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

[eco's bones]

Hagens is having a fine tournament. He’s been a good player at BC this year too and prospect fatigue is definitely becoming a thing with him. He isn’t Celebrini but some
of the takes on him (from the so called experts) have started to become borderline loony.

As far as the forwards go he’s at worst #2 at the moment. I get that the OHL guys are putting up huge numbers but that league is a different beast than the NCAA.



I think Hensler has been terrible.

Generally I think this tournament is not a great barometer for draft eligible but he’s been so bad that I can’t imagine he won't end up falling a bit.

If this were my first time getting a look at him he wouldn’t even be on my radar as a first round pick.

I don't think Hagen's is quite up there with Celebrini either but other than Schaefer I don't see anyone displacing him right now. Martone was pretty near invisible for Canada. Canada apart from their goaltending was not very good though.

As far as Hensler I don't think he's falling out of the 1st but I don't have the impression this is a great draft either. If it were he might. I do think you're right about this tournament not being a be all end all. Pretty much the only non overage players of note eligible who did well were Hagens and Eklund.

There were some overage guys I thought for later rounds. Rimpinen is carry a .940 save % for Finland playing all 6 games for them and getting bombed in at least a couple of them. The Latvian goalie Feldbergs was really good too.

 

[eco's bones]

Speaking of Ryan Leonard he is about 6' and 200 lbs. He's playing a kind of power forward goal scorer's role with BC and the USA WJC team but IMO he is going to have to adapt his game more than Gabriel when he hits the pros. He'll be playing against older, bigger and stronger guys and better goalies and I don't see him barreling into the crease with regularity (at least not for a while) and overpowering all that many NHL defensemen. Not likely he's going to get 6/7 shots on goal every night either. It's typical for lots of known junior and college goal scorers to find it difficult to replicate their goal scoring when they hit the pros. Some start to score more after a while and some never get there.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I don't think Hagen's is quite up there with Celebrini either but other than Schaefer I don't see anyone displacing him right now. Martone was pretty near invisible for Canada. Canada apart from their goaltending was not very good though.

As far as Hensler I don't think he's falling out of the 1st but I don't have the impression this is a great draft either. If it were he might. I do think you're right about this tournament not being a be all end all. Pretty much the only non overage players of note eligible who did well were Hagens and Eklund.

There were some overage guys I thought for later rounds. Rimpinen is carry a .940 save % for Finland playing all 6 games for them and getting bombed in at least a couple of them. The Latvian goalie Feldbergs was really good too.

Oh I don’t think Hensler is falling out of the 1st either, just that he’s had such a bad showing that if I hadn’t seen him before this he wouldn’t even be in the conversation for a first round pick.

Hes better than hes shown so far.

 

[noncents]

Speaking of Ryan Leonard he is about 6' and 200 lbs. He's playing a kind of power forward goal scorer's role with BC and the USA WJC team but IMO he is going to have to adapt his game more than Gabriel when he hits the pros. He'll be playing against older, bigger and stronger guys and better goalies and I don't see him barreling into the crease with regularity (at least not for a while) and overpowering all that many NHL defensemen. Not likely he's going to get 6/7 shots on goal every night either. It's typical for lots of known junior and college goal scorers to find it difficult to replicate their goal scoring when they hit the pros. Some start to score more after a while and some never get there.

Leonard can add another 10-15lbs and absolutely muscle his way to an NHL career. just because he's 6' and not 6'4 doesn't mean he can't play a power game. lower center of gravity can help with leverage in puck battles anyway. He's a stud, sad to say.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Leonard can add another 10-15lbs and absolutely muscle his way to an NHL career. just because he's 6' and not 6'4 doesn't mean he can't play a power game. lower center of gravity can help with leverage in puck battles anyway. He's a stud, sad to say.

I don’t think eco is off.

Even if he adds that weight, I don’t think he’s going to be able to bull rush his way to the net as often as he moves up. He already gets clocked a ton, those hits are going to stick at the NHL level.

Lucky for him, he knows how to do it with guile too.

 

[kovazub94]

Leonard can add another 10-15lbs and absolutely muscle his way to an NHL career. just because he's 6' and not 6'4 doesn't mean he can't play a power game. lower center of gravity can help with leverage in puck battles anyway. He's a stud, sad to say.

There are plenty of premier forwards (I’m sure that I don’t need to list them) in 6’0” - 6’1” range that Leonard’s game already resembles. Does he need to keep progressing? Obviously. Would he require to reinvent his game? IMO no, unless there’s another definition to “reinvent”

 

[eco's bones]

Leonard can add another 10-15lbs and absolutely muscle his way to an NHL career. just because he's 6' and not 6'4 doesn't mean he can't play a power game. lower center of gravity can help with leverage in puck battles anyway. He's a stud, sad to say.

I can see Leonard becoming a very effective NHL player and a pretty good goal scorer. I have some doubt it's going to happen right off. There are plenty of 6'0 200 lb. forwards in the NHL with some degree of edge and physicality. The chemistry he has with Smith/Hagens and Perreault is not going to follow him to the Caps either. He feeds a lot off of them.

 

[eco's bones]

I don’t think eco is off.

Even if he adds that weight, I don’t think he’s going to be able to bull rush his way to the net as often as he moves up. He already gets clocked a ton, those hits are going to stick at the NHL level.

Lucky for him, he knows how to do it with guile too.

Leonard's taken a lot of abuse in this tournament. An 80 game season of that against bigger, tougher players would wear pretty much anyone down and pretty much he's been playing weekend hockey--two games a week.

