Going by Wickenheiser's comments in that recent Athletic article, perhaps she's searching for an excuse for a Leafs brass biased against small defenders (which is their prerogative!), but it sounds like the Leafs simply haven't been impressed by Niemela's off-ice work. I was pretty baffled by his lack of exhibition gametime this year, but it's on him if he's not doing the requisite work. I've generally thought Niemela's looked 'good' in the few Marlies games I've caught, but certainly not 'exceptional'.
I know we need/want Niemela and Hirvonen to turn out, but:
a) worth keeping in mind they were
only late 2nd/early 3rd round picks at 59 and 64. Draft pick value drops off
steeply from about the mid-1st round. Not using that as an excuse, but a reality check.
b) On that note, glancing at that 2020 draft, I was struck by how poor most of the picks after them are looking:
Elite Prospects - NHL Entry Draft 2020 Could've taken Will Cuylle instead of Hirvonen... after that, need to drop to 83 for Alex Laferriere for an NHL regular. Otherwise a bit of prospect wasteland
The likes of Kleven, Faber (!), or Lohrei would've been available at 44 if we hadn't traded down for 59 and 64, but that's a deeper counterfactual
(took a quick glance and doesn't look like those guys were that highly ranked at the time)
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Shame that Tverberg's production has plummeted. 2 goals and 6 assists in 28 games (23 point 82 game pace*) after putting up a pretty impressive 9 goals and 23 assists in 46 games (57 point pace) last year. Sounds like he's had some injury issues, so let's see how the last year of his ELC goes next year, but was hoping he'd turn out to be a diamond in the rough (keeping in perspective that he was a late 7th rounder...)
*Yeah, yeah, I know they don't play 82 games in the AHL...
