GDT: 2024 Rookie Tournament

[Xspyrit]

I saw jack squat from Boucher these last two games. The impression I get is that he has solid physical tools but zero IQ. He watches the play, standing still instead of anticipating things. He ends up not being where he needs to be, and the play dies. He's not skilled enough to make things happen on his own either. I don't see him producing any offense in the future. Very disappointing.

He's a glorified Gabriel Gagné with a lesser shot but more truculence

That always make me laugh when fans say that like they have the ability to predict the future

That is called projecting. Some people are even doing it professionally (scouts). I have done that amateurly for decades and used to make some coin with it by flipping hockey cards, money that I then invested in flipping houses.

It can be used in many other spheres of life. Not sure why you're laughing at something that has been happening for a very long time. It doesn't mean that BoC will be right on this specific projection but I am going to side with him here. IMO it would already take a miracle for Boucher to become a significant AHL player, or even just a NHL 4th liner

 

[HoweHullOrr]

Olwhonare our other …..

???

 

[HoweHullOrr]

I watched about half of this game.

It was difficult to figure out who the players were between looking the roster and seeing who was wearing what number, and just having one camera at a distance to cover the game.

I can’t say I saw any Ottawa players really standing out in a positive way although Halliday scored which was good.

 

[Xspyrit]

Dummy scouts keep wasting our high 2nds on guys ranked in the mid-3rd round

Just imagine how much rebuild potential this team has totally wasted with guys like Melnyk, Dorion, DJ Smith and these scouts. It's a crime against humanity (well, the Sens fanbase)

We might end up stringing a few good/decent years but we had the opportunity to build something special with just average competent people.

Haven’t you heard? New nhl isn’t about scoring or puck possession or skating it’s about being big and clearing your crease. Just look at the Florida panthers…who weren’t the biggest team in the league last ye…wait that can’t be right

But advanced stats are so dumb!

If you can’t see were the better team right now it’s cuz you clearly don’t watch hockey

 

[OD99]

Who are our other prospects?

You mentioned a few of our college guys already, but there are more. Some guys in Europe.

Not 1 true goalie prospect is here.

 

[Ouroboros]

Yes, the other teams are very lucky that the Sens didn't get to bring Oliver Johansson and Tyson Dyck.

 

[ChurchOfAlfie]

How has Djibril Toure looked?

 

[Cosmix]

I remember Islanders fans saying the same thing about a certain Zdeno Chara in his first training camp back in 1997 he turn out pretty good it take a lot longer for tall defenseman to develop he's still very young and very raw.


That always make me laugh when fans say that like they have the ability to predict the future

The best predictor of future performance is past performance; Boucher has not performed very well in the past (for a first round pick).

 

[RAFI BOMB]

It really depends on the specific coaching staff, but for the majority of teams, these games are viewed opposite of what you say. There have been coaches of other teams at previous prospect challenges where they are on record saying that they tell the kids to just go out and play. They get 2 days of camp before the games start and its mostly introductory stuff. No systems practice comes up yet.

These games are ALWAYS dominated by older AHL guys and can't miss top-5 draft picks. Its relevant for players fighting for a minor league contract but means very little compared to the players' work during the few weeks of training camp and the preseason games they get into.

Thanks for your perspective.

The impression I get with the Sens is that they seem to take a very different approach to the rookie tournament. Troy Mann mentioned it when he was the coach of the B Sens, and Dave Bell, who was his assistant coach and now the head coach of Belleville appears to be reiterating the same messaging. They both talked about throwing a ton of information at the prospects over 48 hours and that the prospects are expected to absorb and implement it. Both Bell and some of the players in the postgame talked specifically about systems play and the improvement they made from game 1 to game 2.

It does kind of seem like it is a lot to ask of prospects. To my knowledge they spend one day doing physical testing, which ends up being the physical testing for main training camp if they get to attend, then only one day of on ice practice before they play. Therefore some point after the physical testing is "48" hours worth of information to absorb and implement. I would assume a lot of that is systems play and some form of video footage.

Within the context of this roster and the current state of the organization: The new coaching staff has already devised a new system. Alfredsson made reference to that in a recent TSN1200 interview and how excited he was about that system. That means they have zero players who have played any games under the new system. Of the prospects at this tournament who played any meaningful stretch of games under the old system there would be Boucher, Halliday, D'Aoust and Pettersson. Even then they still haven't played a ton of games under that system. Hamara and Dorion have something like one or two games of AHL play each.

