Prospect Info: Prospect Thread (Overseas, College, Junior, etc)

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Since the Preds aren't exactly must-watch TV these days, I've been watching some of our prospects.

Stiga- Going back to his draft year, he reminded me of Jaden Schwartz. Jaden during his prime was a guy that while not supremely skilled, made any line he played on better. Stiga is like that. His numbers have picked up over the season. BC had him fill in on D even when they were shorthanded. I don't know whether he is going to be a 40 pt guy or 60 pt guy, but I am confident he is going to be a good NHL player.

Fink- I haven't been impressed. Has some skill, but as an undersized guy without elite skating, I'd like to see more tenaciousness. Rather than coming away with pucks, he seems more interested in flying the zone and looking for easy points. I don't know that what he does translates at higher levels and not sure that he has enough more to overcome that.

Wood- He played with much more pace than in previous viewings. His skating looked improved. He seems to still be physically immature. He likely will never be a great skater, but if he can get to just being below average I think he processes game at high level and with his size that can make him effective top 6 forward. I feel better about his chances of becoming that than I did a couple months ago.

Gojsic- his Kelowna team is terrible- they had lost 15 in a row until winning Saturday- but I like his game. I haven't seen high-end skill from him, but he has nice shot, good size, skates well and likes to physically engage. I think he can be a quality 4th liner, maybe even 3rd.

I saw a bit of Molendyk and Gibson too, and they both remain on NHL track.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Since the Preds aren't exactly must-watch TV these days, I've been watching some of our prospects.

Stiga- Going back to his draft year, he reminded me of Jaden Schwartz. Jaden during his prime was a guy that while not supremely skilled, made any line he played on better. Stiga is like that. His numbers have picked up over the season. BC had him fill in on D even when they were shorthanded. I don't know whether hee is going to be a 40 pt guy or 60 pt guy, but I am confident he is going to be a good NHL player.

Fink- I haven't been impressed. Has some skill, but as an undersized guy without elite skating, I'd like to see more tenaciousness. Rather than coming away with pucks, he seems more interested in flying the zone and looking for easy points. I don't know that what he does translates at higher levels and not sure that he has enough more to overcome that.

Wood- He played with much more pace than in previous viewings. His skating looked improved. He seems to still be physically immature. He likely will never be a great skater, but if he can get to just being below average I think he processes game at high level and with his size that can make him effective top 6 forward. I feel better about his chances of becoming that than I did a couple months ago.

Gojsic- his Kelowna team is terrible- they had lost 15 in a row until winning Saturday- but I like his game. I haven't seen high-end skill from him, but he has nice shot, good size, skates well and likes to physically engage. I think he can be a quality 4th liner, maybe even 3rd.

I saw a bit of Molendyk and Gibson too, and they both remain on NHL track.

Keep it coming... this is gold!

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Since the Preds aren't exactly must-watch TV these days, I've been watching some of our prospects.

Stiga- Going back to his draft year, he reminded me of Jaden Schwartz. Jaden during his prime was a guy that while not supremely skilled, made any line he played on better. Stiga is like that. His numbers have picked up over the season. BC had him fill in on D even when they were shorthanded. I don't know whether hee is going to be a 40 pt guy or 60 pt guy, but I am confident he is going to be a good NHL player.

Fink- I haven't been impressed. Has some skill, but as an undersized guy without elite skating, I'd like to see more tenaciousness. Rather than coming away with pucks, he seems more interested in flying the zone and looking for easy points. I don't know that what he does translates at higher levels and not sure that he has enough more to overcome that.

Wood- He played with much more pace than in previous viewings. His skating looked improved. He seems to still be physically immature. He likely will never be a great skater, but if he can get to just being below average I think he processes game at high level and with his size that can make him effective top 6 forward. I feel better about his chances of becoming that than I did a couple months ago.

Gojsic- his Kelowna team is terrible- they had lost 15 in a row until winning Saturday- but I like his game. I haven't seen high-end skill from him, but he has nice shot, good size, skates well and likes to physically engage. I think he can be a quality 4th liner, maybe even 3rd.

I saw a bit of Molendyk and Gibson too, and they both remain on NHL track.

Keep it coming... this is gold!

Agreed, Porter. Great post.

At this point in the season, I'd love to put more of a microscope on our prospects and figure out what we've got.

 

[wmupreds]

Fink- I haven't been impressed. Has some skill, but as an undersized guy without elite skating, I'd like to see more tenaciousness. Rather than coming away with pucks, he seems more interested in flying the zone and looking for easy points. I don't know that what he does translates at higher levels and not sure that he has enough more to overcome that.

Wait. You mean to tell me there's more to evaluating prospects than point watching and liking their name?

 

[jumb0]

Wait. You mean to tell me there's more to evaluating prospects than point watching and liking their name?

Only for prospects not named Gunnerwolfe Fontaine

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Only for prospects not named Gunnerwolfe Fontaine

Or Simon "oooh my little pretty one" The Knak?

