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.
Draft Round 1 #23: New York Rangers Select RW Gabriel Perreault (Boston College, NCAA)
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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.
- Jul 28, 2011
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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.
- Jul 28, 2011
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n8
WAAAAAAA!!!
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#
- Apr 16, 2012
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Why are we talking about Gabe like he isn’t closer to 6’ than 5’8”? And like he isn’t already about 180 pounds at 19 years old? (Was 5’11” 178 pounds to start the season according to BC). If he isn’t 190lbs in two or three years or l will be shocked. Remember, he was close to the youngest in his draft class. He wasn’t far off from this being his D+1 season…
It’s weird. It’s like some of us are LOOKING for reasons to be down on him. He will be plenty big enough for this league and he skates more than well enough.
HockeyBasedNYC
Feeling it
Its like if we keep our expectations really low and expect him and other prospects to fail at the NHL level, it will actually be great when they develop into a serviceable NHL player.
We've been burned in the past and I think thats part of whats going on here, lol
We've been burned in the past and I think thats part of whats going on here, lol
- Apr 16, 2012
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Harbour Dog
Registered User
100% what I'm doing in my head. He's not doing anything crazier than Kakko or Laf did.
Until we see how well he can be a 3rd line grinder, we'll never know for sure if he'll be a top6 star.
n8
WAAAAAAA!!!
You need to go back and read the thread which are were a part of. I think you completely forgot, jumped back in, and are now acting hysterical. We're talking about how there more to size. And now how stocky players play with a lot of power. So hopefully GP can develop so of that stocky strength.
When people knock Perreault for his skating, it tells me one of two things: they haven't watched him for a while, or they've watched him but don't know how to evaluate skating.
His skating isn't a strength but it's not a weakness at this point and using it as a criticism is lame.
His skating isn't a strength but it's not a weakness at this point and using it as a criticism is lame.
- Aug 5, 2010
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Probably the former. Folks who watch would be able to see his separation speed on breakaways or catching-up to opponents on the backcheck. I have been rolling my eyes when I see recent takes about his alleged (lack of) speed
UnSandvich
Registered User
- Sep 7, 2017
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I'd argue it's a weakness, but that its more relative to the rest of his game rather than a massive issue. If he skated like a Hughes, he probably would've gone Top 5
eco's bones
Registered User
His issue was speed which he's improved. He always has had very good edges and he's a very slippery player. A lot of what he does is about deception.....disappear, reappear stuff. He's also a magician with the puck and in stride and off of either foot. He's so calm with the puck on his stick that often he's just waiting out the defenseman or the goalie to beat themselves and then he makes the play.
JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK
Twenty f*ckin years
- Oct 8, 2010
- 80,011
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n8
WAAAAAAA!!!
It's important to distinguish weakness based on his EANHL stat deltas vs weakness based against league norms. Using numbers for a sec, if you say his hockey IQ is 90 out of 100 and you are concerned about skating which for this example we'll rate at 70, sure there is a 20 point delta but if 70 is league norm, then it's not a weakness in his ability to compete but more like just an area that doesn't rate as high as others. The English language fails me sometimes. I guarantee you the Germans have the exact word I'm looking for. Weakest link isn't quite it.
- Aug 5, 2010
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BC vs BU underway. Perreault just scored the first goal - my son is at the game and I'm getting play by play report.
Unfortunately Gabe did his best Panarin impression and turned the puck over via bad pass that led to BU's first goal.
Gabe still looks like one of the best skaters out there but that was a pass he'd like to have back.
Gabe still looks like one of the best skaters out there but that was a pass he'd like to have back.
The Crypto Guy
Registered User
- Jun 26, 2017
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