Some of the prospects and camp invites took part in the rookie tournament last year so they might be a little familiar but again not much experience either. Then with a large number of camp invites and recently drafted prospects (first time attendees of the Sens rookie tournament) they are just expected to figure it out right away.

I could see why other teams would do exactly like what you suggested because the approach that the Sens appear to be taking, while potentially beneficial in some ways, seems like it would be difficult to achieve positive results from.

 

[Cosmix]

Olwhonare our other prospects? Please don’t say stutzle and Sanderson


“Long term project that probably won’t work out” is not a good strategy

That "long term project that probably won't work out" is a clause that could apply to virtually all players taken in all rounds after round #1 in the draft. Even those taken in the last half of the 1st round don't have a high probability of becoming an NHL player.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

So did Yakemchuk play well in the 2nd game? Here I see people being positive about it, but on Reddit Sens fans seem more negative.

 

[Golden_Jet]

So did Yakemchuk play well in the 2nd game? Here I see people being positive about it, but on Reddit Sens fans seem more negative.

There is your issue, reading reddit lol.

 

[albator71]

The best predictor of future performance is past performance; Boucher has not performed very well in the past (for a first round pick).

It's hard to performed well when you're always injured, he's only 21 it would be unwise to give up on him, he can still turn it around. "Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind."

 

[BoardsofCanada]

How has Djibril Toure looked?

So did Yakemchuk play well in the 2nd game? Here I see people being positive about it, but on Reddit Sens fans seem more negative.

I rewatched the Jersey game on Youtube on my big screen TV and focused on our D. To be honest, I didn't think our guys did that bad. There were some grade A Devil's chances, but it also seemed like just about everything they shot went in on Simpson.

The two big guys, Toure and Eliasson used their reach and big bodies. The problem is, they don't move the puck fast enough, and we got trapped in our zone throughout the game. So what do you want: small fast Dmen that can zip around and move the puck out, or big, lumbering guys who won't get pushed around, will clear the crease, but struggle to move the puck?

Clearly the Sens are betting/hoping that our big guys will develop at least an adequate ability to move the puck. Small guys like Lane Hutson are magicians on the power play, but do you want a tiny guy like that defending against power forwards at the NHL level? It's a trade off for sure.

I thought Yakemchuk was far more involved in game 2. I might go so far and say he was second only to Halliday as the Sens best player.

On a side note: I was supposed to go down to Buffalo on Saturday and see the game live but backed out due to Covid symptoms. After watching the game yesterday, I;m glad I didn't go; don't think I really missed much.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

How has Djibril Toure looked?

Honestly he was by FAR the best d man in game 1 imo.

 

[Micklebot]

Yes, the other teams are very lucky that the Sens didn't get to bring Oliver Johansson and Tyson Dyck.

Merrilainen being hurt, and Kleven and Ostapchuk not there are the only guys that might have made a difference. I think they were all eligible, no?

 

[Ouroboros]

Merrilainen being hurt, and Kleven and Ostapchuk not there are the only guys that might have made a difference. I think they were all eligible, no?

I don't know what the exact eligibility to participate in this sort of thing is. For example, the Sabres brought Ryan Johnson who's 23 and played in 41 NHL games last season which seems a bit silly to me. So, yes, I would assume Kleven and Ostapchuk could have participated but the team elected to not bring them. That's probably not a unique thing, though - Columbus didn't bring David Jiricek or Stanislav Svozil even though they likely could have.

I'm just objecting to the idea that the Sens have been uniquely disadvantaged by the eligibility criteria. For starters, every team has to abide by the same rules. If you go by HF team prospect rankings the top player the Sens couldn't bring to this is Hoyt Stanley who was voted #13. The Devils are without Anton Silayev [#2], Arseni Gritsyuk [#4], Lenni Hameenaho [#5], Mikhail Yegorov [#7], Daniil Orlov [#9] and Daniil Karpovich [#10].

The majority of what we have in the system is here at this tournament, as sad as that sounds.

 

[Icelevel]

So did Yakemchuk play well in the 2nd game? Here I see people being positive about it, but on Reddit Sens fans seem more negative.

Yeah he was good. If he improves every year he could be amazing.

