Prospect Info: Brad Lambert, 30th Overall, 2022 NHL Draft

[tbcwpg]

Didn't I read his dad lives in Stoon? Did he live with his mum in Finland?

His dad is from Saskatoon but he doesn't live there.

 

[SCP Guy]

Curious
How much does a player like Lambert make playing pro in Europe?

Google says 40k to 200k ...... Have no idea where he falls but Im going to guess on the lower end?

 

[Daximus]

Yeah, if he's ready I see the Moose as a real possibility. That way they can have full control of his development.

I think it's all going to depend on where his confidence is at honestly. If he's feeling it in camp they might keep him with the Moose if he looks like he needs a boost, Seattle is a good spot to be.

 

[Jussi]

Google says 40k to 200k ...... Have no idea where he falls but Im going to guess on the lower end?

We'll know later this year when the tax records are out. They're public in Finland.

 

[ps241]

I think it's all going to depend on where his confidence is at honestly. If he's feeling it in camp they might keep him with the Moose if he looks like he needs a boost, Seattle is a good spot to be.

One thing I like about Seattle is its a fresh start. CHL is a great league and lots of guys with Brad’s pedigree and he would be joining a contending team. Sometimes the best thing to do to develop is get into a league where its easier to work on your shortcomings. Mason McTavish (3OA) is a hell of a talent has a really high pedigree and it sure didn’t hurt to settle into Hamilton mid way through this season.

 

[Monkey D Luffy]

His dad is from Saskatoon but he doesn't live there.

IIRC he said his grandparents live in Saskatoon still.

 

[NotCommitted]

I think daddy Lambert shouldn't be an issue going forward - it all depends how much Brad is thinking like his dad, or how much of it was just a parent meddling into the affairs of a minor - which, to be fair, is their right and duty as a parent to some degree, but parents can get really crazy when sports are involved.

If Brad himself has his head in the right place, he'll come onto his own. At that point it doesn't matter what daddy thinks or feels. If Brad himself has 'issues' then that's a different matter of course. But I'd imagine at this point they both must realize it's going to be up to him and hard work now to make it. Falling down on the draft was probably a good wake up call and the best thing that could happen, aside from maybe falling out of the first round altogether

 

[Jukurit]

@Bubbles posted this on Lambert's main thread before the draft:

I just listened to an interview with Blades GM on why he traded Lambert's rights:

Basically, Lambert's camp said he has "95% chance" of playing pro next year. NHL GMs have told him that if they draft him, they would send him to either the AHL or Europe. Also, the rights were expiring and they were unlikely to get him to come over.

 

[buggs]

It's well worth keeping in mind that the odds of making it to even 100 NHL games for a player picked around where Lambert was is about a coin flip.

To be honest I'm surprised it's that high.

 

[Finnflash]

Just a question. Didn’t we have another prospect (Henri Nikkanen) play with the Pelicans this year. And he regressed as well right?

 

[Ippenator]

Just a question. Didn’t we have another prospect (Henri Nikkanen) play with the Pelicans this year. And he regressed as well right?

Funny how people are trying to blame the Pelicans and their coach for Lambert regressing. In reality he regressed in JYP already and he played there the first half of the season. And before that he regressed already from the previous season in JYP.

The kid just doesn’t have too good hockey IQ and vision, which leads into problems against tougher and more organized defences. No need to blame others for these shortcomings.

 

[Krauser]

Funny how people are trying to blame the Pelicans and their coach for Lambert regressing. In reality he regressed in JYP already and he played their the first half of the season. And before that he regressed already from the previous season in JYP.

Lambert’s tracking / microstat data done by Will Scouch shows otherwise. There was a drop-off in Lambert’s performance after he changed teams mid-season.

With JYP in the first half of the year, Lambert was very involved in offensive transitions, both carrying the puck on controlled entries and with passing. He was productive in terms of shot attempts and shot assists, but had bad luck in terms of his own shooting (3% shooting percentage for the year) and his teammates (similarly low oiSH%).

