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

[KingBogo]

Did I even mention about him being a Finn? I just mentioned that no player with as much ice time and as bad stats at his age in Liiga have ever become an offensively efficient NHL player. It doesn’t matter what the nationality is. There has been a lot of other nationality young players in Liiga and the same applies to them too. Also Barkov kind of isn’t the proper Finn, if you really believe in something like that about a player who still grew up in Finland with Finnish citizenship. Barkov of course had otherworldy stats compared to Lambert and Barkov was a year younger than Lambert was last season. With the absolutely poor stats and the awful decision making it truly is a miracle if Lambert ever becomes an offensively efficient player. He could still become an NHL player, just expecting him to become an offensively efficient NHL player with his history, is the same as expecting a miracle to happen.


To me it screams most of all that the kid isn’t even close to as talented as some people seem to think. It also screams that great skating and good hands will not make you a great player if you simply
don’t have good enough hockey IQ.

Again IMO the kid hasn’t been given a chance to develop his talent. Maybe having to think a man’s game at 17 isn’t what he needed? Maybe playing with peers where his skill can dominate is what he needs now so he can get out of his head and start playing and not over thinking.

 

[JetsFan815]

To me it screams most of all that the kid isn’t even close to as talented as some people seem to think.

Certainly isn't the second coming of Mario Lemieux, that much is for sure.

 

[Romang67]

Certainly isn't the second coming of Mario Lemieux, that much is for sure.

Damn shame. Imagine if we had two of them.

 

[Ippenator]

Again IMO the kid hasn’t been given a chance to develop his talent. Maybe having to think a man’s game at 17 isn’t what he needed? Maybe playing with peers where his skill can dominate is what he needs now so he can get out of his head and start playing and not over thinking.

Still history proves that if a talent at his age plays as much in Liiga with such poor statistics, the player doesn’t become an offensively efficient player in the NHL. There’s no exceptions in this. The odds are looking really bad for Lambert becoming a productive NHL player. Sure, there can always be wishful thinking.

Lambert hasn’t even been treated in any unfair way, but got already previous season good chances to play and show what he had. Aho got at the same age less of chances, but he just twisted the arm of his conservative coach and then used the chance he got optimally. The next season (equivalent to Lambert’s latest season) Aho was already a 1.0 PPG player in Liiga and he was the best forward of his team.

 

[Jukurit]

I think Lambert's offensive skill is actually kinda overrated. His shot is weak, sometimes he makes nice passes (other times they don't work), he doesn't have the hands to pull moves succesfully most of the time, he doesn't have much "creativity" in his offensive game.
He does have great skating+hands combo, in the sense that he is good at skating with the puck. That makes him a great transition player.
But this also leads into, what I think, is Lambert's biggest single flaw. The puck hogging. He is good at skating with the puck, but likes to hold on to the puck too much. This leads him into skating himself into trouble. Also limits his offensive game too.
Despite his flaws, I still think Lambert has a decent chance of being an NHL player, because of that skating. Not sure how good he becomes though.

 

[SwedishFire]

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.

Thats insane considering its actually 1st round. Its that low??

 

[Romang67]

Thats insane considering its actually 1st round. Its that low??

There was a study done looking at each draft pick between 00 and 09 a few years ago that had the picks around pick #30 at between 20 and 40% chance of making it to >99 games in the NHL. That's a few years old now, and specifically #30 picks had a bit of a comeback in the early 10s with Nelson, Rakell, Pearson and Hartman in the first 4 drafts. But looking at picks 29 to 31 between 2010 and 2015, only 7 out of 15 players have made it to 100 games.

At the end of the day, people tend to pay much more attention to when a player is drafted on the first night of the draft, than a few years later when Nick Ross becomes a professional journeyman in Europe. The dropoff is pretty staggering after the first half or so of the first round.

Here's the study: NHL Draft Pick Probabilities

 

[MardyBum]

God, such a bust.

 

[Thechozen1]

Just from watching some video, a player he sorta reminds me of is Kristian Huselius. I’ll gladly take that from a # 30 pick if he can become that kind of player.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

I'm still waiting for avgaard the hockey professor to drop by this thread to give his opinion on Lambert before I can formulate my own.