 

[Sens in Process]

Our prospect pool is bottom of the barrel for good reason. Wasting resources by trading away three 1sts, a 2nd and two 3rds between the 2022 to 2024 is going to diminish any prospect pool. The team has also had their fair share of early round misses with Boucher, Norberg and Pettersson. Like others have said, our European scouting, in particular, needs reworking.

The team has also managed to get guys like Halliday, Ostapchuk, Kleven, Soogard and Pinto after round 1 since 2019. That is not a bad haul. It could end up being a 60+ point 2nd line center, two top 9 forwards, a top four LD and a solid starting goalie. Maybe I am being optimistic, but there is reason for a positive spin on all these guys.

But people piling on Eliasson - come on! He is a raw kid with exceptional tools. I am not saying he will hit, but give him a couple years. The expectations are far too high for a first camp, especially when top ten picks like Parekh and Reinbacher are each struggling in their respective rookie tournaments.

 

[Micklebot]

I don't know what the exact eligibility to participate in this sort of thing is. For example, the Sabres brought Ryan Johnson who's 23 and played in 41 NHL games last season which seems a bit silly to me. So, yes, I would assume Kleven and Ostapchuk could have participated but the team elected to not bring them. That's probably not a unique thing, though - Columbus didn't bring David Jiricek or Stanislav Svozil even though they likely could have.

I'm just objecting to the idea that the Sens have been uniquely disadvantaged by the eligibility criteria. For starters, every team has to abide by the same rules. If you go by HF team prospect rankings the top player the Sens couldn't bring to this is Hoyt Stanley who was voted #13. The Devils are without Anton Silayev [#2], Arseni Gritsyuk [#4], Lenni Hameenaho [#5], Mikhail Yegorov [#7], Daniil Orlov [#9] and Daniil Karpovich [#10].

The majority of what we have in the system is here at this tournament, as sad as that sounds.

Well, Kleven(2), Ostapchuk(3), Merrilainen(6), Sogaard(5), Bourgault(10) and Crookshank(7) are all in the top 10 of our rankings and weren't there, Guenette was 11th, so I don't think it's accurate to say the majority of what we have in the system was there when more than half our top ten was not. Maybe Crookshank out of those guys didn't meet the eligibility criteria, but of the rest they all seem to line up with draft years of guys that were there. That's not to say or pool is great or that we were hard done by compared to other teams, just that we clearly chose who attended based on something other than making sure we had our best guys there.

Anyways, I wasn't trying to suggest we had a good pool or anything, just saying who in the system would have helped out had they been there, other teams also opted not to bring some guys, and some, like Clb as you mentioned, chose to bring guys you wouldn't expect.

 

[starling]

Haven't watched a single second of the Rookie tournament. This is a first for me in a long time.

Edit: oh wait it hasn't finished yet. So I still have a chance.

 

[Icelevel]

Haven't watched a single second of the Rookie tournament. This is a first for me in a long time.

Edit: oh wait it hasn't finished yet. So I still have a chance.

 

[Cosmix]

It's hard to performed well when you're always injured, he's only 21 it would be unwise to give up on him, he can still turn it around. "Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind."

 

[Cosmix]

Our prospect pool is bottom of the barrel for good reason. Wasting resources by trading away three 1sts, a 2nd and two 3rds between the 2022 to 2024 is going to diminish any prospect pool. The team has also had their fair share of early round misses with Boucher, Norberg and Pettersson. Like others have said, our European scouting, in particular, needs reworking.

The team has also managed to get guys like Halliday, Ostapchuk, Kleven, Soogard and Pinto after round 1 since 2019. That is not a bad haul. It could end up being a 60+ point 2nd line center, two top 9 forwards, a top four LD and a solid starting goalie. Maybe I am being optimistic, but there is reason for a positive spin on all these guys.

But people piling on Eliasson - come on! He is a raw kid with exceptional tools. I am not saying he will hit, but give him a couple years. The expectations are far too high for a first camp, especially when top ten picks like Parekh and Reinbacher are each struggling in their respective rookie tournaments.

I am not dumping on Eliasson; I hope he develops into a big, tough, physical defenceman at the NHL level for the Ottawa Senators! He is very young and was just drafted. My expectation is that it will take several years for him to develop into an NHL D'man.

 

[HSF]

People making to much of a prospect tournament. Yes we don't have a ton of prospects but that will change with better drafting

Lets see camp and the regular season