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Prospect Info: Blues 2024-2025 Prospect Thread

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Snuggy wants an NCAA championship period. I still believe he and Dvorsky are our 2 blue chips. Is it possible Binnington retained and Bolduc and another lower pick/ prospect could pry Nikishin from Carolina?

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taylord22 said:
The narrative on Snuggy didn’t just start with the early season game, it dates back to last season, post WJC.

He wasn’t good. He looked tired, slow to the play and generally disinterested. That (large) dip in play was used as rationale for why he made a good decision to return, but, I know I along with a few others here and on the NCAA forum felt that was not a choice in his developments best interest. Personally, maybe it was the only choice.

His situation in Minnesota just isn’t as good, or conducive to development as what it might seem, IMO. Motzko’s priority is winning, and I haven’t been overly impressed with how he’s used and deployed Snuggy.

It’s a situation where -as a sniper- he’s too good for the NCAA, but as an all around hockey player, he’s not quite ready for the NHL. Which is kind of the same story it has been with him for awhile now. Comparatively, a player like Dvorsky is making much larger leaps in challenging himself.

I’m still optimistic Snuggy can be an impact player for this franchise, and potentially the partner Thomas has been waiting on. He’s good at virtually every facet of the game. I just don’t know that those facets have changed much over the last 1.5years.
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Part of which was due to a nagging injury that he dealt with. This season he's on pace for 33 assists in a 40 game season, and I've seen more than a few nice setups on rushes from him. It feels like there is this idea that he's essentially a slow version of Mike Hoffman, and I don't understand where it's coming from. Is it people making too much of his 2nd half last season and his decision to return to college? People seem to think there is 0 development that Snuggs can achieve in returning to college, and that he's just wasting away by not pushing himself to NHL or AHL.
 
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bleedblue1223 said:
Part of which was due to a nagging injury that he dealt with. This season he's on pace for 33 assists in a 40 game season, and I've seen more than a few nice setups on rushes from him. It feels like there is this idea that he's essentially a slow version of Mike Hoffman, and I don't understand where it's coming from. Is it people making too much of his 2nd half last season and his decision to return to college? People seem to think there is 0 development that Snuggs can achieve in returning to college, and that he's just wasting away by not pushing himself to NHL or AHL.
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Was there ever a Hoffman comparison? Snuggy is much more well rounded then that.
 
BlueDream said:
Yeah, I’m not saying your assessment was wrong. I didn’t watch that game so I’m not arguing it.

I just thought other people’s reaction to it was a little odd. And you’re a good poster so it’s definitely not a shot at you but I’m not sure any single post from anyone should carry that much sway. Maybe my memory is wrong here but from what I recall this board seemed to be pretty high on him and then that one post changed things. That’s what I noticed.

Hope people realize he still adds elements that we are desperately lacking currently.
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I can’t speak for the thinking of others here but I didn’t take the responses to my post as changing a lot of people’s opinions. I think many of us have slowly been souring on him over the last year or so and after I posted that, many others chimed in “me too”. That’s how I took it anyway. Could be wrong as I’m not a mind reader but I’m far from the only one that’s brought up concerns with Snuggerud.

That said, he’s looked better as of late and that’s good. But they lost 3-1 to Bemidji State last night in a pretty big upset. No pts for Snuggy. I didn’t see this one though.
 
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STL fan in MN said:
I can’t speak for the thinking of others here but I didn’t take the responses to my post as changing a lot of people’s opinions. I think many of us have slowly been souring on him over the last year or so and after I posted that, many others chimed in “me too”. That’s how I took it anyway. Could be wrong as I’m not a mind reader but I’m far from the only one that’s brought up concerns with Snuggerud.

That said, he’s looked better as of late and that’s good. But they lost 3-1 to Bemidji State last night in a pretty big upset. No pts for Snuggy. I didn’t see this one though.
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I saw he had 10 shots on goal
 
stl76 said:
Who said I’m taking it seriously? I actually laughed when I first saw because I thought it was absurd. It’s just weird IMO.
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Zackly! I laughed cuz it's so absurd. If that guy wants to be taken seriously, then he should never post crap like that.
 
ChicagoBlues said:
Zackly! I laughed cuz it's so absurd. If that guy wants to be taken seriously, then he should never post crap like that.
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He's not really joking. He does start off by highlighting the ages, but then argues that this is the first time that Mrsic is the focal point of an offense. This is the same type of person that would've projected Brett Sonne as our future #1 center after his 08/09 junior season.

