You're speaking to exactly what I am also seeing. You watch him watch the game and make decisions. He is ahead of things. He is in control. He gets himself in position to disrupt the other team's attempt then knows exactly how to get it going the other way. He notices exactly when the other team makes a mistake and he pounces on it. His mental processing is top notch. It is the reason for the excitement. A lot of guys have excellent hockey skillsets, but they need a brain in charge of the deployment and Stancl has this. When I listen to him in interviews, I hear a future coach after he's done playing.
After my (very) initial skim of that list, it is pretty obvious that it is by far the most I've ever disagreed with Pronman. I think that a lot of the criticism of Pronman is overstated because (as discussed earlier in this thread) the task of accurately assessing every young hockey player with NHL aspirations is a truly impossible task. There is a reason that every NHL team has separate departments for amatuer vs pro scouting and still misses on dozens of players per year despite pumping seven figures worth of money into the process. Asking anyone to accurately assess 5 years worth of players across 10+ pro leagues, the NCAA, and junior hockey is a crazy ask. Especially when that person's primary job is to scout draft-eligible prospects.
Except that his list is still slanted to draft position/his ranking when these players were drafted and not really based on how they have done since being drafted. The over ranking of Nate Danieslson is a good example of this. Pronman also likes bigger players and derates smaller players. For some reason he really like Jecho, as I don't think anyone else would have him rated above Stenberg, Stancl, and Lindstein.
(it’s fantastic)
I agree and it's weird. Let's say these handful of prospect "gurus" can't even remotely watch anything close to the top 100 drafted & undrafted prospects playing all over the world in all these different leagues, which is the consensus (unlike say Todd McShay, who while he is scouting a lot of prospects, they all play in one centralized league against their peers). How could you not then apply some level of bias to the organizations that continually churn out quality young players like the Blues have...their drafting & developing has been outstanding for 15 years, doing so w/ much limited draft capital compared to other teams before 2023. Since the research these guys do is not remotely close to a deep dive it's very odd to me how the blues continually get slighted.
In no way have I forgotten Leo Loof. He's a throwback, a brilliant defender with snarl. I'd actually compare him to Barrett Jackman a bit. But do I have him above Broberg, Lindstein, Fischer, Jiricek, Ralph, or even someone like Buchinger? I don't know. I really don't.
FWIW, this exact article doesn't exactly cast the Blues as middling.
AFAIK, McKeen’s, FCHockey, and Dobber probably are about as close to what you’re describing though. EliteProspects does some of that I think, but I won’t pay for their crappy ad-filled site so I’ll never know
He started the year out loaned to Lada, from SKA. Then SKA brought him back. Then SKA traded him to Traktor.
Right on, thanks for the breakdown. I didn't know any of this and just stuck out as odd being on three different teams.