I mean, obviously we ALL want these guys to pan out and be heroes for us. Just the weight of past history says that it's really not very common for late-bloomers or 7th round draft picks to pan out. Yes, it HAS happened. Like < 1% of the time. But you are setting yourself up for disappointment if you choose to regularly bet on these guys.

 

[AintLifeGrand]

Since the Preds aren't exactly must-watch TV these days, I've been watching some of our prospects.

Stiga- Going back to his draft year, he reminded me of Jaden Schwartz. Jaden during his prime was a guy that while not supremely skilled, made any line he played on better. Stiga is like that. His numbers have picked up over the season. BC had him fill in on D even when they were shorthanded. I don't know whether he is going to be a 40 pt guy or 60 pt guy, but I am confident he is going to be a good NHL player.

Fink- I haven't been impressed. Has some skill, but as an undersized guy without elite skating, I'd like to see more tenaciousness. Rather than coming away with pucks, he seems more interested in flying the zone and looking for easy points. I don't know that what he does translates at higher levels and not sure that he has enough more to overcome that.

Wood- He played with much more pace than in previous viewings. His skating looked improved. He seems to still be physically immature. He likely will never be a great skater, but if he can get to just being below average I think he processes game at high level and with his size that can make him effective top 6 forward. I feel better about his chances of becoming that than I did a couple months ago.

Gojsic- his Kelowna team is terrible- they had lost 15 in a row until winning Saturday- but I like his game. I haven't seen high-end skill from him, but he has nice shot, good size, skates well and likes to physically engage. I think he can be a quality 4th liner, maybe even 3rd.

I saw a bit of Molendyk and Gibson too, and they both remain on NHL track.

I have actually watched a decent amount of Penn State games


Your read on fink is wrong , he’s a very cerebraal player with high IQ who knows how to be at the right place at the right time… very Novakian but with higher upside and better finishing ability

You don’t lead the ncaa in pts on a mediocre team (that you put on your back) without having major potential

 

[Scoresberg]

Now that BBB covered most of the NA prospects, I'll chip in with an update on Surin.

Although he's not getting huge amounts of ice-time, he's making the most of his stay with the KHL club. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 4 games and a total of 10 points in 33 games. Considering he's only getting about 10 minutes of ice-time per game in a low-scoring league, I'd say that's pretty good - and most of his production has come as of late. Lokomotiv is the top team in the whole league so understandably an 18-year-old won't get too much ice-time. Have to remember, Surin was really young for his draft class even as an August birthday.

As for his time in the MHL, he has 17 points in 12 games which is a good total although not earth-shattering.

All-in-all, I'd say a pretty decent trajectory for a pick not many of us here considered a good one (myself included). He's a big-body too and plays with an edge and if he can keep developing offensively at this level, we could have a decent player on our hands. Haven't checked his stats in the MHL but at least in the K, he's playing as a winger.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

You don’t lead the ncaa in pts on a mediocre team (that you put on your back) without having major potential

Unfortunately, that's just not true. Of the top 50 NCAA scorers this season, probably only about 10 will have NHL careers.

That's pretty typical historically. Of course, NCAA scoring has changed a lot since the days of Tony Hrkac. But even less than 10/50 of the all-time best season single season scorers in NCAA history had significant NHL careers.

So yes, if you are talking a 10-20% chance of being an NHLer as "major potential", then that's still a great accomplishment relative to the average 7th round draft pick. I think we all watch Fink (and O'Hara too now) with great interest after the huge seasons they are having. But history simply isn't on their side, and so those of us who have followed prospects for several decades now are going to take their scoring statistics with appropriate grains of salt.

External prospect rankers aren't (yet?) suddenly rocketing Fink and O'Hara up their lists either, btw. Which will sometimes happen if a late-bloomer is really turning heads on a broader scouting front. Maybe those people who make their livings in that profession are all just missing the boat too? I mean, you could choose to believe that you're the only one who sees it, that your guy is going to beat the historical odds and nobody else sees it. It's always possible. But for me, even if I believed that about a guy - and I don't watch prospects at all any more like I did in the past - I'd still want to caveat my personal hunches with a healthy dose of historical perspective? There are probably dozens of guys I followed in the 80s and 90s who I thought were going to be the next big thing... but who bombed. It's hard not to learn some humility if you keep at it long enough.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I have actually watched a decent amount of Penn State games


Your read on fink is wrong , he’s a very cerebraal player with high IQ who knows how to be at the right place at the right time… very Novakian but with higher upside and better finishing ability

You don’t lead the ncaa in pts on a mediocre team (that you put on your back) without having major potential

I don’t doubt that he is smart player. That is clearly big part of why he is so productive. I could be wrong, but I just don’t think it will translate to nhl level for him as I don’t see that he has enough of the traits that guy his size needs to be good nhl player.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Yeah, it looks like his stats were fairly non-descript in his D and D+1 seasons, leading to not getting drafted either year? Then in D+2 he had a pretty good year in his final junior season in the USHL, albeit on a really stacked Tri-City team, so I don't know if many people would have read too much into that production? The Preds read enough into it that they drafted him, though. But he was already "late-blooming" in junior... before now "late-blooming" again in college?

