Gniwder
Registered User
It's expensive in the US, not so much in Canada. If you want an example of a poor Canadian hockey player from BFE, you can start with Tootoo.What "poor kid" is actually playing hockey?
It's an incredibly expensive sport that automatically rules out a certain percentage of people anyways.
Still, even with his dad being a former NHL pro, you can still improve your skating at age 18 which has been shown over and over again
To me you look if the prospect has at least one thing he's really good at and then you decide if the other things are OK(or you think you can work on) to you or not.
And Perreault can put the puck in the net which is a really nice aspect to his game.
But like you've said, at #20 none of us(armchair scouts) knows which prospects will be around and there's even a good chance the team just takes someone completely different because that who they have on top of their list when the Kraken are on the clock.
None of the Canadian college guys I knew came from a rich background, their parents were school teachers and such. Maybe not Tootoo poor, but certainly not rich.
Anyways, back to the subject, watch Gabe's skating. The kids that improve drastically usually have technique flaws, bad mechanics, stance issues, or don't use their edges properly. Gabe doesn't have those issues, his legs are just slow.
Hockey is a faster game than when his dad played, but that isn't to say a slow player can't score. Jason Robertson is still slow but damn that kid is an absolute puck magnet. He has more size than Gabe but doesn't really utilize it much either, other than his reach. Robertson is the reason why I think a team takes a chance at Gabe before #20. Gabe could wind up being a better version of Hudler, I think that's the best comparison. Hudler was slow as molasses during winter in Calgary.