LW Yu Sato - Dynamo-Altay Barnaul, VHL (2020 undrafted)

[Gordon Graham]

If what the Fins are saying is true there is no way Sato could play in the QMJHL

We will have a clearer view of this situation in the next weeks

He's scored a goal and 2 assists in his first two exhibition games with the Remparts vs Rimouski. He was selected 1st star in today's game, doing what he's done at every level...create scoring with his elite skating, agility and hockey IQ

 

[SergeConstantin74]

He clearly can play in this league. Very good hockey IQ and always competing.

We’ll see later on what kind of impact he can have.

 

[Albatros]

Also, FWIW, his 1.42 P/G in BSMS isn't far off from Mantykivi (1.44) and Suni (1.57).

Mäntykivi is 1.76 in that league though. If not for his exotic origin Sato wouldn't have too much hope of getting drafted at this point. A professional career of some sort would be neat.

 

[Gordon Graham]

Mäntykivi is 1.76 in that league though. If not for his exotic origin Sato wouldn't have too much hope of getting drafted at this point. A professional career of some sort would be neat.

"at this point"? You mean two exhibition games into his major junior career?

 

[Porky]

Also, FWIW, his 1.42 P/G in BSMS isn't far off from Mantykivi (1.44) and Suni (1.57).

Adding some context. Suni scored all of those points in the fall series with higher competition. Mäntykivi scored 5+2 in 5 games in the lower autumn series that Sato played in. Also noteworthy that Sato's teammates had better stats, though Sato missed some games to injury so it may not be a fair comparison. Karvinen (18 GP, 9+21, 1.67 P/G) and Latvala (17 GP, 10+17, 1.59 P/G).

Eliteprospects and other sites lump all of these separate stages together so it's hard to tell what kind of competition the players were playing against. You can check the separated stats here. The website is in Finnish but it's mainly dropdowns.
Selecting the season and league (taso) should be easy enough. Nuorten SM-Liiga is Jr. A, and B-nuorten SM-sarja is Jr. B.
We can ignore the area (alue) dropdown since that's not used for the leagues we're interested in (Jr.A/B).
The important part is the series (sarja) dropdown where for Jr. B we have a couple of options: alkusarja, playoff, alempi jatkosarja, and confusingly just SM-sarja which is also the name of the whole league that encompasses all of these stages.
The season starts with the alkusarja with 16 teams, after playing everyone twice the bottom 6 drop down to alempi jatkosarja where they play with the four top Jr. B mestis teams (Sato's team KV was one of these). The top 10 teams of alkusarja make up SM-sarja. The playoff is just the playoffs of course, with one playoff spot up for grabs in the lower series for the top team. That's about it for Jr. B structure.

 

[beowulf]

Telling someone's height from a picture is misleading because of perspective etc.

Good luck to him, always nice to have someone from a non-traditional hockey country having some success.

 

[ijuka]

Also, FWIW, his 1.42 P/G in BSMS isn't far off from Mantykivi (1.44) and Suni (1.57).

It's funny how you're supposed to be a scout yet you make statements such as these that really harm your credibility.

1. Suni didn't play in the same league as these two. He played in upper BSM, the other two played in lower - you're supposed to know this if you're a scout and do any actual player watching(not stat watching).

2. Mäntykivi's BSM scoring was awful, it's his ASM scoring that makes him a significant prospect at all. Aatu Räty for example scored 3 PPG at BSM but couldn't hit a PPG at ASM. This is especially stupid of you because a year ago Mäntykivi had 2 PPG at BSM, so with any common sense it's pretty simple to conclude he just coasted through the unchallenging games. Either you're being intentionally misleading or merely incompetent.

"at this point"? You mean two exhibition games into his major junior career?

His Finnish career path was "undrafted"-level, so that'd be his level at this point. He certainly can improve later, as can everyone else. "at this point" isn't a difficult concept to grasp.

 

[Gordon Graham]

It's funny how you're supposed to be a scout yet you make statements such as these that really harm your credibility.

1. Suni didn't play in the same league as these two. He played in upper BSM, the other two played in lower - you're supposed to know this if you're a scout and do any actual player watching(not stat watching).

2. Mäntykivi's BSM scoring was awful, it's his ASM scoring that makes him a significant prospect at all. Aatu Räty for example scored 3 PPG at BSM but couldn't hit a PPG at ASM. This is especially stupid of you because a year ago Mäntykivi had 2 PPG at BSM, so with any common sense it's pretty simple to conclude he just coasted through the unchallenging games. Either you're being intentionally misleading or merely incompetent.

His Finnish career path was "undrafted"-level, so that'd be his level at this point. He certainly can improve later, as can everyone else. "at this point" isn't a difficult concept to grasp.

Undrafted @16? Sorry but that IS a difficult concept to grasp. Please enlighten me. He was drafted into the QMJHL @17, prior to playing one season in Finland he was unknown, playing pee wee, bantam and minor midget in Russia, so at what point exactly was he supposed to "be drafted"?

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Adding some context. Suni scored all of those points in the fall series with higher competition. Mäntykivi scored 5+2 in 5 games in the lower autumn series that Sato played in. Also noteworthy that Sato's teammates had better stats, though Sato missed some games to injury so it may not be a fair comparison. Karvinen (18 GP, 9+21, 1.67 P/G) and Latvala (17 GP, 10+17, 1.59 P/G).