His offensive transition numbers fell off the map when he moved to Pelicans, dropping from very good (especially in context of playing in a men’s league) to terrible. This was in context of his teammates also generating very little in terms of dangerous shots.

Here‘s the scouting report by Scouch, which has that data and some film analysis:



I’m sure some of Lambert’s lack of production last year was his own fault. But there is some evidence here that he was unlucky not to produce more with JYP, before regressing to actually bad with Pelicans.

 

[Ippenator]

Lambert’s tracking / microstat data done by Will Scouch shows otherwise. There was a drop-off in Lambert’s performance after he changed teams mid-season.

With JYP in the first half of the year, Lambert was very involved in offensive transitions, both carrying the puck on controlled entries and with passing. He was productive in terms of shot attempts and shot assists, but had bad luck in terms of his own shooting (3% shooting percentage for the year) and his teammates (similarly low oiSH%).

His offensive transition numbers fell off the map when he moved to Pelicans, dropping from very good (especially in context of playing in a men’s league) to terrible. This was in context of his teammates also generating very little in terms of dangerous shots.

Here‘s the scouting report by Scouch, which has that data and some film analysis:



I’m sure some of Lambert’s lack of production last year was his own fault. But there is some evidence here that he was unlucky not to produce more with JYP, before regressing to actually bad with Pelicans.

His production has regressed during two last seasons in JYP and it went also perfectly on the same level in JYP as well as in Pelicans. I don’t care what all those useless advanced stats say, as the end result is the only thing that matters in hockey. Advanced stats are really useful only when estimating team success in the bigger picture. They tell practically nothing about individuals and their individual meaning for the team success.

I have watched Lambert play in most of his games for the last two seasons and the eye test tells me very clearly that the only thing that he is really good at is transition, which is pretty obvious with his skating and hands. But otherwise he has been a pretty much useless player in Liiga. More a burden to his linemates and his teams than being really helpful in anything else than transition. The thing you call the lack of luck, I call straightforwardly the lack of skill.

Useless to blame Pelicans or their coach for causing him to play worse in transition when he played there. It just perfectly falls on himself again. I saw him play there too and could tell, that he just lacked the fire and energy more than in the beginning of the season. He looked just tired generally after a long season and didn’t skate at the same pace as he did in the beginning of the season. Happens often to young players, so nothing strange in it this time either.

Also what seems to be neglected in this Pelicans discussion, is that Pelicans was generally a much better team last season than JYP, and they got even into the Liiga playoffs. They had better players in general than JYP, so an already tired Lambert just couldn’t take a role in the team that would allow him to use his strengths even as well as he did in JYP - and I can assure you, he wasn’t really good as a player in JYP either. In neither of his season’s there.

 

[snowkiddin]

So what’s the deal with Lambert that has resulted in people endlessly trashing him on our board? This is the reverse-Laine where we had to put up with people clogging up our threads talking about how great Laine is and how badly the Jets were misusing him. But now we’re getting the opposite with Lambert. Is he secretly Swedish, or something?

 

[Finnflash]

Funny how people are trying to blame the Pelicans and their coach for Lambert regressing. In reality he regressed in JYP already and he played there the first half of the season. And before that he regressed already from the previous season in JYP.

The kid just doesn’t have too good hockey IQ and vision, which leads into problems against tougher and more organized defences. No need to blame others for these shortcomings.

All I can say is I’m glad they are not with the Pelicans anymore

 

[jetdiehard]

31 teams stayed away from him in the Draft .
We took him as he is talented but has he got possibly some of Dads genetics and we will never get him in the correct path.
We are taking that gamble.

 

[Jet]

Lambert’s tracking / microstat data done by Will Scouch shows otherwise. There was a drop-off in Lambert’s performance after he changed teams mid-season.

