Prospect Info: Blues 2024-2025 Prospect Thread

[Brian39]

Far superior was probably too strong - and probably deserved more context. Players coming in today are so good at the pull and release which once perfected is a more accurate shot than anything you're realistically going to get off in-game. And, it has the added benefit of being very similar mechanically to how guys like to shoot 1Ts today, which ramps accuracy.

Vladdy had -relative to other snipers- poor control on his 1T, and his snap shot is nowhere near as accurate as the pull and release shooters today, in tight. Shooting % have gone up despite less goals being scored in the paint, goalies becoming more and more athletic and practiced in terms of positioning, and d-men covering more ice than ever (skating + length)

Maybe Dvorsky isn't quite as accurate as him with his wrist shot from deep, but the bag of shots as a whole is more accurate. Also, while missed shots are kind of a PITA to dig up, I've poked around this in the past, and Vladdy missed the net a lot (again, relative to other notable snipers). I'll dig up what I pulled but I believe (as an example) Vladdy's rate of missed shots is hovering at or around 35%; whereas Matthews, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Laine were closer to 27%.

I'm not suggesting any of our guys are going to be remotely as productive as any of the monsters I mentioned above; however, accuracy was not a defining characteristic of Vladdy. Power was. Power in his skating, his stick, and his release. It's what made him special, along with his knack for big moments.

Tarasenko's shot was an absolute wonder to behold. The amazing thing about his shot was the combination of his release and the velocity. There was hardly any load up to tip the goalie off that a shot was coming, yet the speed of the actual shot was absurd. The amount of time between 'looks like he's about to shoot' and 'the puck is at the goalie' was maybe the best I've ever seen. Every split second you shave off that time gives you a little bit larger of a window where you can put the puck and still score.

I completely agree with you that accuracy wasn't a defining characteristic of Tarasenko's shot. And it didn't have to be due to his ability to fire an absolute rocket with very little pre-shot 'tells.'

All that said, we do have to be careful when we praise Dvorsky and Snuggy for their accuracy compared to Tarasenko. None of us have watched nearly enough minutes of Dvorsky or Snuggy to analyze how often they are 'missing' their spots compared to the hundreds of games we watched of Tarasenko to judge his accuracy. And we also haven't seen them doing it against NHL goalies. An NHL goalie is going to read and catch up to your perfectly placed shot a hell of a lot more often than NCAA and AHL goalies. There are quite a few arm/hand saves in the NHL on pucks that were placed exactly where the shooter wanted and no one is praising the shooter's accuracy on those.

I do very much agree that both guys have a larger bag of quality shot selections to choose from than Tarasenko did. I'm really, really excited for these kids to both get into the NHL. It is incredibly exciting that they are opposite-handedness and should be able to co-exist long term as high end shot options on the same PP unit. Giving Thomas a high quality one-time threat from both circles is a recipe for an incredibly dangerous PP.

 

[Mike Liut]

Fischer would easily be a 1st rd pick this year.

 

[taylord22]

Tarasenko's shot was an absolute wonder to behold. The amazing thing about his shot was the combination of his release and the velocity. There was hardly any load up to tip the goalie off that a shot was coming, yet the speed of the actual shot was absurd. The amount of time between 'looks like he's about to shoot' and 'the puck is at the goalie' was maybe the best I've ever seen. Every split second you shave off that time gives you a little bit larger of a window where you can put the puck and still score.

I completely agree with you that accuracy wasn't a defining characteristic of Tarasenko's shot. And it didn't have to be due to his ability to fire an absolute rocket with very little pre-shot 'tells.'

All that said, we do have to be careful when we praise Dvorsky and Snuggy for their accuracy compared to Tarasenko. None of us have watched nearly enough minutes of Dvorsky or Snuggy to analyze how often they are 'missing' their spots compared to the hundreds of games we watched of Tarasenko to judge his accuracy. And we also haven't seen them doing it against NHL goalies. An NHL goalie is going to read and catch up to your perfectly placed shot a hell of a lot more often than NCAA and AHL goalies. There are quite a few arm/hand saves in the NHL on pucks that were placed exactly where the shooter wanted and no one is praising the shooter's accuracy on those.

