Prospect Info: 2023 WJC Thread

[Mr Bojanglez]

Nemec is more impressive than Cooley right now. Good to see

eh, yes and no. Cooley snake bitten. He reminds of of Jack Hughes in his sophmore year - you can see he's got the skill, just no fruits for his labor yet.

 

[Guadana]

I wish the Slovaks hit up Nemec for the one-timer more

I prefer his playmaking. I think Luke is more rover and good skating and shooting player. And I like Nemec playmaking much more. It will help for our future PP more.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Cooley tried to get fancy there while down 2.

Cooley has tried to get fancy every time he's touched the puck this entire tournament. It's almost infuriating at this point. USA needs to move him down the line-up and have a guy like McGroarty or Lucius center the top unit between Gauthier and Snuggerud.

 

[Guadana]

Nemec is more impressive than Cooley right now. Good to see

Gauthier is more impressive than Cooley. I believe someone did talk about it before the draft.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I wish the Slovaks hit up Nemec for the one-timer more

Nemec's shot is not his finest attribute. I'd rather set up Dvorsky for the one-timer if I'm Slovakia.

 

[Devs3cups]

Nemec's shot is not his finest attribute. I'd rather set up Dvorsky for the one-timer if I'm Slovakia.

Oh, that desire is purely selfish, not logical lol. I'd like him to get a few shots off.

 

[Devils090]

Big time kill by the US, need a quick one here

 

[StevenToddIves]

Gauthier is more impressive than Cooley. I believe someone did talk about it before the draft.

Agreed. In a 2022 re-draft, there's no way I take Cooley over Gauthier. I'm not sure I'd take Cooley in the top 10 right now, to be honest. The speed and skill are all obviously there, but I'm starting to question his in-game awareness and commitment to the team game. He seems to lack the ability to adjust and his handling of adversity has been troubling. He's been a negative factor for the Americans through 1 and 2/3 games despite playing alongside their two best Fs in Snuggerud and Gauthier.

Or: can you honestly watch Kulich play for the Czechs and Cooley for the Americans and say you'd rather have Cooley? Would you take him over Snuggerud or McGroarty today? I can't say these are certainties.

 

[Devils090]

Omg Luke what a move

 

[Devs3cups]

Holy crap what a play by Luke.

 

[Blender]

Luke pulling off the Jack moves in tight.

 

[Antiillafire]

Nemec is so good with his stick. How many times has he used it to take the puck from Cooley, Gauthier, Snuggerud, etc

 

[Devs3cups]

Nemec is so good with his stick. How many times has he used it to take the puck from Cooley, Gauthier, Snuggerud, etc

Yes. Just negated Gauthier there past the blue line. He's VERY efficient.

 

[FinnishDevil]

Luke and co getting goalie'd. He's a Devil for sure.

 

[Guadana]

I'm not going to disagree with @Guadana too much at this point with Carlsson v. Fantilli because it's close between these two for me right now, and there's a lot of hockey to be played before the draft. I'll say right now it's more a matter of "what type of center do you prefer?" than a clear-cut "who is better?"

If I was going to tier the top of the draft right now? It would be as such:

Tier One:
1. Conor Bedard

Tier Two:
2. Matvei Michkov

Tier Three:
There's a huge gap between Michkov and anyone else, so no one

Tier Four:
3. Adam Fantilli
4. Leo Carlsson

This is to say that, in my view, Bedard is generational. Michkov is borderline-generational. Fantilli and Carlsson are tremendous prospects, so no slight on them, they're just not at the stratospheric level of a Bedard or Michkov. Either of them quite possibly would have gone #1 overall in 2022, just to give you an idea of how strong the 2023 draft class is at the top.

I have them all as Tier 4. 1-4 Bedard, Carlsson, Michkov, Fantilli. Because I just can`t imagine who will translate better. WHo will compensate their weak sides, who will fix their weak side. Fantilli looks like he have weakest iq but greatest physical tools. Of course guy like scouching who placed Michkov somewhere in the middle of the first round is clearly trying to hate player and it put him in position... where he was. We can listen him, but he was never good in what he is trying to do. He likes something personally, he doesn`t like something personally and always trying to fix and change narrative without adapting it for nhl realities. Now we see how good Snuggerrud and Gauthier are and how low he was on them, how Slaf was picked by number one pick. And now how he put Mitchkov on 15th(or something like that) position after his first game in Sochi and on the next game 17-18 yo player scores goal and shotout. And he produced A LOT in VHL before.
I`m trying to not be so scouching and biased and understand that Michkov is great and smart but he isn`t as good in two way game as Carlsson, not as physical. On the other hand Mitchov can turn the moment like he want.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

I wish Slovakia would just put Nemec with those forwards on the second unit. Dvorsky and the other forwards look so much better on the powerplay than Mesar (really frustrating on the pp) and the other forwards Nemec has. And Nemec’s clearly much better than the other D running that powerplay.

 

[Devils090]

Cooley can’t buy one right now

 

[Guttersniped]

I`m fan of underdog stories all the time. It is painful often.

Try rooting for Latvia lol. I still can’t believe they actually won against the Czechs in August though, if only fans were there.

 

[Devils090]

This goalie sucks

 

[Blender]

Poor Hughes deflects the 5th goal into his own net.

Blackwood level rebound.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

This goalie sucks

Wasn’t on the goalie. He mad the save and then it deflected of Luke and in

 

[Devs3cups]

Not a bad hustle by Hughes, puck bounced off of him and goes in. You'd like a save at some point though.

 

[RSeen]

Not a bad hustle by Hughes, puck bounced off of him and goes in. You'd like a save at some point though.

Luke also probably should have been back and not allowed the breakaway to occur.

 

[Guadana]

Agreed. In a 2022 re-draft, there's no way I take Cooley over Gauthier. I'm not sure I'd take Cooley in the top 10 right now, to be honest. The speed and skill are all obviously there, but I'm starting to question his in-game awareness and commitment to the team game. He seems to lack the ability to adjust and his handling of adversity has been troubling. He's been a negative factor for the Americans through 1 and 2/3 games despite playing alongside their two best Fs in Snuggerud and Gauthier.

Or: can you honestly watch Kulich play for the Czechs and Cooley for the Americans and say you'd rather have Cooley? Would you take him over Snuggerud or McGroarty today? I can't say these are certainties.

Nothing changed for me from draft days, I liked Gauthier more.

Look at what was happened right now. Hughes made it all and Cooley... and after they missed. Hughes could play better but he tryied to catch from the back.

I cant say Cooley wasn`t in my top-10. But like I said before "as a Devils fan I would not draft Cooley and prefer different players on the draft in any moment on the draft". As a GM of any team in Vacuum I would draft him in top-10, as a Devils GM I would prefer to draft other players.

I need to watch more Czech games before saying Kulich is better\on the level with Cooley.

 

[Devs3cups]

Luke also probably should have been back and not allowed the breakaway to occur.

Most likely yeah. US D are playing lower in the zone down 2, but still.