With JYP in the first half of the year, Lambert was very involved in offensive transitions, both carrying the puck on controlled entries and with passing. He was productive in terms of shot attempts and shot assists, but had bad luck in terms of his own shooting (3% shooting percentage for the year) and his teammates (similarly low oiSH%).

His offensive transition numbers fell off the map when he moved to Pelicans, dropping from very good (especially in context of playing in a men’s league) to terrible. This was in context of his teammates also generating very little in terms of dangerous shots.

Here‘s the scouting report by Scouch, which has that data and some film analysis:



I’m sure some of Lambert’s lack of production last year was his own fault. But there is some evidence here that he was unlucky not to produce more with JYP, before regressing to actually bad with Pelicans.

I'm so glad you posted this video, I found it very informative and encouraging.

He has stuff to work on for sure, but with his work ethic as long as he's dedicated to improving his blind spots we could see a really nice player evolve.

 

[Monkey D Luffy]

Weird cause when I watched him play at the WJC against guys closer to his age, he was dominant.

 

[Jet]

His production has regressed during two last seasons in JYP and it went also perfectly on the same level in JYP as well as in Pelicans. I don’t care what all those useless advanced stats say, as the end result is the only thing that matters in hockey. Advanced stats are really useful only when estimating team success in the bigger picture. They tell practically nothing about individuals and their individual meaning for the team success.

I have watched Lambert play in most of his games for the last two seasons and the eye test tells me very clearly that the only thing that he is really good at is transition, which is pretty obvious with his skating and hands. But otherwise he has been a pretty much useless player in Liiga. More a burden to his linemates and his teams than being really helpful in anything else than transition. The thing you call the lack of luck, I call straightforwardly the lack of skill.

Useless to blame Pelicans or their coach for causing him to play worse in transition when he played there. It just perfectly falls on himself again. I saw him play there too and could tell, that he just lacked the fire and energy more than in the beginning of the season. He looked just tired generally after a long season and didn’t skate at the same pace as he did in the beginning of the season. Happens often to young players, so nothing strange in it this time either.

Also what seems to be neglected in this Pelicans discussion, is that Pelicans was generally a much better team last season than JYP, and they got even into the Liiga playoffs. They had better players in general than JYP, so an already tired Lambert just couldn’t take a role in the team that would allow him to use his strengths even as well as he did in JYP - and I can assure you, he wasn’t really good as a player in JYP either. In neither of his season’s there.

Did you even watch the video? I'm guessing not because it's not 'advanced team stats' in the traditional sense. It tracks actual plays and breaks them down when he was on the ice.

It also wasn't some fanboy excuse video, it was very unbiased and analytical, and it revealed some of the shortcomings in his game as well.

Maybe try watching the video. It seems to me as if you got defensive because someone said something negative about the Pelicans.

 

[MardyBum]

Positivity!

 

[GeorgeJETson]

So what’s the deal with Lambert that has resulted in people endlessly trashing him on our board? This is the reverse-Laine where we had to put up with people clogging up our threads talking about how great Laine is and how badly the Jets were misusing him. But now we’re getting the opposite with Lambert. Is he secretly Swedish, or something?

I found this pretty funny

I personally don't mind our Finnish posters coming on here to talk about players we've drafted. They have a better idea on the type of player than I do, and I find some of it pretty useful.

Sounds like Lambert will be quite the boom or bust player; I think Lambert even said it about himself after he was drafted. Only time will tell.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

None were available due to the run on d that happened just before pick 14. Ditto for centers.

Rinzel, Chesley and Luneau were all available. They all have top 2 potential, even if they project as more likely 2nd pair. All were ranked around the same place as McGroarty. Centres Ostlund, Gaucher, Bystedt and Kulich were also still there. McGroarty may be just as good a pick and as much a C as them.

I'm not nearly as unhappy with McGroarty as I am with Lambert. McGroarty's skating is not that bad and he is working on it. I hope he is more gritty, like a Lowry, than dirty like a Tkachuk. He could replace Lowry at 3C in a few years or become a good power winger.

