Let's not get out over our skis with this. I agree that I would take Klepov over Belchetz simply due to skill, hockey IQ and upside. I would take Belchetz over all the rest. You can't teach size and no matter what you say, he has a good shot. Also, I've seen lots of gritty playoff games won because there was a huge skilled dude standing in front of the goalie (that no one could move) waiting for a point shot to deflect or knock in a rebound while impeding the vision of the goaltender. Belchetz has PP1 written all over him. If he improves his skating throughout his college years, you could have a VERY good player
I do not agree that he has a good shot. A lot of his goals were either in close to the goalie or tip-ins. I think it's average. Not good, not bad - just average.
PP1, maybe - and I'm being generous with the "maybe"; I think he's PP2 at his absolute best. 5-on-5, he's a complete liability with his skating, and I don't think anything is going to make it even average; he's just too awkward at every aspect of skating. If we're all annoyed about
Dvorsky's skating, fate help us with Belchetz.
I would easily take all of the other players because they either have produced at higher levels or their upside is too high to ignore. I do not see that upside with Belchetz because I don't see a killer instinct (which he
should have as a big prospect, but he doesn't - a giant red flag), his skating is shit, and his biggest feature, his most defining quality is that...he's big. That's not a prospect; there's a smorgasbord of prospects who have failed or have disappointed that have had their biggest asset being that they're big.
Like what I mentioned, Logan Brown was a similar prospect, except he was a center. Belchetz isn't even a center; he's another left winger we don't need, middle-six at best, likely a third-liner like
@STL fan in MN succinctly stated. Problem with that is that we already
have tons of those. Novotny, Klepov, and Hermansson, at least, have actual top-six upside as wingers; I doubt Belchetz will ever see a healthy top-six, and our top/middle/bottom-six with left wingers (Holloway, Buchnevich, Suter, Neighbours, Stenberg, Walker, Toropchenko, Kaskimaki, Pekarcik, Stancl, Buchelnikov, Mrsic, Susuyev, Kos, Trudeau, Bordeleau, and Fyodorov) are
littered with so many other options.
I don't like Belchetz as a prospect at all. I think there are a multitude of others - and that's not even possibly mentioning Cullen or Command possibly being there; this draft isn't necessarily set in stone - even here at #15 in this draft scenario whom I think are much better prospects.
Think you are way under rating Belchetz. Logan brown lacked the giveashit gene.
Talking playstyles? Belchetz is a lot more Logan Brown than Tom Wilson - and let's not forget how highly Logan Brown was rated as a much better prospect at his time than Belchetz is at his current time. Yes, Brown was a center, which helped, but he and Belchetz, I feel after watching them both, are more similar than not.
