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F Rutger McGroarty - WBS Penguins, AHL (2022, 14th, WPG; traded to PIT)

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bigdog16 said:
John McFarland and Shane McColgan were the best 15 year olds in North America at that age. Things change - believe me
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In no way am I opposed to things changing. For every lights out 15/16 year old a la Jack Eichel/Jack Hughes, there's a Sean Day/Shane McColgan (great response btw, haven't seen that name in years). I am just of the belief he's closer to the non-bust group than the bust group
 
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flamebird said:
In no way am I opposed to things changing. For every lights out 15/16 year old a la Jack Eichel/Jack Eichel, there's a Sean Day/Shane McColgan (great response btw, haven't seen that name in years). I am just of the belief he's closer to the non-bust group than the bust group
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Fair enough. I personally believe its too early to make any bold predictions. But at 15 it is okay to start identifying players.
 
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29 games played- 41 goals, 39 assists- 80 pts. Such an unfortunate year for Michigan to implement the new rule and not allow him to move up to 16s.
 
I've seen some question his skating.

I can agree that he doesn't have great speed. Most players who get picked in the top 5-10 spots will skate better than him. However, does he skate any worse than Lafreniere? Lafreniere will go 1OA this year. The player McGroarty reminds me of is Tavares. His stick skills and deception with the puck are very impressive, and he can make all the plays needed to put up a lot of points. He also has an elite hockey IQ with a good motor and size. Other than elite speed, he has all the makings of a top flight center prospect.
 
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His skating concerns seem to be overblown and more a byproduct of the desire to turn everything into an oversimplified binary where if you don't skate like McDavid, Eichel, MacKinnon, etc. then you're a "bad" skater. His skating isn't great but it's not awful either. If I was advising/coaching him, I'd certainly make it a focus because any improvements there would only accentuate his high-end tools. I don't think ranking 15 year old players is meaningful and while I've liked Fleming and Nazar more (on admittedly small sample sizes), I think McGroarty is in the same tier as them as far as best American '04 forwards and could easily turn out better.

Stylistically I see a lot of Jamie Benn in his game, the high IQ, the way he protects and shields the puck with his body, and the dangerous shot, heavy shot.
 
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I'm going to be following and rooting for this kid simply because his name is brilliant!

It sounds like something a random name generator would come up with for a video game character. I love it.
 
I really want the Canucks to draft this kid.

Brogan Rafferty and Rutger McGroarty out on the ice together would be loads of fun for commentators.
 
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Through five preseason games, he's leading the NTDP 17's in points by four already. And these aren't unimportant secondary assists. Yesterday, he set up two tap ins.

Maybe he doesn't end up leading the team in points when the real games start. It's only preseason and stats can be fluky in preseason. An example of this might be that unheralded defenseman Ryan Chesley is tied for second with Fleming in points so far, but McGroarty was viewed as the highest rated player in this age group coming into the season and he has 13 points in 5 preseason games. A good start for him.
 
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Pavel Buchnevich said:
Through five preseason games, he's leading the NTDP 17's in points by four already. And these aren't unimportant secondary assists. Yesterday, he set up two tap ins.

Maybe he doesn't end up leading the team in points when the real games start. It's only preseason and stats can be fluky in preseason. An example of this might be that unheralded defenseman Ryan Chesley is tied for second with Fleming in points so far, but McGroarty was viewed as the highest rated player in this age group coming into the season and he has 13 points in 5 preseason games. A good start for him.
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Why are you calling these preseason games?????
they are not

Are they always counting the preseason games to the actual USNTDP point totals??
 
MMC said:
Is he currently the best USA prospect in the 2022 Draft?
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I have Jack Devine, Seamus Casey, Maddox Fleming, Isaac Howard, Jack Hughes, and Frank Nazar as the other top names. All have gone the USNTDP route. I’d put McGroarty at the top right now but it’s not a sizable gap.
 
This is only my opinion, but probably. It’s a little bunched right now. There are a lot of really talented American draft eligibles.

Between McGroarty, Casey, Chesley, Fleming, Nazar, even Howard, I think you could get like 5-6 different answers and you couldn’t say someone is wrong at this point. Maybe someone will separate between now and the draft.
 
Pavel Buchnevich said:
This is only my opinion, but probably. It’s a little bunched right now. There are a lot of really talented American draft eligibles.

Between McGroarty, Casey, Chesley, Fleming, Nazar, even Howard, I think you could get like 5-6 different answers and you couldn’t say someone is wrong at this point. Maybe someone will separate between now and the draft.
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Agreed and I think Logan Cooley is very impressive as well and belongs with those names. Looks very good so far centering the Mcgroarty Lucius line.
 
Promoted to the U18’s and immediately thrown on the top line. Pretty impressive
 
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