Lambert just has way too many red flags. I would not have touched him. Father issues, attitude issues and regressing from D-1 to draft year is a terrible look. We can hope that falling all the way to 30 was the kick in the nads this kid needed but if not, he has bust written all over him.

If we had taken McGroarty at 14 and then Luneau or Chesley at 30 I'd have been fairly happy with this draft. I like Salomonsen and Zhilkin well enough where they were taken. Brown is a strange pick. I think there were better bets available there. Brennan, or Ben King looks like an interesting overager. Wagner and Dom Longname look good for where they were taken, but at that point it really doesn't matter much.

But Lambert looks like wasting the best piece we got for Copp. And Brown is what we got for Smith. Its like Chevy wants to prove that selling at the TD is bad value. SMH

 

[GaryPoppins]

I’m assuming Lambert will sign his ELC shortly; give them the option to send him to Seattle or if he impresses enough to stick with the moose.

 

[Ippenator]

Weird cause when I watched him play at the WJC against guys closer to his age, he was dominant.

Tends to happen with players that are excellent skaters and have good hands, but not so good hockey IQ. It’s possible to dominate with the combination of great skating and good hands or the combination of size and relatively good skating, but with average or even below average hockey IQ, when you are still playing against junior players. Lower hockey IQ players like this get exposed when they play against adults with speed, strength and much better and more structured defending.

I’m not saying that he can’t become an ok NHL player with the right kind of guidance and coaching, but he will need to understand that he most probably will never be a true star player or even a 1st liner, which will likely mean that he needs to be humble enough to accept a less offensive role and use his skating gift in the way that he can help his team the best. Probably in more a forechecking role and even PK role (when he improves his defensive play and attitude).

I just find it very unlikely that he will ever be a really efficient offensive player at the NHL level. Well, I guess miracles can still happen, and I will for sure be happy for him and the Jets, if it after all happens in his case, that he finds the intelligent way to play offensive hockey.

 

[tbcwpg]

Rinzel, Chesley and Luneau were all available. They all have top 2 potential, even if they project as more likely 2nd pair. All were ranked around the same place as McGroarty. Centres Ostlund, Gaucher, Bystedt and Kulich were also still there. McGroarty may be just as good a pick and as much a C as them.

I'm not nearly as unhappy with McGroarty as I am with Lambert. McGroarty's skating is not that bad and he is working on it. I hope he is more gritty, like a Lowry, than dirty like a Tkachuk. He could replace Lowry at 3C in a few years or become a good power winger.

Lambert just has way too many red flags. I would not have touched him. Father issues, attitude issues and regressing from D-1 to draft year is a terrible look. We can hope that falling all the way to 30 was the kick in the nads this kid needed but if not, he has bust written all over him.

If we had taken McGroarty at 14 and then Luneau or Chesley at 30 I'd have been fairly happy with this draft. I like Salomonsen and Zhilkin well enough where they were taken. Brown is a strange pick. I think there were better bets available there. Brennan, or Ben King looks like an interesting overager. Wagner and Dom Longname look good for where they were taken, but at that point it really doesn't matter much.

But Lambert looks like wasting the best piece we got for Copp. And Brown is what we got for Smith. Its like Chevy wants to prove that selling at the TD is bad value. SMH

I haven't seen any scouts say Chesley, Luneau or Rinzel have top pair potential. I think Luneau specifically ends up as a low end 2nd pair or more likely a 3rd based on what we know right now.

You have to swing at Lambert at 30, especially as it was the 2nd first rounder you have, and given how shallow the draft was, taking a potential 30-40 goal player at the back end of the 1st is an easy decision.

I think he comes over to Seattle this season, after playing very well in the World Juniors next month, and teams regret passing him over.

As for Smith, the fact that we got anything for a player who said he's definitely not signing here is a bonus.