What else from the stats page... mid-size (6-0/185) RW...

UMass has a smattering of other NHL-drafted prospects... but it's interesting to note that the next-highest scorer to O'Hara's 45 pts is Aydar Suniev at just 30 pts. So it's not like O'Hara is being "carried" by some other big-name prospect having a huge year. He's The Man there, significantly outscoring everybody else on his team.

What else? I see he was drafted in the 10th round in both USHL and OHL drafts, so definitely not seen as a very serious prospect coming out of minor hockey. Taking the "slow boat" from Toronto to playing Jr A hockey, then the USHL, and now 3 years of NCAA... he turns 23 this summer. In his actual draft year in 2020 Central Scouting ranked him #170 in NA... which is basically a typical "not drafted" ranking once you sprinkle in all the Europeans and goalies. And so it was.

We'll take this season's huge jump, of course and be intrigued. It's not super common for this to lead to anything with that pedigree, but good for him, he has at least worked his way to a pro contract, you'd have to think. Let's see where he goes next...

Where he goes next? Straight into Brunette's doghouse.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Now that BBB covered most of the NA prospects, I'll chip in with an update on Surin.

Although he's not getting huge amounts of ice-time, he's making the most of his stay with the KHL club. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 4 games and a total of 10 points in 33 games. Considering he's only getting about 10 minutes of ice-time per game in a low-scoring league, I'd say that's pretty good - and most of his production has come as of late. Lokomotiv is the top team in the whole league so understandably an 18-year-old won't get too much ice-time. Have to remember, Surin was really young for his draft class even as an August birthday.

As for his time in the MHL, he has 17 points in 12 games which is a good total although not earth-shattering.

All-in-all, I'd say a pretty decent trajectory for a pick not many of us here considered a good one (myself included). He's a big-body too and plays with an edge and if he can keep developing offensively at this level, we could have a decent player on our hands. Haven't checked his stats in the MHL but at least in the K, he's playing as a winger.

Maybe Surin is a smaller Tarasenko type winger. Sort of the vibes I got watching him in dev camp.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Since the Preds aren't exactly must-watch TV these days, I've been watching some of our prospects.

Stiga- Going back to his draft year, he reminded me of Jaden Schwartz. Jaden during his prime was a guy that while not supremely skilled, made any line he played on better. Stiga is like that. His numbers have picked up over the season. BC had him fill in on D even when they were shorthanded. I don't know whether he is going to be a 40 pt guy or 60 pt guy, but I am confident he is going to be a good NHL player.

Fink- I haven't been impressed. Has some skill, but as an undersized guy without elite skating, I'd like to see more tenaciousness. Rather than coming away with pucks, he seems more interested in flying the zone and looking for easy points. I don't know that what he does translates at higher levels and not sure that he has enough more to overcome that.

Wood- He played with much more pace than in previous viewings. His skating looked improved. He seems to still be physically immature. He likely will never be a great skater, but if he can get to just being below average I think he processes game at high level and with his size that can make him effective top 6 forward. I feel better about his chances of becoming that than I did a couple months ago.

Gojsic- his Kelowna team is terrible- they had lost 15 in a row until winning Saturday- but I like his game. I haven't seen high-end skill from him, but he has nice shot, good size, skates well and likes to physically engage. I think he can be a quality 4th liner, maybe even 3rd.

I saw a bit of Molendyk and Gibson too, and they both remain on NHL track.

Good to hear on Wood. I was probably one of the first to be "out" on him, but I'd happily be wrong. I couldn't get his play speed out of my head watching him at camp, factoring in with how soft he seemed to be for his size. Everyone is going to body him, maybe even more so because of his size, so he's going to need to be able to handle the physicality especially if he can't skate away from guys. In camp it took minimal effort to disruptive his skating and lines to take him out of the play and consequently he was behind the play the entire time. I will say we need him to hit and be a top line guy in the worst way.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Good to hear on Wood. I was probably one of the first to be "out" on him, but I'd happily be wrong. I couldn't get his play speed out of my head watching him at camp, factoring in with how soft he seemed to be for his size. Everyone is going to body him, maybe even more so because of his size, so he's going to need to be able to handle the physicality especially if he can't skate away from guys. In camp it took minimal effort to disruptive his skating and lines to take him out of the play and consequently he was behind the play the entire time. I will say we need him to hit and be a top line guy in the worst way.

I think it's actually harder for players to change their "psyche" than it is to improve skating and other physical skillsets, unfortunately. If Wood doesn't have the "fire in the belly" today, I don't have high hopes that he'll suddenly acquire it. James Neal partially made up for his skating deficiency by also being a bit of a dick on the ice. If Wood is roughly at that sort of skill level as a player (tilted more to playmaking than sniping), I don't think he'll make it on that alone.

But again, the player is still young. It's just a shame, because in his draft year it was so exciting how he dominated at the U18s, so I think it was reasonable to hope for progression. When not much progression is apparent after a few years, however... I don't think we're in the wrong to be worried.