Prospect Info: Alex DeBrincat - 2016 39th Overall (RW) /// UPDATE 11/7: signed to 3-yr ELC

[NOA]

With this thin weak forward roster I will not be surprised if he does...

he is 5'7 170
chicago would be wise to at least start him at AHL. he doesnt need to be rushed. could learn alot more in his game or he will get beaten up by nhlers and lose confidence.
unless he comes out dominating in camp (which he is capable of but not likely) then he will at least start ahl

i know his stats have u fans drooling and they should to an extent. but he is still a 2nd rounder that is undersized. i dont see the harm in having him go AHL for next season. if he plays full time in the NHL next year, he will be playing top 6 mins. cant see him doing that yet. hes not Marner or McDavid or Matthews. and isnt capable of playing a grinding 3/4 line role. if he does make the team next year it will be top 6 min and if thats the case, it means he is doing good things and Chicago could have gotten a HUGE steal
but be patient

and yes i thought he was rough yesterday for his standards. strome looked great. his weaving too much play late in the 2nd forced his line to stay out on the ice far too long and led to seattle tying it at 2 with 50 secs left in 2nd. sometimes he tries to do too much with the puck. either by weaving or making errant unneeded passes because he is looking for quick strike goals all the time. sometimes you just have to bite it, dump it deep, and take the line change. i dont blame him for wanting to do stuff and score but at this stage of play at this tourney, you need to be smarter and understand the situation. strome has been much better at his attention to detail in things like this since about round 3. i wish debrincat would follow.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

No matter how he plays or looks on the ice
he is still able to score goals and points,that tell's it all,
the whole story,nothing but.

Brinksy is a natural born ice hockey player with relative
hockey IQ of Albert Einstein,can't teach that,
you either have it or don't.

Also he works really hard for his goal,which is
to play in the NHL,its not like he is some egoist,
who thinks he is the best in the world and who
doesn't need to practice to be the best.

No matter what he does,doesn't do,score goals,doesn't
score goals,play awesome,doesn't...doubters still doubt,
wheather it his height,his skating,people still doubt.
I suppose its just,because its only the juniors,but...
some players just are good and will do good,
no matter of the level of hockey and Brinksy just
is one of those players.

Scoring goals,points isn't all he can do,if anyone
who has followed him this season,partically this,has noticed this,
his coaches certainly has; his own end game has improved tons,
yes, he doesn't play well in every game,yeah...but no one does,
we all make mistakes every now and then,no biggie.

Also, he is still very usable at face-offs.

 

[Blackhawks]

he is 5'7 170
chicago would be wise to at least start him at AHL. he doesnt need to be rushed. could learn alot more in his game or he will get beaten up by nhlers and lose confidence.
unless he comes out dominating in camp (which he is capable of but not likely) then he will at least start ahl

i know his stats have u fans drooling and they should to an extent. but he is still a 2nd rounder that is undersized. i dont see the harm in having him go AHL for next season. if he plays full time in the NHL next year, he will be playing top 6 mins. cant see him doing that yet. hes not Marner or McDavid or Matthews. and isnt capable of playing a grinding 3/4 line role. if he does make the team next year it will be top 6 min and if thats the case, it means he is doing good things and Chicago could have gotten a HUGE steal
but be patient

and yes i thought he was rough yesterday for his standards. strome looked great. his weaving too much play late in the 2nd forced his line to stay out on the ice far too long and led to seattle tying it at 2 with 50 secs left in 2nd. sometimes he tries to do too much with the puck. either by weaving or making errant unneeded passes because he is looking for quick strike goals all the time. sometimes you just have to bite it, dump it deep, and take the line change. i dont blame him for wanting to do stuff and score but at this stage of play at this tourney, you need to be smarter and understand the situation. strome has been much better at his attention to detail in things like this since about round 3. i wish debrincat would follow.

I am not drooling and I am not even a fan of him being in the roster next year unless he is beefed up and his foot speed is up to the game. I am just mentioning with the pathetic roster that we have at hand after SB completely destroying this team he might be rushed in like Shmaltz was this year or others...