 
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bleedblue1223 said:
He's not really joking. He does start off by highlighting the ages, but then argues that this is the first time that Mrsic is the focal point of an offense. This is the same type of person that would've projected Brett Sonne as our future #1 center after his 08/09 junior season.

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It sure looks like he's not joking, which is the funniest part.
 
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Celtic Note said:
Was there ever a Hoffman comparison? Snuggy is much more well rounded then that.
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No, it's just how he's been talked about lately, that the only NHL attribute that he has is his shot, and that's all his game will be based around, and that's why I mentioned a slow version of Hoffman, who is essentially a NHL player with only a shot, but he also has speed.

I can't find it, but I swear I saw a post recently on here that viewed Snuggerud as only a 2nd-3rd line player. Based on forward production of last season, I think any reasonable comp based on what he's done so far since being drafted and players of a similar type would fall in that 1st-2nd line tier. People have talked about the concern of his production away from guys like Cooley. Last season, he was still able to score goals at the same rate, but assists dropped off significantly. This season his assists have shot through the roof, he's already 3 short of his last season total, his goals are a little behind, but he's still shooting a ton and those will come. Being a threat on offense with more than just his shot when he is the main player on the line was something he needed to add, and he's been doing that.

Top 90 forwards in 23/24 with over 41 games played: 62 point pace
  • #45: 75 points

Top 180: 41 point pace
  • #135: 49 points

Top 270: 29 point pace
  • #225: 34 points
 
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The other thing in regards to how Snuggerud has been viewed around here has been how opinions changed on Bolduc after he was called up. Suddenly everyone became convinced that Bolduc would be a locked in 30 goal scorer, so now Snuggerud is no longer needed because of how deep we are on the wing.

While I still like Bolduc, and I am higher on Snuggerud, and we also have guys like Stenberg and Pekarcik, none of these guys are guaranteed studs and I would never say we are so deep that we can start trading them for other pieces. It is still very likely that Pekarcik tops off as a AHL top 6 forward, Stenberg as a 3rd liner, Bolduc never quite makes it, and Neighbours doesn't advance past what he currently is and has a DeBrusk type career.

Rebuilding internally and through the draft means acquiring a lot of darts because until they get decently far enough in their development, the whole strategy is if you throw enough darts, enough will hit the board to build a team around.

To me, Dvorksy and Snuggerud are the only ones that I'm confident in being able to be 60+ point producers, which puts them on a top line tier, even if they are only around 60 and are at the bottom end of the top line tier, where they are more good 2nd liners on a good team. I'm confident that guys like Neighbours and Stenberg will be able to play a role somewhere in the top 9. I'm not really worried about Bolduc, but I'm not as convinced that he'll make it. His play in the minors wasn't all that great last season, and for whatever the reasons are, he's not doing enough to stick in the lineup this season. Now, it still took someone like Kyrou a few seasons to actually get things going at the NHL level, but I do hope we see some growth at some point in the season.
 
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Thought these were some of the key quotes from the Dvorsky article. I know the purpose of the piece was to speak highly of Dvorsky, but it does sound like he's trending in a way where we'll see him this season.
“Now, he has to use his body, plus get a little quicker, and he has been,” Konowalchuk said. “He’s pushing the pace now. He’s skating strong. His stride is getting better. Everything he’s doing is just more assertive, and that’s confidence. He’s really building that confidence to want to carry the puck through the neutral zone and more confidence to engage in the battles. His growth over the last five, six games is really trending in the right direction.”
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“Young players have a habit of wanting to think about how can I get a goal vs. just playing the game right and you’ll end up getting the goal,” Konowalchuk said. “I think, for him, that’s where he’s really doing a good job of building into a 200-foot hockey player. Now, he has the puck more and he gets more opportunities and he scores, and it keeps building that confidence.”
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“His play will dictate whether he has to take a longer development path or not,” Konowalchuk said. “I don’t necessarily want to cap that and say ‘You’re 19, it might take you longer.’ If he keeps trending like he’s trending, a month from now, two months from now, I’d like to see him knocking at that door (of the NHL).
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bleedblue1223 said:
He's not really joking. He does start off by highlighting the ages, but then argues that this is the first time that Mrsic is the focal point of an offense. This is the same type of person that would've projected Brett Sonne as our future #1 center after his 08/09 junior season.

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This is a beyond silly comparison. And he’s wrong. He’s comparing it to Bedard’s 16 yr old season, not his 17 yr old season. It’s an embarrassing comparison.
 
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