Draft Round 1 #23: New York Rangers Select RW Gabriel Perreault (Boston College, NCAA)

[2014nyr]

People bitch about Gabe's skating. The fact that he stayed on his feet on that play is bonkers. I fell twice watching it.

Most people simply parrot criticisms others have made, and skating is a lazy criticism to begin with. There’s a lot of elements to skating, and he’s very good at a lot of them. He’s got fantastic body control, balance, and he can lean on his edges well which, combined with his hands, allow him to be so slippery in small areas/through contact. What is fair to have some concerns about is his underwhelming explosiveness. He’s plenty fast enough and has no problem carrying the puck in full flight, but he can struggle to give himself opportunities to do that because his first few steps from a stop or changing direction either aren’t enough to get to loose pucks first or escape getting closed on. It’s not a huge concern, and if nothing else that will inevitably improve to some degree simply through physical maturation, but ideally that’s the overwhelming focus of his training. He’ll never be mcdavid, but every bit of marginal improvement there will have a compounding effect improving the impact he can make offensively.

 

[TGWL]

You don't think he'd be on the table if Fox's next partner was available?

No. And why should he be? The player you put next to Fox won't be as good as Fox, right? You're not getting a super start 1D here. You're going after a competent player who can eat 20+ minutes on the 1st line. So if you waste an asset like your best prospect when you have an aging core, then you should be removed from handling organizational decisions. Getting a star winger or star center would be a much different conversation than going after Fox's partner.

 

[TGWL]

It's not all about size. Brad Marchand plays plenty big at 5'9" 180. He's the exception, not the rule but just saying GP can improve. He'll need to learn to protect the puck vs NHL size and NHL speed. Can't teach the IQ. It's like he sees everything on the ice in slow mo so acting vs speed should not be the hardest part.

It's not so much an exception. Marchand clearly put a lot of effort into working out. Weight aside, he probably has great core strength and lower balance control, making it tougher to knock him around battling for the puck. Those aren't 5'9 twig legs.

 

[n8]

It's not so much an exception. Marchand clearly put a lot of effort into working out. Weight aside, he probably has great core strength and lower balance control, making it tougher to knock him around battling for the puck. Those aren't 5'9 twig legs.

The exception being that most of the other 5'9" players simply are stuck in the AHL.
Here are the small fries in the league. Some are more stocky and play beyond their height, others are going to rely on their skill and agility to avoid puck battles vs much bigger players.

(all players listed are 5'8 or 5'9")
Pageau, 195#
Krug, 194#
Blackwell, 190#
Marchessault, 185#
Gallagher, 185#
Sheary, 182#
Zuccarello, 181#
Marchand, 180#
Debrincat, 180#
Caufield, 175#
Gourde, 174#
Lizotte, 173#
Spurgeon, 166# (this one surprises me)
Garland, 165#
Stankoven, 165#