 

[nobody imp0rtant]

I'm still waiting for avgaard the hockey professor to drop by this thread to give his opinion on Lambert before I can formulate my own.

He's too busy berating the Panthers for their misuse of Lundell.

 

[Duke749]

Again IMO the kid hasn’t been given a chance to develop his talent. Maybe having to think a man’s game at 17 isn’t what he needed? Maybe playing with peers where his skill can dominate is what he needs now so he can get out of his head and start playing and not over thinking.

I’m a little late to this post but to piggy back off of this thought process…. Sometimes there’s a middle ground for prospects where putting them too far ahead does more harm and finding that sweet spot in the middle is far more beneficial. Similar to how the Jets have given a lot of their top picks a taste of the NHL and then sent them back to juniors. They get a chance to see where they’re lacking and it also humbles them. Then they can improve where they need too and come back later on more prepared.

 

[buggs]

I'm still waiting for avgaard the hockey professor to drop by this thread to give his opinion on Lambert before I can formulate my own.

Avgaard! Avgaard! Avgaard!

 

[Aggie204]

I'm still waiting for avgaard the hockey professor to drop by this thread to give his opinion on Lambert before I can formulate my own.

If I remember correct the hockey professor was suspended from the boards a few times. I bet he is under a new name. I’m betting Draagva is his new moniker.

 

[nobody imp0rtant]

If I remember correct the hockey professor was suspended from the boards a few times. I bet he is under a new name. I’m betting Draagva is his new moniker.

He's still around. And it's Avgard, without the double-A. Avgaard left the board in a huff and now posts only on Twitter.

 

[GeorgeJETson]

If I remember correct the hockey professor was suspended from the boards a few times. I bet he is under a new name. I’m betting Draagva is his new moniker.

He's still around. And it's Avgard, without the double-A. Avgaard left the board in a huff and now posts only on Twitter.

Ah, the Professor, was there anything he didn't know have an opinion on?

 

[DeepFrickinValue]

He's still around. And it's Avgard, without the double-A. Avgaard left the board in a huff and now posts only on Twitter.

He did add a certain “Je ne sais pas” to the site.

Much like Comrie, Avvgard was a fan favourite

 

[Howard Chuck]

He lives on in my tag line....

*edit, what the heck, it's gone!

 

[Joe Hallenback]

I like to think of Lambert as this years Aho. Guy who struggled a bit in his draft year and bounced around between teams. Not saying he is going to be as good as Aho but there is a reason Aho went in the 2nd round.

 

[Ippenator]

I like to think of Lambert as this years Aho. Guy who struggled a bit in his draft year and bounced around between teams. Not saying he is going to be as good as Aho but there is a reason Aho went in the 2nd round.

I understand the wish to think like this, but unfortunately the reality is very different. Aho played only 3 games on loan in another Liiga team (Ässät, from Pori) and then he played only 10 games in the Kärpät A-juniors. Otherwise he played most of the season for the Kärpät Liiga team and eventually scored the Liiga championship deciding goal in the overtime of game seven against Tappara. His play was very different from Lambert’s already then, as it was very much based on very high hockey IQ and great passing, exactly what Lambert’s play isn’t about.

Aho was just physically quite weak and underdeveloped and weighed about 15 lbs less than Lambert does now. He wasn’t also an exceptional skater (although he is pretty darn good skater nowadays), so the physical weaknesses, and the lack of any clearly visible (unfortunately hockey IQ seems to be very unrecognisable, or at least underrated to a lot of scouts) elite strengths lead into him being picked only in the 2nd round.

I understand that you are not saying that Lambert would become as good as Aho, but also I wouldn’t expect a too much similar development even with their development pace, as they are so different type of players. There were reasons why Aho slipped to the second round, and those reasons were underdeveloped physique and only a bit above average skating, which wasn’t an appealing combination for NHL teams. There were also reasons why Lambert dropped to the end of the 1st round, but the reasons were very different from what they were in Aho’s case. In Lambert’s case they were the average or below average hockey IQ and the difficulties with him and his dad being so easily switching teams for him when things didn’t go his way, and they didn’t unfortunately go his way anywhere.

