F Kristan Epperson - Saginaw Spirit, OHL (2024 undrafted)

[WarriorofTime]

A lot of people are going to say of course he’s playing well he’s on Micheal Misas wing. When in reality he’s driving the play as much as misa some nights and he’s a menace without the puck

Not really keeping pace though, so I'm sure there will be at least some chattering that he's leaching.

Will still get drafted this time though. Good to see a player take advantage of opportunity. Not the first NTDP kid that looks like he was a bit lost in the shuffle.

 

[bcspragu]

Not really keeping pace though, so I'm sure there will be at least some chattering that he's leaching.

Will still get drafted this time though. Good to see a player take advantage of opportunity. Not the first NTDP kid that looks like he was a bit lost in the shuffle.

If you watch the games its apparent he's not leaching anything. His playmaking is the reason Misa is leading the league in goals. Stud playmaker, going to be ever bigger numbers when Chernyshov gets added to thier line.

It really leads to the whole problem with the USDTP. Only 6 kids can be in the "top 6" and only so much PP time to go around. When the team is filled with all the top end skilled Americans, those that land outside of those 6 in PT all would be better off in the CHL on teams playing top minutes

 

[WarriorofTime]

If you watch the games its apparent he's not leaching anything. His playmaking is the reason Misa is leading the league in goals. Stud playmaker, going to be ever bigger numbers when Chernyshov gets added to thier line.

It really leads to the whole problem with the USDTP. Only 6 kids can be in the "top 6" and only so much PP time to go around. When the team is filled with all the top end skilled Americans, those that land outside of those 6 in PT all would be better off in the CHL on teams playing top minutes

They tend to rotate a bit and give everyone some opportunity until the cream rises to the crop, kind of year to year dependent too, last year was a bit of a weird one where you had a lot of guys of similar profile that were all sort of around the same level. There's some unpredictability to it, people thought Lucas Van Vliet may break out when he wasn't getting buried, but he's only 0.5 PPG in the USHL so far ths year.

It's also hard to get premiere ice time as a 16 year old in Junior Hockey which tends to skew older with overage players as old as 20 in the lineup. At the USNTDP, everyone is the same birth year so a lot of talented kids are able to get the premiere ice time right away. Tough to say, Epperson may have been in a similar spot last year as a 17 year old playing third line in the OHL and still not on the draft radar followed by the Age 18 breakout. Happens quite a bit.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I’m a little surprised at his point totals, so credit to him, but Epperson just wasn’t as good as hyped coming into the NTDP. He was like a fourth line level player without a fourth line game. If he was top 9 level, he might’ve been okay. Wasn’t so.

I think he would’ve been fine if he initially went USHL over NTDP also. The issue is not the NTDP. It’s that these kids don’t know their place and all come into the NTDP and expect to be the best player, and some of them have to be one of the worst players.