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Prospect Info: 2025 Draft discussion

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HandshakeLine said:
I feel like every time some scout says a player has bad skating, they always look fine when you look at an aggregate. Nothing scientific here or anything, but I don't think I've seen a prospect whose skating has legitimately kept them from the NHL in a long time-- it's usually something else + not elite skating.
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I think overall - skating has gotten a lot better where there’s very few truly bad skaters having enough early success to be on draft radars in major junior or the NCAA.

But I do think the NHL is getting so good where it’s fair to pick at a guy with mid skating. It’s probably not the sole reason they could bust but the half second he loses bc he can’t escape defenders or get to loose pucks may be the difference in him playing 400 games vs 50 games in the NHL. Or maybe being a 3rd liner instead of a 1st liner. I think Poulin is a great example of a guy who could carry the puck his whole life, win battles, and kinda do what he wanted and have the puck a lot. Moment he gets to the NHL he doesn’t have the extra gear to play that way and doesn’t have another elite tool to fall back on.

That said: Fernstrom doesn’t seem uber reliant on winning with 1v1 play or having the puck on his stick from the little I’ve seen and seems to understand his limitations (good at finding space without the puck) so im not very worried about his skating.
 
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CheckingLineCenter said:
I think overall - skating has gotten a lot better where there’s very few truly bad skaters having enough early success to be on draft radars in major junior or the NCAA.

But I do think the NHL is getting so good where it’s fair to pick at a guy with mid skating. It’s probably not the sole reason they could bust but the half second he loses bc he can’t escape defenders or get to loose pucks may be the difference in him playing 400 games vs 50 games in the NHL. Or maybe being a 3rd liner instead of a 1st liner. I think Poulin is a great example of a guy who could carry the puck his whole life, win battles, and kinda do what he wanted and have the puck a lot. Moment he gets to the NHL he doesn’t have the extra gear to play that way and doesn’t have another elite tool to fall back on.

That said: Fernstrom doesn’t seem uber reliant on winning with 1v1 play or having the puck on his stick from the little I’ve seen and seems to understand his limitations (good at finding space without the puck) so im not very worried about his skating.
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Yeah I think that's the real killer with Poulin. There was an article when Puljujarvi got waived about how Puljujarvi's issue is that he's not versatile and doesn't offer anything special to solidify himself a lineup spot, despite being a good 5v5 player overall. Poulin's an even more extreme example of that, he's such a "jack of all trades" player that it's not really obvious what purpose he'd be filling at the NHL level.

He could be a bottom-6 defensive center, but you probably have guys who are better defensively than him. He can be a PP net front guy, but you probably have guys who are better net front guys than him. He can be a complementary piece on a scoring line, but you probably have more talented or more physical guys than him that can fill more specific roles (like sniper, puck retriever, net front guy and whatnot).

I don't know that having that extra step would really help him much, but I think it's very evident why Poulin hasn't and likely won't work out as a NHLer.
 
Empoleon8771 said:
Yeah I think that's the real killer with Poulin. There was an article when Puljujarvi got waived about how Puljujarvi's issue is that he's not versatile and doesn't offer anything special to solidify himself a lineup spot, despite being a good 5v5 player overall. Poulin's an even more extreme example of that, he's such a "jack of all trades" player that it's not really obvious what purpose he'd be filling at the NHL level.

He could be a bottom-6 defensive center, but you probably have guys who are better defensively than him. He can be a PP net front guy, but you probably have guys who are better net front guys than him. He can be a complementary piece on a scoring line, but you probably have more talented or more physical guys than him that can fill more specific roles (like sniper, puck retriever, net front guy and whatnot).

I don't know that having that extra step would really help him much, but I think it's very evident why Poulin hasn't and likely won't work out as a NHLer.
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Mike Sullivan is his coach?
 
SEALBound said:
I was just about to point out that a 3rd round pick with a quality shot with skating questions is merely Legare. Hopefully it works out better for him.
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isnt the difference having two good nhl projectable traits? i think legare was a big enough guy who tried hard but didnt really have plus hockey iq or anything, it really was just the shot?
 
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