 

[JaegerDice]

I frankly dont think people are excited enough personally. I think a few people are letting outdated thinking and reservations over size get in the way of their excitement for just how damn gifted this kid is.

He should absolutely get a look in the top six of the Blackhawks roster. He'd be worth a look in the nhl on most any roster. If he cant keep up with the pace as far as skating or decision making, then send him back down.

He's been an elite producer at every single level, regardless of where or who he's playing with. The idea he's going to magically fall off some kind of cliff going to the nhl, whens hes been embarassing players bigger than himself his entire career makes little sense.

My only concern is the coaching staff going full r***** and making him 'earn' his way into the top 6 by playing with grinders in the botyom 6.

 

[BK]

I am not drooling and I am not even a fan of him being in the roster next year unless he is beefed up and his foot speed is up to the game. I am just mentioning with the pathetic roster that we have at hand after SB completely destroying this team he might be rushed in like Shmaltz was this year or others...

How many pathetic rosters finish with the top record in the Western Conference exactly? There is work to do for sure but calling this roster pathetic is so amazingly uninformed but again who is shocked that you posted it (jumping to extremes because you either don't have a clue or you are trying to exaggerate to make your point which makes little sense in this situation) . Pathetic rosters miss the playoffs and this team was no where close to that. Try to know less honestly.

 

[BK]

I frankly dont think people are excited enough personally. I think a few people are letting outdated thinking and reservations over size get in the way of their excitement for just how damn gifted this kid is.

He should absolutely get a look in the top six of the Blackhawks roster. He'd be worth a look in the nhl on most any roster. If he cant keep up with the pace as far as skating or decision making, then send him back down.

He's been an elite producer at every single level, regardless of where or who he's playing with. The idea he's going to magically fall off some kind of cliff going to the nhl, whens hes been embarassing players bigger than himself his entire career makes little sense.

My only concern is the coaching staff going full r***** and making him 'earn' his way into the top 6 by playing with grinders in the botyom 6.

Size is not everything but when you are talking about more of an extreme like this it does have an impact. 5'7" is really small and he does not have elite quickness. This is not a Patrick Kane small where talent takes over. I am excited but until the NHL is turned into roller hockey, size will matter.

 

[TheSting]

Can he play and put points up should be all that matters. Remember Bickell and his 6 foot 200plus pound frame with the heart of Bambi?

Andrew Shaw and his 179 pound frame can be considered undersized as well in todays "bigger is better" NHL but that guy became a key member of the Bhawks cup runs.

 

[LDF]

re size... this is where i will chime in. i was very apprehensive on this selection. i kept on reading many posters opinions on him, in a positive way. i will tell you the truth, i too started to believe he may be the exception to the rule on size.

i still will keep an open mind on him until he reports to training camp. it is only there where people questions will be answer.

bottom line, his ability to score really do not come around alot, so i am still excited that he is a hawks prospect.

 

[BK]

Can he play and put points up should be all that matters. Remember Bickell and his 6 foot 200plus pound frame with the heart of Bambi?

Andrew Shaw and his 179 pound frame can be considered undersized as well in todays "bigger is better" NHL but that guy became a key member of the Bhawks cup runs.

Or Bickell has MS...

 

[BobbyJet]

Size is not everything but when you are talking about more of an extreme like this it does have an impact. 5'7" is really small and he does not have elite quickness. This is not a Patrick Kane small where talent takes over. I am excited but until the NHL is turned into roller hockey, size will matter.

Yep. From what I've read of this guy, he could be another Dale Derkatch. Some old timers may remember him. In Junior he was supposed to be the next coming but was drafted late and ended up not playing a single NHL game - despite lighting it up everywhere he played. He ended up in Germany.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=19605

 

[Blackhawks]

How many pathetic rosters finish with the top record in the Western Conference exactly? There is work to do for sure but calling this roster pathetic is so amazingly uninformed but again who is shocked that you posted it (jumping to extremes because you either don't have a clue or you are trying to exaggerate to make your point which makes little sense in this situation) . Pathetic rosters miss the playoffs and this team was no where close to that. Try to know less honestly.

