C/W Brad Lambert (2022, 30th, WPG) Part 3

[ijuka]

He played well in their first two games and then got demoted for unknown reasons. He had a few bad shifts vs Slovakia and was benched and then banished to the 4th line.

He's getting the Sam Bennett treatment.

Just because you say this doesn't make it true...

 

[Peasy]

The main “problem” with Lambert at this point is that he comes with this incredible amount of expectation and hype from certain casual fans…none of which is reasonable or warranted and all of which was prematurely generated when he was a very, very young prospect.

If you take out all the noise and just view him as a talented but flawed prospect taken at the tail end of the first round - he’s fine, the expectations are fine and even his performance is fine. He’s on nobody’s radar as a “top prospect”, a upside projection of Kasperi Kapanen or other mid-six forward is not an insult at all and the expectation that he could also never make it isn’t some crazy disappointing realization - it’s just par for the course for this level of prospect.

But because of all the hype he’s had since he was like 14…this all seems like just a massive failure and we talk about it for 50 pages. If you take off the name “Brad Lambert” he’s maybe got a 2 or 3 page thread from the past year where there are some comments about his silky speed and how he might be a great utility player someday who has some interesting tools but that he’s got a long ways to go.

Think it likely has to do with his ranking on lists pre-draft as well.

2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #14 by Elite Prospects
2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #10 by ISS Hockey
2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #9 by FCHockey
2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #42 by TSN/Craig Button
2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #8 by McKeen's Hockey
2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #16 by TSN/McKenzie
2022 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #10 by NHL Central Scouting

I'm actually kinda surprised he ranked that high on a lot of those lists. A lot of popular "internet" scouts had Lambert pretty high too.

I really agree with Hockeyprospect's ranking (29) and write up about him. They ultimately penciled him in as a 3rd liner simply due to a lack of IQ but exceptional physical traits. They also touch on his IQ being much worse in the offensive zone compared to the neutral zone due to the increase of options to choose from.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Just because you say this doesn't make it true...

A playmaker not getting a ton of individual scoring chances while playing with bad players is unsurprising. He's setting up 5-6x as many scoring chances as Raty while playing with way worse talent.

 

[ijuka]

A playmaker not getting a ton of individual scoring chances while playing with bad players is unsurprising. He's setting up 5-6x as many scoring chances as Raty while playing with way worse talent.

I've not said that Räty's played well, I've been calling for his demotion for 3 games now. In terms of expected primary point generation, Lambert ranks as the 11th best forward on the team. And playmaker or not, 0.1 xGF is terrible. Kemell's is 2.8 for example. Even complete plugs have 4 times as much xGF generation.

 

[Lambertfan]

Cyberbullying some 18 year old hockey player really boosts your internet ego, doesn’t it? Like what the hell…

 

[Ippenator]

A playmaker not getting a ton of individual scoring chances while playing with bad players is unsurprising. He's setting up 5-6x as many scoring chances as Raty while playing with way worse talent.

Sorry, but Lambert absolutely isn’t any kind of a playmaker, no matter who he plays with. He just simply doesn’t have any skills for good playmaking.

 

[Tanknation]

not a fan of the Jets, but sometimes its best not to read to much into one tournament. Still a good prospect. Time will tell how he develops.

 

[mattihp]

A playmaker not getting a ton of individual scoring chances while playing with bad players is unsurprising. He's setting up 5-6x as many scoring chances as Raty while playing with way worse talent.

His skillset is not that of a playmaker.

 

[Jukurit]

Cyberbullying some 18 year old hockey player really boosts your internet ego, doesn’t it? Like what the hell…

Hi Ross!

 

[Ippenator]

not a fan of the Jets, but sometimes its best not to read to much into one tournament. Still a good prospect. Time will tell how he develops.

Your point would be very valid, if it was just about his play in this U20 WJC tournament. Unfortunately that’s not the case. He has been playing like he is playing right now, for the last two seasons already. That’s already about 100 games of running around like a headless chicken and a huge pile of turnovers.

 

[ffh]

Your point would be very valid, if it was just about his play in this U20 WJC tournament. Unfortunately that’s not the case. He has been playing like he is playing right now, for the last two seasons already. That’s already about 100 games of running around like a headless chicken and a huge pile of turnovers.

So that's it it's over. Without 1 game being played in his draft year. Cause it sounds like you know the outcome already. Get serious will you.

 

[Ippenator]

So that's it it's over. Without 1 game being played in his draft year. Cause it sounds like you know the outcome already. Get serious will you.

I have said many times that I can see him still carve out a respectable career even in the NHL, if he changes his play and settles for trying to become a forechecking beast for the bottom six, which he does have some clear tools for.

But yes, I’m practically sure that it’s over for Lambert’s productive top six NHL career, (before it even started ever) because he simply doesn’t have the most important tools to do well in that kind of a role. Sure it would be cool if he proves me wrong, but unfortunately I’m practically sure that he won’t do it.

 

[lomiller1]

Against Slovakia, Lambert got benched because he was playing terrible.

The whole team was bad, they barely beat a team with only a fraction of the talent. Again coaching seems to be a major issue but instead of looking at the real issue you seem to want to single out one specific player.

 

[Ippenator]

The whole team was bad, they barely beat a team with only a fraction of the talent. Again coaching seems to be a major issue but instead of looking at the real issue you seem to want to single out one specific player.

Finland won that game 9-3. Lambert was 0+0=0 -1, and he was completely clueless the whole game.

 

[Jukurit]

No Lambert against Sweden.

 

[Ippenator]

No Lambert against Sweden.

Yep, just read about it too. Not sure if I really prefer Karvinen instead of him though. Karvinen doesn’t seem to bring much of anything to this level. Lambert would have at least his great skating, of not much of anything else either.

 

[gritdash60]

Well shit i wrote a huge story about Lambert in this game for nothing.

 

[Ippenator]

Well shit i wrote a huge story about Lambert in this game for nothing.

Maybe it can be seen as some well written fantasy literature?

 

[Ace]

The only surprise is that it took them to game 6

 

[gritdash60]

Next step for my man Ross is moving to Latvia and getting Brad a Latvian passport as well so he plays every game in the next international tournament.

Maybe it can be seen as some well written fantasy literature?

The ending was too boring, im not much of a writer.

 

[Ippenator]

Next step for my man Ross is moving to Latvia and getting Brad a Latvian passport as well so he plays every game in the next international tournament.

But will this plan after all work? We know how ”well” his switching of teams have gone so far…

 

[Jukurit]

Ngl, I'm kinda starting to feel bad for Brad.

 

[gritdash60]

But will this plan after all work? We know how ”well” his switching of teams have gone so far…

Yeah but they have already asked Germany if they can move there in case it fails.

 

[starsfan86]

Crazy he is a healthy scratch tonight.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Crazy he is a healthy scratch tonight.

Actually it isn't.
The writing has been on the wall for this coming last 2 games.
Lambert has got benched twice and he's been demoted 4th line.
Nothing crazy in this case exept maybe that this had to happen before the semifinal.