I do very much agree that both guys have a larger bag of quality shot selections to choose from than Tarasenko did. I'm really, really excited for these kids to both get into the NHL. It is incredibly exciting that they are opposite-handedness and should be able to co-exist long term as high end shot options on the same PP unit. Giving Thomas a high quality one-time threat from both circles is a recipe for an incredibly dangerous PP.

Fair asterisk to put there. And I admit - I'm probably over enamored with the post-Matthews pull and release explosion.

The other thing to note, to your point, is that missed shot attempts does not take blocks/deflections into account. At least, it's not accurate. If my stick stops a shot outright, it's a block. If I get a stick on the puck, it's a missed shot attributed to the shooter.

 

[PocketNines]

Shot quality, an initial (pre-debate) ranking:

1. Snuggy
2. Dvo
3. Mrsic
4. Stancl
5. Stenberg who I accidentally misspelled 'Stanberg' which makes me think of a cross between Barbara Stanwyck and Ingrid Bergman I kind of think he should change it now

I think I like Fischer's shot more than Jiricek's haven't seen enough of the latter's

 

[LGB]

Shot quality, an initial (pre-debate) ranking:

1. Snuggy
2. Dvo
3. Mrsic
4. Stancl
5. Stenberg who I accidentally misspelled 'Stanberg' which makes me think of a cross between Barbara Stanwyck and Ingrid Bergman I kind of think he should change it now

I think I like Fischer's shot more than Jiricek's haven't seen enough of the latter's

Between Dvorsky and Snuggerud I think Dvorsky has the better one timer, and I think I'd give him the edge in a one on one with the goalie when there is time and space. In game situations though, when shooting through defenders or off a pass reception, it's Snuggerud.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

Fischer would easily be a 1st rd pick this year.

100% with the season he's having.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Tarasenko's shot was a wonder to behold. He was the only guy in the league, other then possibly Ovi, that could make goalies look silly. You would hear a whoosh and the goalie would kinda flinch and the puck would be in the net. The speed of his release and the power he got behind it with absolutely no windup or "tell" that he was shooting was something you can't really describe, you had to see it to believe it.

You never knew when he was going to score, b/c all of a sudden, he just did. Usually when the Blues score, I cheer in my living room/basement. When Tarasenko would let one of those off the chain, I would honestly make a little snort noise of disbelief. It was the closest thing hockey had to the Vince Carter nuts-in-the-face-dunk-over-the-guy type play. It was so good it was almost disrespectful, if that makes sense.

Quick Edit:

One last thing about his shot before I forget - a lot of players (Almost every player at the time tbh) generated power to their wrist shot by rotating their hips and turning their feet to gain the "whipping" effect that generated power. So when they released their shot, their skates would generally be parallel to the goalie. Tarasenko didn't generate his power with his hips, it was all shoulders/wrists - and therefore he wouldn't swivel or turn his feet - most of his goals his skate blades would be pointing right at the goalie, which was extremely rare for the time.

 

[SirPaste]

Tarasenko's shot was a wonder to behold. He was the only guy in the league, other then possibly Ovi, that could make goalies look silly. You would hear a whoosh and the goalie would kinda flinch and the puck would be in the net. The speed of his release and the power he got behind it with absolutely no windup or "tell" that he was shooting was something you can't really describe, you had to see it to believe it.

You never knew when he was going to score, b/c all of a sudden, he just did. Usually when the Blues score, I cheer in my living room/basement. When Tarasenko would let one of those off the chain, I would honestly make a little snort noise of disbelief. It was the closest thing hockey had to the Vince Carter nuts-in-the-face-dunk-over-the-guy type play. It was so good it was almost disrespectful, if that makes sense.

This is a great description of his shot lol