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C/LW Cole Perfetti - Saginaw Spirit, OHL (2020, 10th, WPG)

Rossi is similar offensively to Perfetti right now but much better defensively. The thing is you aren't drafting players off what they are right now you are drafting players on what they will become. Rossi is obviously the safer bet but Perfetti has a lot of potential. They both have potential to be elite players just depends what you think.
 
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Perfetti is more dynamic offensively than Rossi and can do more on his own. Rossi is more of a distributor who controls the play through the middle. They both have similar potential but purely based on offensive upside I'd rate Perfetti higher.
 
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If Perfetti’s in Rossi’s spot this year I bet he puts up over 2ppg too. I think Rossi will be a stud but Perfetti is money
 
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57special said:
Go back and look at the threads on Marner pre draft. He was getting raves for his play. Perfetti is not in same tier in terms of skating, and I sure don't see evidence of him being strong on his skates. On the contrary, there have been comments of him being knocked off the puck and losing puck battles, in contrast to Rossi, who is a Dionne like fire hydrant out there.

All this is just my uninformed opinion. A LOT of scouts seem to really like Perfetti, and are putting him just after the top 3 players in terms of ranking the draft. I would take Drysdale, Rossi, Raymond ahead of him for sure, maybe Holtz. Sanderson too, for a team that needs a LHD.
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A lot of that comes from their situation though. People were raving about Marner because he was on the top line of the most successful junior franchise in history, playing with 2 complete studs. A lot of people could watch him because the Knights are popular, get a lot of coverage and go on deep playoff runs. Playing in Saginaw with no one really close to him talent wise for most of the season, with little coverage on tv had an impact on the hype they got.

You want to see raves? Go read the Perfetti thread around the only time a lot of people actually got to watch him play, at the Hlinka. No one is watching Saginaw consistently to get a good impression like they would with Marner and London.

At draft time Marner was ranked 6th by central scouting for North American skaters and ISS, 5th by the hockey news and 5th by TSN. He wasnt considered a slam dunk prospect with no flaws or he wouldnt have been ranked outside of the top 5 by some. He was viewed really similar to Perfetti, even if you want to say Marner was better it definitely wasnt by much at draft time. It was his year in junior after the draft where the hype train took off full swing.

Youre way off about his skating, his accelration isnt great but hes an overall really solid skater that is strong on his skates. Its fine to like a couple guys more than him (lots of people liked Strome and Hanifin over Marner too), but if youre putting guys like Holtz ahead of him youre missing the mark and need to watch some of the shift by shift videos on youtube
 
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newfy said:
A lot of that comes from their situation though. People were raving about Marner because he was on the top line of the most successful junior franchise in history, playing with 2 complete studs. A lot of people could watch him because the Knights are popular, get a lot of coverage and go on deep playoff runs. Playing in Saginaw with no one really close to him talent wise for most of the season, with little coverage on tv had an impact on the hype they got.

You want to see raves? Go read the Perfetti thread around the only time a lot of people actually got to watch him play, at the Hlinka. No one is watching Saginaw consistently to get a good impression like they would with Marner and London.

At draft time Marner was ranked 6th by central scouting for North American skaters and ISS, 5th by the hockey news and 5th by TSN. He wasnt considered a slam dunk prospect with no flaws or he wouldnt have been ranked outside of the top 5 by some. He was viewed really similar to Perfetti, even if you want to say Marner was better it definitely wasnt by much at draft time. It was his year in junior after the draft where the hype train took off full swing.

Youre way off about his skating, his accelration isnt great but hes an overall really solid skater that is strong on his skates. Its fine to like a couple guys more than him (lots of people liked Strome and Hanifin over Marner too), but if youre putting guys like Holtz ahead of him youre missing the mark and need to watch some of the shift by shift videos on youtube
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Great post in general but I really think the bit about his skating needs to be highlighted.

Perfetti has questions about his skating because most players his size who produce as he does make up for that disadvantaged by being very fleet of foot. Perfetti is not that - no one who’s seen him play would claim so. But this should not spiral into the conception that his skating is overtly “bad.”
 
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newfy said:
A lot of that comes from their situation though. People were raving about Marner because he was on the top line of the most successful junior franchise in history, playing with 2 complete studs. A lot of people could watch him because the Knights are popular, get a lot of coverage and go on deep playoff runs. Playing in Saginaw with no one really close to him talent wise for most of the season, with little coverage on tv had an impact on the hype they got.

You want to see raves? Go read the Perfetti thread around the only time a lot of people actually got to watch him play, at the Hlinka. No one is watching Saginaw consistently to get a good impression like they would with Marner and London.

At draft time Marner was ranked 6th by central scouting for North American skaters and ISS, 5th by the hockey news and 5th by TSN. He wasnt considered a slam dunk prospect with no flaws or he wouldnt have been ranked outside of the top 5 by some. He was viewed really similar to Perfetti, even if you want to say Marner was better it definitely wasnt by much at draft time. It was his year in junior after the draft where the hype train took off full swing.