Ovechkin is around 240 lbs. and he's not crashing the net as much as we've seen from Leonard in these games. He's a super tough player but he gets a lot of his goals shooting from the circles.

The case for Perreault is a little different. He's a sneaky cerebral player. He can finish plays but guile, hands and passing skills are his main thing. Again he uses his teammates....doesn't try to accomplish things on his own.

 

[Guyute]

Idk why people keep saying not to get your hopes up for Perreault considering how dominant Kakko and Lafreniere were in the WJC.

What are you smoking? Kakko wasn’t dominant in the WJC at all! He had a measly 5 points in 7 games. Lundell looked better than him throughout the tournament even though he was a year younger. Kakko scored the golden goal and that’s about it.

 

[bhamill]

Leonard's taken a lot of abuse in this tournament. An 80 game season of that against bigger, tougher players would wear pretty much anyone down and pretty much he's been playing weekend hockey--two games a week.

Ovechkin is around 240 lbs. and he's not crashing the net as much as we've seen from Leonard in these games. He's a super tough player but he gets a lot of his goals shooting from the circles.

The case for Perreault is a little different. He's a sneaky cerebral player. He can finish plays but guile, hands and passing skills are his main thing. Again he uses his teammates....doesn't try to accomplish things on his own.

Yeah. I see Leonard as a guy who will START to come into his own in the NHL at around 23. Players who are his style take time at the pro level. Depending on how the Caps bring him along, may take longer. Lafreniere is an example, he relied somewhat on being a bull in juniors, he was never the slippery sort. I know he’s in a prolonged slump, but he’s not what he’s going to be yet either. That’s certainly not a knock on Leonard, I’d love him on this team.
Perrault is more in the Hughes/Zegras ctagory in that they are players that don’t rely on the kind of bull game Leonard plays, but more on IQ, hands and being slippery. FINDING spaces rather than having to make them. Hughes rookie season was even worse than Laf’s IMO, he was rushed because the Devils NEEDED him, but by his D+3 he was a star, he was closer to his ceiling than these physical guys are at that age. Perrault COULD do the same. He won’t have to physically battle bigger stronger NHL players to be effective. (And no I’m not saying he will be up at Hughes’ level or crash like Zegras, just talking styles.)

Or I have it totally wrong! Hahahaha. We’ll see I suppose.

 

[CTRanger]

I see Leonard as a Dustin Brown type of player.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I see Leonard as a Dustin Brown type of player.

Absolutely.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Why so he will turn to shit once he signs here. Imagine if he stays at college and goes somewhere else to help his career. Why ruin your career and sign with the Rangers as a young player?

You might be the most negative poster on this board and that says a lot coming from me. Reading your posts makes me want to put a knife through my eye

Can't complain about his production or not scoring tonight so we've got to read this.

He's everything wrong with this board.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Brodzinski being more than a corpse is helping!

 

[eco's bones]

You might be the most negative poster on this board and that says a lot coming from me. Reading your posts makes me want to put a knife through my eye



He's everything wrong with thus board.

FWIW we all pretty much know this season is shit and much as that really sucks we're going to have to live with that. Because this season is shit doesn't mean that all the seasons to come will be shit or that every player we draft will somehow underwhelm or flat out suck. Some people are just relentless with their negativity and it doesn't really serve any purpose.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Gotta love the main boards. Leonard getting all the love whether he assists or scores on the goal. GP is treated like a bum.

 

[noncents]

Gotta love the main boards. Leonard getting all the love whether he assists or scores on the goal. GP is treated like a bum.

link please?

 

[RempireStateBuilding]

Gotta love the main boards. Leonard getting all the love whether he assists or scores on the goal. GP is treated like a bum.

They did the same on the broadcast. Talking about the top players for Team USA - Leonard, Hutson, Hagens, Buium. Didn't even throw an honorable mention to Perreault.

Who cares. Let them say (or not say) whatever. It'll be funnier when everyone says "How did Perreault fall so far in the draft?"

 

[kovazub94]

Listened to Marek’s podcast that came out on the first day of WJC - not only both Pierreault and Fortescue were (positively) discussed at length but Emery was also mentioned (and it was also done in a positive light).

 

[McRanger92]

Lafreniere-Chytil-Perreault

 

[Bacon Artemi Bravo]

I love this kid and he's going to be a stud NHL player. That said - I totally see why Smith, Leonard & Hagens are all more highly touted. Gabe is a talented kid but parts of his game are still very raw. He's going to need to be in the right situation to make it work in the NHL. For all the great things he's done in the WJC, he's had plenty of turnovers, bad passes and bad reads as well. Again, he's certainly a talented kid and I'm hopeful he has the personality and persistence to continue working on his game.

 

[Machinehead]

Nice to see Sweden continuing their tradition of being 196-2 in the group stages all-time and like 5-83 in the medal rounds.

 

[duhmetreE]

I see his first few steps/burst is more than good enough.

His hands are ridiculous

 

[Machinehead]

I see his first few steps/burst is more than good enough.

His hands are ridiculous

The way he plays offense is not the way this team plays offense, and that concerns me as to when he gets here.

Every move he makes is to work his way towards the net, and then he finds the seam when he draws coverage.

The Rangers go right for the seam and f*** the coverage. Just keep chucking the pass into traffic until it hits.

 

[Synergy27]

Man that kid Topias Hynninen is a good skater. Undrafted.