What you should really be asking your self Mr. Expert is how many first place teams have gotten swept by the 8th seed? Hawks were the first team in NHL & NBA history to do so. Pathetic!

 

[BobbyJet]

What you should really be asking your self Mr. Expert is how many first place teams have gotten swept by the 8th seed? Hawks were the first team in NHL & NBA history to do so. Pathetic!

It certainly was. Who gives a rat's ass about winning the division. Folks around here love to diss other teams that do well in the RS and choke in the PO's. Well, don't look now but that describes this current Hawk team.... and it was no ordinary choke either.

 

[LDF]

It certainly was. Who gives a rat's ass about winning the division. Folks around here love to diss other teams that do well in the RS and choke in the PO's. Well, don't look now but that describes this current Hawk team.... and it was no ordinary choke either.

yeah i kinda of agree with this point. i remember getting crucified over an open pit for saying, who care about the season, the hawks will make the playoff. the time to make some trades and bring him new bodies was in december.

either way, while the debate that is going on, i didn't want to jump in. i was saving this point if nash made it to the finals. how many teams has nash beaten ??? that is the only way i can salvage the season being a lost.

 

[BK]

What you should really be asking your self Mr. Expert is how many first place teams have gotten swept by the 8th seed? Hawks were the first team in NHL & NBA history to do so. Pathetic!

That is not what we are talking about though. You said the roster was pathetic and it is not. It does not take an expert to figure that out so even you should have been able to figure that out. What was pathetic was the players and coaches performance in the series against Nashville. Understand the difference.

The Hawks came out and played like **** and the Preds played well. If the Hawks come out and play like they had shown they could during the season it is much different situation.

 

[BK]

Yep. From what I've read of this guy, he could be another Dale Derkatch. Some old timers may remember him. In Junior he was supposed to be the next coming but was drafted late and ended up not playing a single NHL game - despite lighting it up everywhere he played. He ended up in Germany.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=19605

He could but what he has going for him is his compete and his elite ability to read the game/be in the right spot. It is on him but his size hurts him.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

The game has never been easier for smaller guys to stick. This isn't the 90's where you could play mountainous pylons that would just bulldoze guys in the slot with impunity.

 

[BobbyJet]

He could but what he has going for him is his compete and his elite ability to read the game/be in the right spot. It is on him but his size hurts him.

Natural goal scorers are precious. Here's hoping Hawks have one in DeBrincat.

 

[BK]

Natural goal scorers are precious. Here's hoping Hawks have one in DeBrincat.

Yep and people are forgetting AP is one as well so they are under valuing him.

 

[BobbyJet]

Yep and people are forgetting AP is one as well so they are under valuing him.

Watching AP in the WC I see a different (and better) player then we have witnessed lately in Chicago. Has playing with Kane made him somewhat of a one trick pony? I think that has some fans undervaluing him.

 

[Blackhawks]

That is not what we are talking about though. You said the roster was pathetic and it is not. It does not take an expert to figure that out so even you should have been able to figure that out. What was pathetic was the players and coaches performance in the series against Nashville. Understand the difference.

The Hawks came out and played like **** and the Preds played well. If the Hawks come out and play like they had shown they could during the season it is much different situation.

Yes the roster is pathetic and it's not built for playoff hockey and this the outcome, how can you disassociate the performance when it counts most from the product? Let's just blame this loss on "they played like ****", get real bud! The experts in here are so "experty" lol

 

[JaegerDice]

LOL, this roster is not pathetic. Give your heads a shake.

It has one glaring significant issue sending domino effects through the lineup, both offensively and defensively. The defense is not mobile enough.

But that problem can be fixed by changing 1 or 2 players. Yes, easier said than done in a cap world, but an entire roster is not made 'pathetic' on the basis of one glaring flaw. If anything, the roster proved stronger up front than most people predicted before the season started. They just got kneecapped in the playoffs because the D pushing the puck up the ice to them couldn't keep up with the playoff pace (or the opposition).

