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Prospect Info: Hartford Wolf Pack/Bloomington Bison Thread: Part XV

Raspewtin said:
Hartford just has too many bad players. sounds familiar.
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I've watched parts of the last three games and you are correct that there is a talent issue.

With Othmann out for a few months, Nash out long term and perhaps finished, and Berard in NYC, the only young offensive talents are BMB, Chmelar and Rooebroeck. If Sykora and/or Rempe make the NHL it will be as bottom line players. BMB has been playing fourth line left wing so he hasn't had much of a chance to play with talented players. Roobroeck and Chmelar are playing together and while I like them they still are relatively early into their rookie seasons. Roobroeck reminds me of Kevin Hayes carrying the puck, big guy without a lot of speed who carries the puck well. The vets; Blidh and Leschyshyn are not good offensively and Grouix and Belzile have their moments but are inconsistent. I've not been a Korczak fan. He was listed today as a healthy scratch in favor of three ECHL players who were in today's lineup. He has a decent shot but has shown me little with the puck. So not much happening up front.

I know that the defensive numbers have not been good but when you look at the goals it sometimes is because a forward is failing in coverage. On Wednesday night I saw an opposing player skate right by Robertson for a great chance and then watched Robertson get beat leading to a scoring opportunity that Garand stopped but Robertson did a fly by leaving a rebound that was put home. Harpur is slow. Fitzgerald and Mackay are perfectly fine AHL defensemen but don't move the needle very much. Fitzgerald was running PP1 but that didn't work out leaving Mancini to run PP! with Scanlin and Robertson on PP2. I think Mancini plays with a lot of confidence and I think he is an NHL defensemen next year but he's not Bobby Orr. Scanlin had a bad turnover Wednesday night but redeemed himself later with two good plays leading to goals and he had a goal today. Other than Mancini I like Scanlin next best. But he is better defensively. So again not a huge amount of offense coming from the defense.

It's hard to see this team making much progress unless the kid forwards grow over the year and Othmann has a successful comeback after being out for so long.. And what we have seen so far this year has not been very good.
 
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CTTribe73 said:
Is Groulx anything? He was a 2nd round pick and had a nice career in juniors......
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Could be a late bloomer like Brodzinski. Hes only 24. I was hoping he'd get a look at center. He has physical style. Rangers only need players in the minors that play that way.
 
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Chmelar can't buy a point lately. 2 in his last 13, both assists. 26 shots, mostly in my viewings in 3rd line minutes and from about 10 feet from the net or less.

From my viewings, he's been quite unlucky. i'm very interested in him as a player, very heavy and physical with good puck skills. if we had an NHL equivalent of him he'd be an instant fan favorite.

also wanted to discuss Roob. he's not dynamic at this level yet and is very much learning what to do with his large frame, but a skill i've really liked from him is his puck carrying and handling. a big part of the heavy forecheck of that line (Sucese-Roob-Chmelar) is Roob's ability to carry through the neutral zone and dump it in the correct corner based on which of his winger's has more speed coming in. he's not shy physically either. but he is very conservative to this point and is playing like his body can't catch up to his mind, which is fine, he's barely 20. but he's interested me at this point, i'll say that.
 
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i'm talking to myself here but we need to discuss how rough the scoring is for Hartford's middle 6. Sykora is fine with 11 in 20 (I think all ES). Lesch and Blidh are awful (though Blidh has been on the top line since Berard went up). Rempe is visibly improving at pretty much everything but it's not showing in the score sheet, and i'd say his line are the second line in terms of TOI. Chmelar can't score in Bangkok right now and Roobroeck is still trying to figure out how to play pro hockey largely. Chmelar and Roob's linemate, Sucese, has 2 points btw lol

BMB and Korczak have played exclusively 4th line and have both outscored Lesch and are 1 point behind Blidh. It's not great.

Defense is HFD's number 1 problem for sure but man their middle six is really missing a good vet or 2 (plus Othmann).
 
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Yeah i'm not worried about Chmelar's production. Honestly more than any other player on the team he's the guy i look at and see a 8-year NHLer. All the physical tools, enough puck skill and hockey IQ, and a willingness to play physically/understanding of the value of physical play. Less and less, NHLers are capable or willing to play a stiff game - his skill set will become more valuable.


As far as roobroeck, too early to tell. he's quite young. BMB i dont have expectation of playing in the big leagues. Also young, i know, but I'm not thrilled with his puck play. To be a top 9 C in the modern NHL i think you need to be either dynamic with the puck or dynamite defensively. Laba to me is the latter - he has a true ++ competitive streak. BMB more often than not looks like JAG.

Raspewtin said:
the thing he's probably worst at imo. positionally he isn't fantastic and he takes some pretty bad penalties.

+/- doesn't mean much but he's had one game this season where he was +.
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what's the new coaches name? How were his college teams defensively usually?
 
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noncents said:
Yeah i'm not worried about Chmelar's production. Honestly more than any other player on the team he's the guy i look at and see a 8-year NHLer. All the physical tools, enough puck skill and hockey IQ, and a willingness to play physically/understanding of the value of physical play. Less and less, NHLers are capable or willing to play a stiff game - his skill set will become more valuable.


As far as roobroeck, too early to tell. he's quite young. BMB i dont have expectation of playing in the big leagues. Also young, i know, but I'm not thrilled with his puck play. To be a top 9 C in the modern NHL i think you need to be either dynamic with the puck or dynamite defensively. Laba to me is the latter - he has a true ++ competitive streak. BMB more often than not looks like JAG.


what's the new coaches name? How were his college teams defensively usually?
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Potulny is the coach.

www.hartfordwolfpack.com

Hockey Staff | Hartford Wolf Pack

www.hartfordwolfpack.com www.hartfordwolfpack.com

I have no idea how good he is at teaching defense, but I'm not sure we have the players to put together a strong defense. Hartford is supposed to be playing the same system as the Rangers, but what that system is at this point, who knows.
 
Raspewtin said:
Chmelar can't buy a point lately. 2 in his last 13, both assists. 26 shots, mostly in my viewings in 3rd line minutes and from about 10 feet from the net or less.

From my viewings, he's been quite unlucky. i'm very interested in him as a player, very heavy and physical with good puck skills. if we had an NHL equivalent of him he'd be an instant fan favorite.

also wanted to discuss Roob. he's not dynamic at this level yet and is very much learning what to do with his large frame, but a skill i've really liked from him is his puck carrying and handling. a big part of the heavy forecheck of that line (Sucese-Roob-Chmelar) is Roob's ability to carry through the neutral zone and dump it in the correct corner based on which of his winger's has more speed coming in. he's not shy physically either. but he is very conservative to this point and is playing like his body can't catch up to his mind, which is fine, he's barely 20. but he's interested me at this point, i'll say that.
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Love hearing this. He's likely going to need another full year in the AHL after this one so incremental improvements are key.

BMB is the same age as well and seems to be playing well too. Having both of them develop even to 3rd line guys would be home runs
 
Lesch from Sykora. his second goal of the year. he sucks at this level too.
 
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