Prospect Info: 2023-24 Prospect Info (CHL, NCAA, Europe)

[The Merchant]

Common Meghan W. He's modeling his game after Nuke, look out

 

[The Pwnerer]

Thought this was cool, saw this on my social media feed. Rick Pracey killed us.

 

[henchman21]

Thought this was cool, saw this on my social media feed. Rick Pracey killed us.

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I'd say that aligns pretty well. Does the Isles dirty by just cutting off the 09 draft that alone has 1,527 games.

 

[VikingAv]

Thought this was cool, saw this on my social media feed. Rick Pracey killed us.

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I'm actually surprised the number is that high.... The four players with the majority of those games are Butcher, Bournival, Blandisi and Lindholm (might be overtaken by Åman next season)
The first three account for about 500 of those games, but they never played for the Avs, iirc.
Good grief, what an absolute shit-show

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I'm actually surprised the number is that high.... The four players with the majority of those games are Butcher, Bournival, Blandisi and Lindholm (might be overtaken by Åman next season)
The first three account for about 500 of those games, but they never played for the Avs, iirc.
Good grief, what an absolute shit-show

Taylor Makar will remedy this all by himself. You heard it here first...

 

[Chiarelli]

Thought this was cool, saw this on my social media feed. Rick Pracey killed us.

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This also doesn’t do justice to teams that draft goalies well beyond the first two rounds. Goalies won’t play as many games obviously and I would guess the most impactful players regularly drafted beyond the second round.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Probably why Billington got exiled but still need to create a functioning development system while the top 10 picks, money for UFAs and assets to trade for RFAs are lacking.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

Rick Pracey drafting the same character guy that had mediocre production over and over again sure paid off. He had one good draft and then the Avs just stopped paying attention to how shit he was

 

[S E P H]

Rick Pracey drafting the same character guy that had mediocre production over and over again sure paid off. He had one good draft and then the Avs just stopped paying attention to how shit he was

I was going to write here that Mitch Heard was the worst, but then I remembered about Bleackley (lol yikes). Both of them were just immense amounts of self-serving bias if I have ever seen it by Pracey. I don't know what type of talent someone saw with Heard because even if he's PPG power forward in the ECHL now, he should not have ever been a top 60 pick. Bleackley has more talent with all the Xavier LaFlemme IDGAF attitude, he's barely surviving as a depth forward in the ECHL. Just wow, how do you miss such a red flag as a Head Scout?

 

[0BGYN Kenobi]

I was going to write here that Mitch Heard was the worst, but then I remembered about Bleackley (lol yikes). Both of them were just immense amounts of self-serving bias if I have ever seen it by Pracey. I don't know what type of talent someone saw with Heard because even if he's PPG power forward in the ECHL now, he should not have ever been a top 60 pick. Bleackley has more talent with all the Xavier LaFlemme IDGAF attitude, he's barely surviving as a depth forward in the ECHL. Just wow, how do you miss such a red flag as a Head Scout?

There's a very fine margin with headcase "character guys". Most of the times, they're a Bleakley. But occasionally you get an O'Reilly, which entices clubs year after year to swing for the fences with their late firsts/early seconds.

The "character pick" from teams at the draft always screams "screw it, we'll do it live" after their top choices are already gone

 

[S E P H]

There's a very fine margin with headcase "character guys". Most of the times, they're a Bleakley. But occasionally you get an O'Reilly, which entices clubs year after year to swing for the fences with their late firsts/early seconds.

The "character pick" from teams at the draft always screams "screw it, we'll do it live" after their top choices are already gone

Bleackley had a good draft year in the WHL, he might have not had the offensive talent as ROR, but was quite the attention-to-detail player based on my reports. I don't think Avs were wrong to consider him a 1st round talent, but Pracey was all about character and it still begs the question of how somebody so off the mark was deemed by Pracey and Co. as a "character player." Forgive me as I cannot remember the poster's name, but he actually played with Connor in the Dub and he wrote on here that Bleackley told him "I got drafted as a 1st rounder without trying" (paraphrasing).