Youre way off about his skating, his accelration isnt great but hes an overall really solid skater that is strong on his skates. Its fine to like a couple guys more than him (lots of people liked Strome and Hanifin over Marner too), but if youre putting guys like Holtz ahead of him youre missing the mark and need to watch some of the shift by shift videos on youtube
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Marner only had an amazing line in his post-draft year with Tkachuk and Dvorak. In his draft year he played with Domi and some non-prospect, don't remember who it was (might've been Rupert...or Berisha idk), and Domi was not really a great piece on that line, playing pretty selfishly and killing the play a lot of the time. Marner did all the heavy lifting on that line.

You're right about the hype, it didn't really take off until that magical season but personally I was super-high on Marner and raved about him on the Oilers board, even though we at the time had already drafted a bunch of small forwards high in the draft Marner was the guy I was most excited about.

And lets not forget he had 126 points in 63 games that year, compared to 116 points in 57 games the following year, so he had a hell of a season in his draft year too. But yes, in terms of hype Marner was probably not that far ahead of Perfetti in their respective draft years but if you watched both play I don't think they're really that close as prospects and I would be surprised if Perfetti has a similar career. You can't overstate just how impressive Marner's skating and compete level and hustle is. That adds an extra dimension to his game that frankly Perfetti just doesn't have.
 
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Zaddy said:
His skating is not 'fine' as a whole. His agility and edgework is fine but he's very slow. His stride is honestly brutal. I love Perfetti's game but that skating is going to be a problem. Even if he was 6'4 his skating wouldn't be considered fine let alone as a 5'10 guy, at least not by my standards.
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He's not "very slow" -- he can skate and has speed. His first 2 steps need work. He is a light twig that needs to add muscle and work out. Which is why he has such a high ceiling.

Don't fall for the echo chamber around here. Do some scouting with your own eyes and pay attention.
 
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Zaddy said:
Marner only had an amazing line in his post-draft year with Tkachuk and Dvorak. In his draft year he played with Domi and some non-prospect, don't remember who it was (might've been Rupert...or Berisha idk), and Domi was not really a great piece on that line, playing pretty selfishly and killing the play a lot of the time. Marner did all the heavy lifting on that line.

You're right about the hype, it didn't really take off until that magical season but personally I was super-high on Marner and raved about him on the Oilers board, even though we at the time had already drafted a bunch of small forwards high in the draft Marner was the guy I was most excited about.

And lets not forget he had 126 points in 63 games that year, compared to 116 points in 57 games the following year, so he had a hell of a season in his draft year too. But yes, in terms of hype Marner was probably not that far ahead of Perfetti in their respective draft years but if you watched both play I don't think they're really that close as prospects and I would be surprised if Perfetti has a similar career. You can't overstate just how impressive Marner's skating and compete level and hustle is. That adds an extra dimension to his game that frankly Perfetti just doesn't have.
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He played with Dvorak and Rupert in 2014/15. Domi primarily played with Michael McCarron until they traded him to Oshawa at the deadline. They tried Domi on that line in place of Rupert at the time, and it was nowhere near as effective as it was with Rupert, so they took Domi off the line again. Then in the playoffs they moved him to the center so Domi could play with Dvorak, and he put up 16 points in 7 games centering Josh Sterk and Matt Rupert.

Marner's edgework is the main thing that separates him from Perfetti. It was much easier to project how Marner was going to create time on the puck to utilize his high-IQ and vision at the NHL level. Marner also was a top PKer as an undersized 17 year old in his draft year. There is a solid gap between Perfetti and Marner. Marner would be getting some discussion at 1OA in this draft, and would comfortably be in the 2/3 debate with Byfield and Stutzle. Marner may have had less hype, but he was competing against the best prospect of this decade, and a guy who probably ranks somewhere between 2 and 5 of best prospect of this decade (Eichel slots somewhere with Matthews/Dahlin/MacKinnon).
 
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newfy said:
A lot of that comes from their situation though. People were raving about Marner because he was on the top line of the most successful junior franchise in history, playing with 2 complete studs. A lot of people could watch him because the Knights are popular, get a lot of coverage and go on deep playoff runs. Playing in Saginaw with no one really close to him talent wise for most of the season, with little coverage on tv had an impact on the hype they got.

You want to see raves? Go read the Perfetti thread around the only time a lot of people actually got to watch him play, at the Hlinka. No one is watching Saginaw consistently to get a good impression like they would with Marner and London.

At draft time Marner was ranked 6th by central scouting for North American skaters and ISS, 5th by the hockey news and 5th by TSN. He wasnt considered a slam dunk prospect with no flaws or he wouldnt have been ranked outside of the top 5 by some. He was viewed really similar to Perfetti, even if you want to say Marner was better it definitely wasnt by much at draft time. It was his year in junior after the draft where the hype train took off full swing.