 

[snowkiddin]

I think Lambert has an alright chance at turning into a decent, speedy, middle six winger with some scoring touch.

Come on, Ippenator, tear this apart with another rigmarole. You know you want to.

 

[Ippenator]

I think Lambert has an alright chance at turning into a decent, speedy, middle six winger with some scoring touch.

Come on, Ippenator, tear this apart with another rigmarole. You know you want to.

I don’t disagree at least a lot with you. Still so far I’m expecting more a bottom 6 winger, but of course it would be great if he would be even a potential 2nd liner at some point.

 

[Jukurit]

I like to think of Lambert as this years Aho. Guy who struggled a bit in his draft year and bounced around between teams. Not saying he is going to be as good as Aho but there is a reason Aho went in the 2nd round.

I think it would make more sense to compare Lambert to Aatu Räty.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

I understand the wish to think like this, but unfortunately the reality is very different. Aho played only 3 games on loan in another Liiga team (Ässät, from Pori) and then he played only 10 games in the Kärpät A-juniors. Otherwise he played most of the season for the Kärpät Liiga team and eventually scored the Liiga championship deciding goal in the overtime of game seven against Tappara. His play was very different from Lambert’s already then, as it was very much based on very high hockey IQ and great passing, exactly what Lambert’s play isn’t about.

Aho was just physically quite weak and underdeveloped and weighed about 15 lbs less than Lambert does now. He wasn’t also an exceptional skater (although he is pretty darn good skater nowadays), so the physical weaknesses, and the lack of any clearly visible (unfortunately hockey IQ seems to be very unrecognisable, or at least underrated to a lot of scouts) elite strengths lead into him being picked only in the 2nd round.

I understand that you are not saying that Lambert would become as good as Aho, but also I wouldn’t expect a too much similar development even with their development pace, as they are so different type of players. There were reasons why Aho slipped to the second round, and those reasons were underdeveloped physique and only a bit above average skating, which wasn’t an appealing combination for NHL teams. There were also reasons why Lambert dropped to the end of the 1st round, but the reasons were very different from what they were in Aho’s case. In Lambert’s case they were the average or below average hockey IQ and the difficulties with him and his dad being so easily switching teams for him when things didn’t go his way, and they didn’t unfortunately go his way anywhere.

Aho Struggled to produce. So did a lot of guys there first year in pro. I can think of a couple the top of my head. Roope Hinz,Kasperi Kapanen,Aho,Vesalainen,Rasmus Kupari,Roni Hirovonen. Quite a few of the kids drafted lately are not playing in the Liga and are playing Junior. Raty btw had a great 2nd year in the Liga and had a real good pro debut in the AHL for Bridgeport.

My theory is teams are desperate for talent and over play their kids. It seems likely considering Lambert's performance at the Juniors compared to his performance in Liga. He should have been with the u20 team

 

[Ippenator]

Aho Struggled to produce. So did a lot of guys there first year in pro. I can think of a couple the top of my head. Roope Hinz,Kasperi Kapanen,Aho,Vesalainen,Rasmus Kupari,Roni Hirovonen. Quite a few of the kids drafted lately are not playing in the Liga and are playing Junior. Raty btw had a great 2nd year in the Liga and had a real good pro debut in the AHL for Bridgeport.

My theory is teams are desperate for talent and over play their kids. It seems likely considering Lambert's performance at the Juniors compared to his performance in Liga. He should have been with the u20 team

In fact I agree that he should have been still playing in the juniors but that is hindsight twenty, and anyway his dad and himself wouldn’t allow him playing in the juniors anymore. They demanded for him to play for the professional teams and in the top 6 lines. And when that didn’t work anywhere, they kept switching teams.

Btw, that was Räty’s 3rd professional season when he got a PPG level of production. But as I mentioned before his season before that was ruined by covid and other health problems. Anyway, Lambert would be only now entering the equavalent season to Räty’s 3rd, if Lambert would still play in Liiga, which I quite much doubt will happen.