Eliteprospects and other sites lump all of these separate stages together so it's hard to tell what kind of competition the players were playing against. You can check the separated stats here. The website is in Finnish but it's mainly dropdowns.
Selecting the season and league (taso) should be easy enough. Nuorten SM-Liiga is Jr. A, and B-nuorten SM-sarja is Jr. B.
We can ignore the area (alue) dropdown since that's not used for the leagues we're interested in (Jr.A/B).
The important part is the series (sarja) dropdown where for Jr. B we have a couple of options: alkusarja, playoff, alempi jatkosarja, and confusingly just SM-sarja which is also the name of the whole league that encompasses all of these stages.
The season starts with the alkusarja with 16 teams, after playing everyone twice the bottom 6 drop down to alempi jatkosarja where they play with the four top Jr. B mestis teams (Sato's team KV was one of these). The top 10 teams of alkusarja make up SM-sarja. The playoff is just the playoffs of course, with one playoff spot up for grabs in the lower series for the top team. That's about it for Jr. B structure.

Normally I care very little about leagues below junior level and still don’t know (and care) about league structure, especially Europe, where I rely on multiple sources to give me a heads up or send me footage. So thank you for explaining it.

I was only trying to point out that even if he faced inferior competition, he still did pretty well from a statistical standpoint. I mean, he was the team leading scorer by almost double from the next guy.

The fact that he’s off to a fantastic start to his QMJHL preseason, and he was a high import pick, and gets rave reviews from scouts overseas, likely combine into validating him as a draft prospect.

Odd that his accomplishments are being discredited or marginalized in this thread. He’s a very good player, whether his low-level league sucked or not.

 

[Gordon Graham]

Normally I care very little about leagues below junior level and still don’t know (and care) about league structure, especially Europe, where I rely on multiple sources to give me a heads up or send me footage. So thank you for explaining it.

I was only trying to point out that even if he faced inferior competition, he still did pretty well from a statistical standpoint. I mean, he was the team leading scorer by almost double from the next guy.

The fact that he’s off to a fantastic start to his QMJHL preseason, and he was a high import pick, and gets rave reviews from scouts overseas, likely combine into validating him as a draft prospect.

Odd that his accomplishments are being discredited or marginalized in this thread. He’s a very good player, whether his low-level league sucked or not.

I saw enough of his games in Finland to see he should have had double the amount of points he had, if teammates knew what a give-and-go was, or the D on the power play didn't think the best play was a shot into the opposing forward's shin pads at the blue line. Sato is an unselfish playmaker with a high hockey IQ, he anticipates the play extremely well and has elite vision. He uses every player on the ice, including the opposition whom he manipulates to free up his teammates. The level of hockey he was playing in Finland was beneath him.

 

[nbwingsfan]

He's scored a goal and 2 assists in his first two exhibition games with the Remparts vs Rimouski. He was selected 1st star in today's game, doing what he's done at every level...create scoring with his elite skating, agility and hockey IQ

One thing to keep in mind is that the “exhibition” games this early during camp are almost entirely made up of the bubble players where only 2-3 guys from each team will actually even make the QMJHL.

So while his stats look great so far, he’s doing it more against Midget AAA/JrA talent, not Q.

I haven’t actually seen him play so I’m not commenting on how he’s actually looked, just giving context to posters who may not know how these games tend to work.

 

[Gordon Graham]

One thing to keep in mind is that the “exhibition” games this early during camp are almost entirely made up of the bubble players where only 2-3 guys from each team will actually even make the QMJHL.

So while his stats look great so far, he’s doing it more against Midget AAA/JrA talent, not Q.

I haven’t actually seen him play so I’m not commenting on how he’s actually looked, just giving context to posters who may not know how these games tend to work.

Rimouski iced all rookies the first game, but the 2nd game they iced a half and half team with rookies and Q players, but your point is taken. Cheers!

 

[Gordon Graham]

The roster for the 2019/20 Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL has been determined:LES REMPARTS COMPLÈTENT LEUR ALIGNEMENT – Remparts de Québec

 

[Dongstoppable]

The roster for the 2019/20 Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL has been determined:LES REMPARTS COMPLÈTENT LEUR ALIGNEMENT – Remparts de Québec

Whoa so he made the roster? Is he the first Japanese player to play major junior in Canada?

 

[Newfoundland]

Think so

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Whoa so he made the roster? Is he the first Japanese player to play major junior in Canada?

It's not a big surprise. He was already assured of making it before coming over.

I think he's the second Japanese player. Takuma Kawai played for Drummondville and Gatineau. He even won the league's title with Gatineau in 2008 (alongside Claude Giroux and Paul Byron).

Takuma Kawai at eliteprospects.com

 

[Newfoundland]

What kind of production can we expect from Sato this season?

 

[SergeConstantin74]

What kind of production can we expect from Sato this season?

No idea

 

[Killerjas]

What kind of production can we expect from Sato this season?

20ish points

 

[Number 57]

20ish points

From what I heard he displayed pretty good speed and skills in pre-season action. He could end up playing top-6 and the Remparts have some good offensive players on their roster. I could see him reaching 35-40 pts

 

[SergeConstantin74]

He will start on the 2nd line.

James Malatesta - Felix Bibeau - Pierrick Dube
Yu Sato - Andrew Coxhead - Anthony Gagnon
Thomas Caron - Aleksei Sergeev - Edouard St-Laurent
Gabriel Montreuil - Nathan Gaucher - Jacob Melanson

 

[izzy]

his elite prospects picture is not the greatest

 

[Gordon Graham]

his elite prospects picture is not the greatest

How about this:

 

[SergeConstantin74]

He got his first point tonight in a 3-1 win. He looks more and more comfortable after missing the first two games of the season with a wrist injury.

3 shots on goal (2 scoring chances), +1 and 1 hit in the game

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Roy mentions he probably won't be back with the Remparts next season. His performances weren't as good as they expected. He has 4 goals and 5 assists in 31 games. Good enough to play in the league on a 4th line, but as an import player his impact has to be greater than that.