Prospect Info: Cole Brown (#164 - 6th Round - 2023 Draft)

[Hockeyville USA]

Oh dang, OHL to US college hockey. I had heard about this.

What does this mean in terms of NJ owning his rights?


Answered my question. TY.

With Brown being a 2005, he can return to the O for his overage year in 2025-26 and then start in the NCAA with Notre Dame in 2026-27. He could decide to leave Brantford after this season and start at Notre Dame for 2025-26 if they want to bring him in next year (which obviously depends on how many guys Notre wants to bring in/how they're staggering their recruiting classes).

The new CBA needs to clarify how long drafted prospects' rights will be held, considering the CHL player pool has been opened up to the NCAA. Will it be 4 years of rights being held for all drafted prospects? (excluding those drafted out of Russia). We will see.

 

[devilsblood]

Don't want to be negative either, but I'll never understand how a Devils scout watched a game with Logan Morrison tearing it up on the top line for a 100+ point season and Cole Brown in the bottom 6 still working on things like "where to be when the puck goes here" or "how to give and receive passes" and said: "we should draft the Brown kid".

I do think Cole Brown can play AHL games and maybe one day catch on in Europe. But I also think that the current Devils scouting fascination with drafting big wingers with their fingers crossed something clicks is not the wisest strategy in the universe. I'm glad the kid found a really good situation with the Bulldogs this year.

Morrison was 20 in Brown's draft year.

I guess it is kind of surprising(though not shocking) Morrison wasn't drafted in his draft year, putting up a decent 23-22--45 in 59 gp's. Which was slightly better then Brown's 17-25-42 in 60gp's in his draft year. Morrison is not small either, listed at 6'1".

Morrison's 16 year old season, 14-20-34 in 47 was pretty impressive, so that is surprising he was not on radar's in his draft year. Then he lost all of his +1 year to the Covid shutdown.

At 22, Morrison is currently an OK AHL player. 11-19-30 in 52 gp's.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Morrison was 20 in Brown's draft year

I guess it is kind of surprising(though not shocking) Morrison wasn't drafted in his draft year, putting up a decent 23-22--45 in 59 gp's. Which was slightly better then Brown's 17-25-42 in 60gp's in his draft year. Morrison is not small either, listed at 6'1".

Morrison's 16 year old season, 14-20-34 in 47 was pretty impressive, so that is surprising he was not on radar's in his draft year. Then he lost all of his +1 year to the Covid shutdown.

At 22, Morrison is currently an OK AHL player. 11-19-30 in 52 gp's.

I think he meant in 2021-22 when Morrison was 19 and had a monster 19 year old season (60 GP, 100 PTS) after not playing in 2020-21 since the O didn't play.

Morrison was the 2nd or 3rd best OHLer that year (Wyatt Johnston was the best) & should have been drafted. I was banging the table the whole day on Day 2 2022 for some team to draft him.

Brown is a decent OHLer, we'll see if the move to the NCAA helps round out his game over the long term.

 

[devilsblood]

I think he meant in 2021-22 when Morrison was 19 and had a monster 19 year old season (60 GP, 100 PTS) after not playing in 2020-21 since the O didn't play.

Morrison was the 2nd or 3rd best OHLer that year (Wyatt Johnston was the best) & should have been drafted. I was banging the table the whole day on Day 2 2022 for some team to draft him.

Brown is a decent OHLer, we'll see if the move to the NCAA helps round out his game over the long term.

Well yeah, but how closely were the Devils tracking Brown at that point? And I think anytime you can extend out the developmental timeline with a player that is a good thing, so yeah 2-3 years at ND, bring him into Utica after that. That's a decent path. I'd rather not see an overage year in the OHL(also wonder if we keep his rights if he goes that route?).

But what was the concern with Morrison? I'm guessing he's a poor skater.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Well yeah, but how closely were the Devils tracking Brown at that point? And I think anytime you can extend out the developmental timeline with a player that is a good thing, so yeah 2-3 years at ND, bring him into Utica after that. That's a decent path. I'd rather not see an overage year in the OHL(also wonder if we keep his rights if he goes that route?).

But what was the concern with Morrison? I'm guessing he's a poor skater.

My point about Morrison isn't specifically about the Devils but more about the league as a whole. For example, a team like the Penguins with an extremely weak prospect pool at the time SHOULD NOT believe Luke Devlin, a younger forward, but much less talented, more raw, and less challenged in terms of competition (2004, St Andrews College (Canadian HS-Prep), Cornell commit) is worth taking ahead of Logan Morrison, who put up 19 year old season production slightly better than Tanner Pearson (2012 1st round pick) did in 2011-12. Morrison is a below average skater but always did a good job to find the soft spots on the ice & get into position to score.

With Brown, the league has to clarify what the CHL to NCAA route rights holding period will be since CHLers can play NCAA now. It's a whole mess, but I would suspect Bettman, Daly, Walsh & the NHLPA are working on this right now, communicating with the CHL & NCAA Hockey leaders about this as well.