Youre way off about his skating, his accelration isnt great but hes an overall really solid skater that is strong on his skates. Its fine to like a couple guys more than him (lots of people liked Strome and Hanifin over Marner too), but if youre putting guys like Holtz ahead of him youre missing the mark and need to watch some of the shift by shift videos on youtube
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Perfetti got more games on national TV than Marner did in his draft year due to the fact TSN didn't broadcast Hlinka at that point in time. Which arguably does more for a player's "hype" than any OHL performances. The Knights also weren't a strong team in Marner's draft year considering they sold at the deadline (trading McCarron to Oshawa). Marner was also ranked 4th on Bob's tsn list and 4th on Craig's list, so no idea where you got he was ranked 5th by TSN. Literally the only places that had him outside the top 5 was Central Scouting and ISS who were out to lunch on Lawson Crouse for some reason.

You are also talking about a class which had the best prospect of the decade (McDavid), and another prospect (Eichel) who is in the debate for 2nd best prospect of the decade with Matthews, Dahlin, and to some extent MacKinnon. Both would unanimously be viewed as the best prospect in this draft. 2015 was the deepest draft of this decade, and by what appears to be a wide margin, which is going to minimize hype when the players are getting compared to McDavid and Eichel who are pretty much the only prospects of the 2010s who went wire to wire as the top 2 picks for about 18 months (closest is Jones/MacKinnon, but Jones slipped in the actual draft and Dahlin/Svechnikov). Its very rare to see the top 2 guys consistently hold the top 2 spots for that long, even Svechnikov got bumped out of the #2 spot on some boards throughout the year (I remember both Zadina and B. Tkachuk getting #2 overall love at points).
 
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Whoever above said Marners compete/skating separates him from Perfetti is right, I think Perfetti ends up being Marner like though, he needs the right situation however
 
Dotter said:
He's not "very slow" -- he can skate and has speed. His first 2 steps need work. He is a light twig that needs to add muscle and work out. Which is why he has such a high ceiling.

Don't fall for the echo chamber around here. Do some scouting with your own eyes and pay attention.
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I have done that and that is the conclusion I arrived at. I am however more critical of skating than most people in this forum so what I see as very slow others might see as 'not bad'. But when you factor in his size and the fact that he is playing in a junior league his speed is very underwhelming. When you're that small and not able to create separation against kids, that is problematic to me.
 
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Dotter said:
He's not "very slow" -- he can skate and has speed. His first 2 steps need work. He is a light twig that needs to add muscle and work out. Which is why he has such a high ceiling.

Don't fall for the echo chamber around here. Do some scouting with your own eyes and pay attention.
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Perfetti is listed at 185 lbs. At his height, he won't add much weight, if any. If you consider him a light twig now, well, that's not likely to change.

Maybe a lot of it is fat, and he can add a lot of muscle still. But he's a long way from being considered a good skater at the NHL level. And for undersized players, that's often a must.
 
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Was just watching a game of his earlier today and I'm always amazed at his ability to sense pressure coming from directions he's not looking and yet still make the proper read/adjustment to ensure possession/make a pass/shoot the puck. It's like he has eyes in the back of his head. He has a near perfect sense of how everyone on the ice operates.

Perfetti is going to be a consistent triple threat in the NHL. The type of player that spaces the ice and pulls players towards him, only to be a step ahead of them and capitalize on the lanes that open up as a result. Teams like Tampa Bay build their offence around this type of spacing. Coaches are going to absolutely love what he can provide.

Just as an extra, unrelated note but the jump he took in playmaking this year was staggering. It's not often you see a player take such a massive leap to such an elite level in a span of a year. It's scary to think of what else he could potentially add.
 
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I'm glad my team doesn't have to choose between him, Rossi, Drysdale, or Raymond. Odds are that at least one will disappoint, and one will be brilliant, but who is who?
 
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NHL Dude 120 said:
Whats his ETA to make the NHL? Im thinking one more year in juniors maybe or is he slightly longer term project.
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I was reading on the Athletic that at least one scout said he could play next year because his IQ is so high. I dont think that would be smart, I would put him in junior and tell him to work on his first step and strength. Junior production doesnt really matter at this point and if he had a similar season next year numbers wise while focusing on those other things I wouldnt be worried at all.

I could see one more year of junior then go to the NHL though. Hes going to be too good for that league to play two more years during normal times. Now I could see him sticking in the NHL next December if junior leagues dont start up again
 
newfy said:
I was reading on the Athletic that at least one scout said he could play next year because his IQ is so high. I dont think that would be smart, I would put him in junior and tell him to work on his first step and strength. Junior production doesnt really matter at this point and if he had a similar season next year numbers wise while focusing on those other things I wouldnt be worried at all.

I could see one more year of junior then go to the NHL though. Hes going to be too good for that league to play two more years during normal times. Now I could see him sticking in the NHL next December if junior leagues dont start up again
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You have to think that if this kid is as aware of himself as he comes off through interviews and comments from coaches, he's finding a way to workout religiously in building up that lower body and core strength. I'd hope he comes out, at whichever level, and has a little more pep.
 
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