Around the NHL 2024-2025

[Majorityof1]

This is sort of my concern with having 3 similar prospects/young guys in that regard. Snuggy, Neighbours and Bolduc all do really well when the puck is fed to them. But they really don’t drive plays. While they all play different games, they still share that similarity and that one similarity makes generating offense a little too oversimplified at the NHL for my taste. It means we need playmakers on each line, because these guys will need to be split up. That makes roster construction difficult and line composition inflexible. At some point we probably have to trade one or two of these guys unless they evolve their games.

I don't think Neighbours falls into this. He isn't a playmaker but plays different from the others. I'd like him paired with a shooter like Snuggy. Granted they would need a playmaking C, but we could also play Dvorsky as a shooting C.

Bolduc has shown flashes of creating, playmaking. They weren't converted but they were nice plays. He needs consistency to prove he is a top 6 talent. But I think he has shown that he has the potential to be multidimensional.

 

[joe galiba]

I don't think Neighbours falls into this. He isn't a playmaker but plays different from the others. I'd like him paired with a shooter like Snuggy. Granted they would need a playmaking C, but we could also play Dvorsky as a shooting C.

Bolduc has shown flashes of creating, playmaking. They weren't converted but they were nice plays. He needs consistency to prove he is a top 6 talent. But I think he has shown that he has the potential to be multidimensional.

So far Bolduc reminds me of Kapanen, a lot of almost really good plays but really just sound and fury signifying nothing

 

[PocketNines]

This is sort of my concern with having 3 similar prospects/young guys in that regard. Snuggy, Neighbours and Bolduc all do really well when the puck is fed to them. But they really don’t drive plays. While they all play different games, they still share that similarity and that one similarity makes generating offense a little too oversimplified at the NHL for my taste. It means we need playmakers on each line, because these guys will need to be split up. That makes roster construction difficult and line composition inflexible. At some point we probably have to trade one or two of these guys unless they evolve their games.

Neighbours drives the play in the sense he drives aggression which drives the team's overall play. He might not finish the play, but even if he almost might, his teammate on the bench was like "damn that was close he almost did it just from going there, I could do that. Next shift." – it's not traditional playdriving but it's real and that's why I would not include him with the other two. I do agree with you about the other two's profiles and think one of them could be packaged as you suggest. That's why Snuggy is 5 and Bolduc is 7 on my list instead of higher like most people have them. I am trending toward bumping Fischer up from 6 over the Snuggler. I feel like Snuggy's shot is more lethal than Bolduc's so he projects a little more comfortably for me. I am not worried about Dvorsky, Lindstein, Stenberg, Fischer. I am a little worried about Jiricek and anxious to see him play