If that is true, which is looking more likely the case since he was stripped of captaincy the season after and can't even pass as a consistent ECHLer, there had to be writing on the wall that Rick missed. You don't randomly get the "C" taken away from you for basic trivial stuff, even if it happened in juniors. Even Roy was pissed when he came into training camp overweight, setting forth a bad image right off the bat. The majority of the time in my experience, character picks are players who are solid humans/teammates but lack talent, Bleackley was the opposite case. Their top choice should've been the Czech player a couple of picks afterwards, but that particular scouting staff was allergic to Europe.

 

[Ceremony]

I'm amazed Bleackley's still playing.

 

[Vaslof]

Did we hear back then who else the Avs were considering with that pick?

 

[RockLobster]

Did we hear back then who else the Avs were considering with that pick?

The Bleackley pick?

I thought Roy was pushing hard to trade it, was talking with Pittsburgh about Hornqvist, I thought.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

The Bleackley pick?

I thought Roy was pushing hard to trade it, was talking with Pittsburgh about Hornqvist, I thought.

The rumor was James Neal I thought.

 

[RockLobster]

The rumor was James Neal I thought.

That might have been it. Neal or Hornqvist, but regardless Roy was looking to trade the pick for NHL roster help.

 

[henchman21]

Yeah the rumor was Neal.

No other way to slice it, the Avs have sucked at drafting beyond the top 10 for a long time now. Maybe that is changing... there are some signs, but it is too early to tell. Drafting is an imperfect science and all teams go through ebbs and flows. IMO the two big things that have hurt the Avs is they pick too many players that are the antithesis of how they want to play... and they get fixated on specific types of players. The former are guys like Beaucage... he's got an incredible shot and decent brain, but the guy can't skate, doesn't play with pace, and doesn't have a high motor. That's a failure right from the very beginning. The latter, they get sucked into a type of player they really like like <6' centers with average skating, good at everything/great at nothing wings with bigger frames, etc.

Bleackley was an attitude/work ethic thing. Which is just kinda crazy given his rep prior to the draft.

 

[S E P H]

Bleackley was an attitude/work ethic thing. Which is just kinda crazy given his rep prior to the draft.

He should retire and try becoming a poker player, no joke.

 

[Gruyeriev]

Pracey is still a scout for the Flyers too.

 

[henchman21]

Pracey is still a scout for the Flyers too.

And the #1 reason Farabee and Konecny are both Flyers.


(Just ignore he's the reason for Frost and Ratcliffe too)

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

And the #1 reason Farabee and Konecny are both Flyers.


(Just ignore he's the reason for Frost and Ratcliffe too)

I think he's a decent scout, but I don't think he should be your head scout or the main decision maker.

 

[henchman21]

I think he's a decent scout, but I don't think he should be your head scout or the main decision maker.

I was just stating it in jest. I totally agree with that though. I think the same can really be said for a lot of scouts... takes a different skill set to run the show rather than just be a part of it.

 

[henchman21]

Back on topic... Buyalsky might have finally figured out this college hockey thing. Right before Christmas he started having a lot of impact on games. Skating and using his hands to creates chances. In a way, he followed Adrian's advice up in Vermont. He's figured out he's the best player on the team by a wide margin and is starting to play like it is his team. He's only got I think 3 goals on the season, but I just finished up tape on the BC and Merrimack games and he could have had 5-6 goals in those 4 games easily. All over the ice and dangerous everywhere... also setup a bunch of chances. I'm still skeptical of his actual prowess as a prospect, but some of the faint signs of his talent are growing and impacting the game.

He was, by a wide margin, the best player on the ice in those 4 games. Games that include 2 or 3 future NHLers on BC and maybe one on Merrimack.

 

[Gruyeriev]

I was just stating it in jest. I totally agree with that though. I think the same can really be said for a lot of scouts... takes a different skill set to run the show rather than just be a part of it.

I feel like in retrospect Pracey and Hepple were kind of similar on their types of players they liked. I kind of feel bad for Kipper considering he finally gets his chance to be head scout and the Avs are like here’s a 4th and a 7th. Make them count!

 

[henchman21]

I feel like I’m retrospect Pracey and Hepple were kind of similar on their types of players they liked. I kind of feel bad for Kipper considering he finally gets his chance to be head scout and the Avs are like here’s a 4th and a 7th. Make them count!

At least Kipper is doing the right thing and letting Funk have some heavy influence.