Time has also proven that rushing a prospect into the NHL isn't in their best interest. Look at Cholo, Zadina, Raz, and Elmer. Raymond regressed last season, and he can't seem to score without Larkin.
Lets be honest - Zadina, and Cholowski weren't that good to begin with - be it at the NHL, or the AHL level.
If you leave a gap to the point where the opponent has a high probability shot, then it's not gap control, lol. That called gap, not gap CONTROL. At some point you need to close that gap without getting burned. That's control. It's about leaving the right amount of space, leaving too much gap is definitely not control. Cholo never had gap control when he played for the Wings. Easy example is net front, there should be no gap. Cholo never touched anyone while wearing the WInged Wheel. (I saw him actually check someone in a Caps uniform, I was shocked. SHOCKED.)
He had no business playing in the NHL. Obviously the coaches agree with me.
Sending him down was a GM decision to give him more icetime. Overall I don't think we have rushed many prospects. Rasmussen was one, because of the stupid CHL rules.
It wasn't about ice time availability, Elmer wasn't ready. He started out on the third line, not the 4th.
www.hockey-reference.com
Doesn't change the fact that he was sent down mostly to get more icetime (he had 6 points the last 8 games and +5 so he wasn't struggling) and would have been called back up if he was healthy.It wasn't about ice time availability, Elmer wasn't ready. He started out on the third line, not the 4th.
Game 2: 16:47
Game 12: 9:39
Elmer Söderblom 2022-23 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com
Gamelogs for Elmer Söderblom for 2022-23
Remember, the Wings sucked last year. He could've had plenty of ice time if he deserved it, and taken it away from the 4th line from someone like Erne. Elmer's defensive zone play was atrocious (see first 12 games), and he needed to be sheltered with O zone starts (58.7%). Worse yet, he was setting his linemates to get Nielsened with his hot potato passes into traffic. Somebody would have gotten hurt eventually.
Raz should've stayed in GR until he fixed his skating but he had a hot start in GR in 20-21 and got called up. It's not a big deal because he was able to fix his skating while with the Wings and the team would have sucked anyways with or without him. But it's really rare for a player to improve their skating that drastically while in the NHL.
Oh I see where you're coming from. We agree on Cholo, this is just a semantics thing. More frequently than not, "gap control" is the term used to describe what you're talking about. There's good gap control and there's bad gap control, but it's all gap control. Sometimes the word "control" is dropped and it's just good gap or bad gap. You'll often see on scouting cards a category for gap control, and then a rating is assigned. Cholo had poor gap control for sure, 1 out of 10, would not draft
This. Sometimes prospects get called up with the GM already having decided he'll likely go back down. Getting a taste of the NHL and then going back to the A is often part of the development process and it can benefit the player.
He was struggling defensively, he was heavily sheltered before he got sent down. He does just fine with the puck in the O zone, but panics in the D zone. He needs to stay in GR until he displays the same puck confidence regardless of where he's on the ice. It looks to me like it's just a mental thing, he's shown the ability to shield the puck with his ridiculous reach.
To me you're not controlling something just because you have it. That goes with anything in life. I have a feral cat, so that's my take. I certainly don't control it. It does whatever the f it wants to do.Oh I see where you're coming from. We agree on Cholo, this is just a semantics thing. More frequently than not, "gap control" is the term used to describe what you're talking about. There's good gap control and there's bad gap control, but it's all gap control. Sometimes the word "control" is dropped and it's just good gap or bad gap. You'll often see on scouting cards a category for gap control, and then a rating is assigned. Cholo had poor gap control for sure, 1 out of 10, would not draft
That's a massive disconnect in the chronology of Elmer's season. He took a shot to the foot, that's the shortened game, played one more game on it then sat for a month as "day to day" before getting shipped to GR for conditioning. Came back to the Wings when somebody died, put up 6 points in 8 games and then got sent down when either Vrana/Bert/Zadina came off IR/PAP don't remember which one it was. Then never came back up as the Wings were pulling the ripcord on the season.
He probably bought a Cholo jersey, lol.I was early on the Cholo dislike train. One of the mods on wingingitinmotown deleted my posts if I said anything about Cholowski making mistakes and was threatened with a ban for saying anything about him that wasn't pumping his tires.
Not sure if you are saying anything different than I was. But the reason for sending him down was to make sure he got icetime (straight from Yzerman's mouth) and the reason he wasn't called back up was that he got injured and didn't play much post-TDL.
Sure, that's part of why he didn't get more icetime and was sent down. I don't view this as rushing a prospect at all. Söderblom got similar treatment in SHL until he figured it out and became a great player there.
The SHL is a lot closer to the AHL than it is to the NHL. Stevie has signed 2 SHL players, neither one worked out. Pontus actually scored fewer points in the AHL than the SHL.
I don't necessarily disagree, but in hockey lingo "gap control" is typically used as the catch-all, and then broken down into good or bad. I mean, you could say even with too much space between him and the forward, there is gap there, and he does have the ability to close it, so he has control and it's just bad control lol. Either way, if people back in the day were trying to say Cholo had good cap control, they should probably go enroll in a defenseman clinic.
Much like my cat analogy, I think the puck carrier had as much control over the gap as Cholo did. I swear my cat owns me. Plus closing a gap isn't really control, it's closing the gap and preventing the opponent from making a play. I mean almost every defensive play starts off with some sort of gap, aside from breakaways.
I was early on the Cholo dislike train. One of the mods on wingingitinmotown deleted my posts if I said anything about Cholowski making mistakes and was threatened with a ban for saying anything about him that wasn't pumping his tires.
His draft thread died before he made the team, but there's this gem:I was early on the Cholo dislike train. One of the mods on wingingitinmotown deleted my posts if I said anything about Cholowski making mistakes and was threatened with a ban for saying anything about him that wasn't pumping his tires.
His draft thread died before he made the team, but there's this gem:
Cholowski's Ceiling
I think Cholowski ends up a good all-around player, but his play in the offensive zone looks much better than the play in his own end at this point to me. He needs to get better at gapping up bigger/faster players. Not sure I see the IQ in his own end shining through just yet. I think he is...forums.hfboards.com
Want me to find you posts where I said we f***ed up trading away our pick and should have drafted Chychrun who turned out to be the much better player? And told everyone on here that said Chychrun was already maxed out physically and Cholo had more upside that they were dead wrong?His draft thread died before he made the team, but there's this gem:
Cholowski's Ceiling
I think Cholowski ends up a good all-around player, but his play in the offensive zone looks much better than the play in his own end at this point to me. He needs to get better at gapping up bigger/faster players. Not sure I see the IQ in his own end shining through just yet. I think he is...
