. It's the fringe students who suffer with the bad teacher.
Late 1st/early 2nd round selections Tracey (2019), Perreault (2020), and Zellweger (2021) were not junior superstars. Tracey and Zellweger were late blooming, high risk/high reward picks. Perreault possessed top-10 offensive skill, but lacked motor to play defense. For some fans, we missed out on Kaliyev the year before and Perreault was the Kaliyev version for the 2020 draft.
Jacob Perreault had flaws in his draft season, which is why he fell to 27th overall. To compound matters, COVID shut down the OHL and Perreault had to develop at the AHL level as an 18-year old from then on. It wasn't all bad, though...
- D+1, AHL: (GM Murray, HC Dineen)
- Record: 26-17-1-0 (0.602)
Finished: 3rd/7 in Pacific (No playoffs due to COVID)
- 27 games, 17 pts (0.63 ppg), and -11 (He's 18 yrs old here and OHL was shutdown.)
- D+2, AHL: (GM Murray, HC Bouchard)
- Record: 28-33-4-3 (0.463)
Finished: 7th/9 in Pacific (Playoffs)
- 55 games, 37 pts (0.67 ppg), and -6 (Called up for one NHL game)
- D+3, AHL: (GM Verbeek, HC Sommer)
- Record: 20-49-2-1 (0.453)
Finished: 10th/10 in Pacific (last place)
- 48 games, 19 pts (0.40 ppg), and -16
- D+4, AHL: (GM Verbeek, HC McIlvane)
- Record: 20-25-8-0 (0.453)
Finished: Currently 9th/10 in Pacific
- 37 games, 18 pts (0.58 ppg), and -1
Under the Verbeek regime, Perreault's game stopped progressing. The same thing happened with Tracey; saw progress under Murray, but dropped under Verbeek. The Gulls have been languishing at the bottom for the past two seasons due to the roster in San Diego has been piss poor and the coaching isn't up to par as well.
As for Sidorov, my he looks great scoring! His comp isn't Perreault. His comp is more similar Pastujov. Both are dynamic scorers, but both fell in the draft because of their lack of skating and not motor. (
Sidorov got passed over in his draft eligible year.) Pastujov has had a couple of flashes this year, which included a hat trick, iirc. But both could also falter if Verbeek doesn't set up the team for success with respect to the roster and coaching.
