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Prospect Info: K'Andre Miller (D) - Part IV

nyr2k2 said:
Yeah, the kid got scratched when he was in the Czech League earlier this year, and that league has declined in quality pretty precipitously. If you can't play in that league you're not going to be able to succeed in the AHL, let alone the NHL.
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the lottery wins, stealing Fox and signing Panarin made up for that Tampa trade. The #1 pick is still developing in play yet the players have been a weak return.
 
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nyr2k2 said:
Yeah, the kid got scratched when he was in the Czech League earlier this year, and that league has declined in quality pretty precipitously. If you can't play in that league you're not going to be able to succeed in the AHL, let alone the NHL.
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Yeah ... what happened there? Czech Republic and Slovakia were bastions of hockey. I don’t remember the last time we saw an elite young talent from either of those countries. I think we’re seeing better from Germany than from Cz/Sk.
 
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CasusBelli said:
Yeah ... what happened there? Czech Republic and Slovakia were bastions of hockey. I don’t remember the last time we saw an elite young talent from either of those countries. I think we’re seeing better from Germany than from Cz/Sk.
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Yeah, it’s a bit of a mystery how fast it went. They just lost their depth in their junior systems. Or at least, many other countries left them in the dust.

The big problem now is that it’s seen as you have to leave the country as a you g kid to get to a good enough developing environment. And all indications are that kids develop better the less environmental changes they have to adopt to in the mean time. At the same time, they lose their depth when the top kids goes to play in the CHL or other parts of Europe.

They still have an invaluable platform and still develop good players. I imagine that it can turn fast, but not big turn seems to be on the horizon.
 
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Ola said:
Yeah, it’s a bit of a mystery how fast it went. They just lost their depth in their junior systems. Or at least, many other countries left them in the dust.

The big problem now is that it’s seen as you have to leave the country as a you g kid to get to a good enough developing environment. And all indications are that kids develop better the less environmental changes they have to adopt to in the mean time. At the same time, they lose their depth when the top kids goes to play in the CHL or other parts of Europe.

They still have an invaluable platform and still develop good players. I imagine that it can turn fast, but not big turn seems to be on the horizon.
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That’s a good point. I’ve noticed more and more that many European youngsters outside Sweden and Finland go to CHL. I think the first time I noticed that was with Frolik almost 15 years ago, and I found it odd, but it seems pretty common now.
 
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NYSPORTS said:
the lottery wins, stealing Fox and signing Panarin made up for that Tampa trade. The #1 pick is still developing in play yet the players have been a weak return.
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I know that many big football clubs have internal targets for their recruitments, like United aim to have 80% of their signings reach their expectations etc.

In a sense I think it’s good, there is a risk in dwelling too much on mistakes. Even if everyone recognizes that some aspects of the NHL is a lottery to a certain extent, whenever you draw a blank it’s almost always still not excused. Or like seen as bad luck. It’s ‘omg omg McIlrath wasn’t just bad luck, it was unbelievably dumb’.

I call out management when I think that it’s warranted. But I’ve never had any real issues with our drafting. I was far from Lias or McIlrath’s biggest fans. But I think our guys have a strong compass of what they believe in and tries to do the best of it. Right now I think many other organizations have big flaws in their drafting, I don’t see that with us. We won’t be 100% but nobody is.
 
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Ola said:
I know that many big football clubs have internal targets for their recruitments, like United aim to have 80% of their signings reach their expectations etc.

In a sense I think it’s good, there is a risk in dwelling too much on mistakes. Even if everyone recognizes that some aspects of the NHL is a lottery to a certain extent, whenever you draw a blank it’s almost always still not excused. Or like seen as bad luck. It’s ‘omg omg McIlrath wasn’t just bad luck, it was unbelievably dumb’.

I call out management when I think that it’s warranted. But I’ve never had any real issues with our drafting. I was far from Lias or McIlrath’s biggest fans. But I think our guys have a strong compass of what they believe in and tries to do the best of it. Right now I think many other organizations have big flaws in their drafting, I don’t see that with us. We won’t be 100% but nobody is.
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I think the success of the top three is usually random. Maybe Ovechkin’s game didn’t translate to the NHL; maybe Crosby became apathetic and turned into the next Daigle. On the other hand, once you get to later rounds, I think you start thinking more critically / analytically and really studying the candidates. I’m not a scout, obviously, but I would be far more likely to follow prevailing wisdom with the obvious and then apply expertise with the obscure. We’ve drafted pretty well beyond the first round. So, if KK snd Laf don’t work out (and, under proper coaching, I’m confident they will), we can’t be too quick to blame our scouting. If scouts had suspected that these potential stars’ games wouldn’t translate to the NHL, the players wouldn’t have been ranked so highly.

I suppose this is part of a more philosophical discussion on one’s approach to randomness.
 
CasusBelli said:
Yes, Pasta is a good counterexample, but think back to the 2000s and 1990s. Czech Republic had Jagr, Nedved, Straka, Bonk, Hasek, Elias, Lang, Sykora, Hejduk, Hamrlik, Holik, etc. That’s a juggernaut compared to what we see from them now.
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I think I remember reading that there was a big development issue because they don’t have a huge budget. That being said zadina was the last big prospect from Che.
Those older prospects were more the product of the old Soviet program and the leftovers from that. Kids who were born in the 90s didn’t have that.
 
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CasusBelli said:
Yes, Pasta is a good counterexample, but think back to the 2000s and 1990s. Czech Republic had Jagr, Nedved, Straka, Bonk, Hasek, Elias, Lang, Sykora, Hejduk, Hamrlik, Holik, etc. That’s a juggernaut compared to what we see from them now.
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Point taken but you're including middling players in that. Hamrlik/Bonk/Holik.
 
IDvsEGO said:
I think I remember reading that there was a big development issue because they don’t have a huge budget. That being said zadina was the last big prospect from Che.
Those older prospects were more the product of the old Soviet program and the leftovers from that. Kids who were born in the 90s didn’t have that.
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That’s an excellent point! You’re absolutely right: most of the stars I mentioned were born in the 70s and therefore developed during the 80s — before the curtain fell.
 
SnowblindNYR said:
Point taken but you're including middling players in that. Hamrlik/Bonk/Holik.
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Bonk, Hamrlik and Holik were early-mid 70s birthdays. Same with Hejduk. I think Jagr was ‘72 and Hasek ‘65 — but my memory is iffy. I’m using a ten-year window, if that helps, assuming players on a national team range from ages 22 through 32. Just an approximation — add or subtract a few years to at least one of the ends.
 
CasusBelli said:
Bonk, Hamrlik and Holik were early-mid 70s birthdays. Same with Hejduk. I think Jagr was ‘72 and Hasek ‘65 — but my memory is iffy. I’m using a ten-year window, if that helps, assuming players on a national team range from ages 22 through 32. Just an approximation — add or subtract a few years to at least one of the ends.
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My point is they weren't great examples of great Czech talent.
 
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He looked bad on that one breakaway, but he looks like a good top pairing D-man right now. The Pens couldn't do shit for two games in large part due to him. They scored 2 non-fluky/goalie mistake goals in these two games.
 
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he made some really good plays. he’s really outplaying what I thought he was capable of so soon. I really hope he doesn’t hit a wall. confidence is key. the last thing you want is a couple bad games to snowball into his entire game becoming weak. I hope he learns from poor individual plays and not let it distract his overall game. you see the tools and it’s exciting to see what he may become in the future.
 
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he's playing like I'd expect a #1 overall pick to play TBH

He looks like a 'generational' talent. I'm not calling him that but he's been that impressive the past few games.
 
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