You bring in and move out the one or two pieces, and the right pieces can fit into the right places fairly quickly. Look at the turn around between the 1st round exit of 2012 and the team that blitzed the league in 2013. There wasn't any massive trade or free agent acquisition. A rookie got into the lineup thanks to injury, some rookies had matured after getting an NHL workload the previous 2 seasons, a new D man was added late and his pair was given new deployment duties.... suddenly arguably the WORST roster in the Kane/Toews era is the most dominant of the Kane/Toews era.

The flaw is big, and as a result the gap is large between the Blackhawks and the Preds. But it's a relatively singular flaw, and as such, it's only one fix away from being a contender again.



And it wasn't a choke job in the slightest. A choke is when the team with the distinct advantage coughs up that advantage and/or a significantly better team loses to a weaker team.

The Blackhawks lost to a better team. Nashville was a superior team in all the numbers that actually matter for the entire season save one 25-game stretch.



Stop fixating on seeding. That goes for both where Chicago landed (1st in the west doesn't mean they're amazing), and where Nashville landed(8th in the west doesn't make them underdogs). A lot of **** happens over the course of a season in a parity league that can skew where you land in the standings.

Disproportionate luck in 1-goal games, particularly EN scenarios, disproportionate luck in 3v3, disproportionate luck in SOs - those were the differences between the Blackhawks being 1st and the Predators being 8th. You take those out of the equation and look at actual 5v5 hockey with goalies in the net, the difference in goal diff was +4 for CHI... and that's with Nashville playing without Subban for a big chunk of the season AND Rinne putting up something like .909 SV% for the firs half of the season. When you look at the actual, meaningful, sustainable metrics of performance, this wasn't a real 1seed or a real 8seed. It was probably closer to a 4/5 matchup.

The Blackhawks themselves have carved up teams seeded above them in all their deep playoff runs save 2013. We of all people should know just how little where a team lands in the standings means as a legitimate performance metric or predictive measure.

/rant

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Yes the roster is pathetic and it's not built for playoff hockey and this the outcome, how can you disassociate the performance when it counts most from the product? Let's just blame this loss on "they played like ****", get real bud! The experts in here are so "experty" lol

Has someone here claimed to be an expert?

 

[JaegerDice]

Watching AP in the WC I see a different (and better) player then we have witnessed lately in Chicago. Has playing with Kane made him somewhat of a one trick pony? I think that has some fans undervaluing him.

He's played the bulk of his career on larger ice, it makes sense he'd take back to it like a fish to water.


But I do think Panarin's play regressed from his 1st season this year. He was much less active and aggressive, he seemed to spend the bulk of his shifts idling around the circles waiting for Kane to feed him the one-timer.

And he DOES have a great one-timer, but in his first year, he and Kane were basically playing 'anything you can do, I can do better' every shift. This season he seemed more passive, like 'Kane and Anisimov can handle it, I'll just wait here for the puck'.


Also, to my eye, Kucherov looks like the guy really driving play on that Russia line.

 

[clydesdale line]

Or Bickell has MS...

Posters are getting carried away with the MS thing regarding Bickell. He was lazy, questionable desire (other than getting cup ring or money), etc. before he was diagnosed. He played in the NHL alot of the same way he played as an Ottawa 67.. always wanting more from him.

 

[halcyon]

He's played the bulk of his career on larger ice, it makes sense he'd take back to it like a fish to water.


But I do think Panarin's play regressed from his 1st season this year. He was much less active and aggressive, he seemed to spend the bulk of his shifts idling around the circles waiting for Kane to feed him the one-timer.

And he DOES have a great one-timer, but in his first year, he and Kane were basically playing 'anything you can do, I can do better' every shift. This season he seemed more passive, like 'Kane and Anisimov can handle it, I'll just wait here for the puck'.


Also, to my eye, Kucherov looks like the guy really driving play on that Russia line.

Not to be combative, but how many of Russia's games have you watched? I've watched all of them, and Panarin is far and away the primary playmaker on that line. This isn't just Blackhawks/Panarin fan bias speaking, either.