Prospect Info: 2024-25 Prospect Info (CHL, NCAA, Europe)

[BaconNater]

Went to a college game tonight. Found out there's a rule where teams can challenge a play that's not even called a penalty and look for head contact. It happened like 40 seconds before the whistle, turns out they found head contact which we couldn't see on the video replay board and had to wait like 5 minutes for the review. Did not like that at all

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Anybody has any info on how Taylor Makar is doing this season? He seems to have taken quite a few steps forward going by stats alone.
13G and 10A for 23 Pts in 27 games (.85 Pts/GM) for a very good U of Maine team and +17 to go along with that.

What line is he playing on? LW, RW or C? How is he playing defensively?

 

[dahrougem2]

Anybody has any info on how Taylor Makar is doing this season? He seems to have taken quite a few steps forward going by stats alone.
13G and 10A for 23 Pts in 27 games (.85 Pts/GM) for a very good U of Maine team and +17 to go along with that.

What line is he playing on? LW, RW or C? How is he playing defensively?

It's his 4th year of NCAA hockey, I would hope he could put these numbers up.

He likely becomes a career AHLer. Minimal upside here.

 

[McMetal]

It's his 4th year of NCAA hockey, I would hope he could put these numbers up.

He likely becomes a career AHLer. Minimal upside here.

Yep. Maybe one day he'll get a couple games in the NHL on the 4th line with his big bro just for the good feels, but there's no NHL upside there. Cale took all the good hockey genes before he could get there.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

It's his 4th year of NCAA hockey, I would hope he could put these numbers up.

He likely becomes a career AHLer. Minimal upside here.

Holy crap I forgot he was already in his 4th year. Time flies.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I'm not suggesting Makar is gonna turn into some beast for us... But let's not forget where a guy like LOC came from for us.

21 points in 43 games his last year of college before joining the Avs. Now, I don't think it was his 4th year. But still, not much production but the right mentality and a constant engine got him where he is.


Who knows where Makar ends up for us. But just given his last name you can guarantee he's going to get a decent look for us in the next couple of years. He'll for sure get a 10-15 game run at some point and then we'll see what he can do with it.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I'm not suggesting Makar is gonna turn into some beast for us... But let's not forget where a guy like LOC came from for us.

21 points in 43 games his last year of college before joining the Avs. Now, I don't think it was his 4th year. But still, not much production but the right mentality and a constant engine got him where he is.


Who knows where Makar ends up for us. But just given his last name you can guarantee he's going to get a decent look for us in the next couple of years. He'll for sure get a 10-15 game run at some point and then we'll see what he can do with it.

Agree. We have said many times that development is not linear and certainly not the same for everybody. Some are more late bloomers. I recall Hench mentioning a couple of times that Taylor was a bit hard to coach and not disciplined due to bad temper. Maybe changing school was the best thing that happened to him or maybe Cale had a talk with him and the light went on and he is finally unlocking some hidden potential. It might be interesting to find out.

He does have size, speed, and he must have some skills to be able to produce at a .85 pts/gm at the NCAA level even if it is his 4th year. I know +/- is a bad stat but he is still +17 in 27 games so he must be doing something right defensively as well. Size, speed and a very good 200-ft game are attributes that can translate well to bottom line at the NHL level so who knows what he can become.

I do agree as well that he will be given a good look at least at the AHL level. I don't know if he will get as many games as you say but if I was a betting man I would certainly bet on at least one so he can say he played in the NHL. With that said I hope that if he eventually sticks on the big club it is because he deserves it on his own and not because of his brother. I am rooting for him. I love me some 6'3" speedy, physical bottom line players.

 

[LTCPain75]

 

[AllAboutAvs]

It looks like his nice .85 pts/game might be just due to a hot streak. It will most likely regress some.

 

[dahrougem2]

Makar turns 24 years old next month.

When Logan O'Connor was in his 23/24 year old season, he had made the Avalanche full time in 2020-2021.

There is no comparison here.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Makar turns 24 years old in a month.

I would certainly hope he could score some goals in NCAA as a 23/24 year old.

This is nothing special at all.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

Makar turns 24 years old in a month.

I would certainly hope he could score some goals in NCAA as a 23/24 year old.

This is nothing special at all.

I'm willing to let the Avs play him as the 13th forward if it measn better Makar sticks around.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Although I do not have high expectations of Makar call me crazy but I'll wait another year or two before giving up on him.

 

[S E P H]

I'm starting to get nervous about Ritchie, too. After all, we've all seen this story unfold a thousand times: dominant at lower levels, barely competent in the NHL. There's something about the Avs scouts where they can identify talent, but they can't really manage to identify traits that will translate to the NHL. Newhook's skating looked awesome when he was drafted, it wasn't until he made it to the NHL that it became clear that he didn't have the separation ability to give himself space to make use of his offensive gifts.

And for both of them, henchy took a lot of grief for sounding the alarm bells about their skating early on when they were darlings on here. And as always, he was right. And before he disappeared, he started to get critical of Ritchie as well...

I don't know, maybe it's just PTSD from prospect watching for the last 10 years and seeing so many players I liked turn into duds. But I'm getting a sinking feeling about Ritchie lately. I'm kind of hoping we trade him at peak value at the deadline to get a real NHL ready 2C for this year, then I won't have to worry so much about whether he's actually a bust.

The biggest example of what you described here is Alexis Lafreniere. Never really took a big jump from -1 year to draft year, only scoring seven more points between both, even if he was a 100+ point player during those seasons. OHL has a lot better overall structure, especially defensively over the LHJMQ, but the OHL has been a lot weaker the past 3-4 years compared to where I saw it during Matthew Tkachuk's draft class. Ritchie had 80 points last year and he's on pace for 90 points this year, which isn't a huge step up akin to Lafreniere. But again, we saw during the season he didn't have issues offensively except for overpassing and I think that's just going to be a trait that will stick with him. Defensively he was a mess, but that is definitely teachable through video and trial-and-error rather than a lack of talent.

 

[S E P H]

I'm not suggesting Makar is gonna turn into some beast for us... But let's not forget where a guy like LOC came from for us.

21 points in 43 games his last year of college before joining the Avs. Now, I don't think it was his 4th year. But still, not much production but the right mentality and a constant engine got him where he is.


Who knows where Makar ends up for us. But just given his last name you can guarantee he's going to get a decent look for us in the next couple of years. He'll for sure get a 10-15 game run at some point and then we'll see what he can do with it.

I agree with this, Taylor obviously won't be a top three-line player, but if he's able to transform his game, who says he can't be a 4th line version of LOC? It's up to him to make that happen though.