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

[GoAwayPanarin]

Easy. He is just GIVEN it.
GP declined from 1.7 PPG to 1.4 PPG, and he was slowed by injury, its not like he started playing like garbage. hahahaha.

That and college scoring is down this year.

I can’t tell if SA is serious or not most of the time though. This was a popular jovo talking point that got shattered pretty much immediately though.

 

[kovazub94]

I think you are missing the point: most teams don't REQUIRE their top prospects to EARN opportunities, they GIVE them opportunities to facilitate development and live with the road bumps as necessary. Psycho didn't argue which prospects "deserved" opportunity presumably because 1) that's not the point and 2) its actually not crazy that a team trying to win it all wasn't willing to live with the growing pains in prominent roles.
THIS team is struggling to make the playoffs, with the veteran core breaking down, its not going to magically be a contender next year unless young guys take a step... which is less likely because we didn't prioritize their development. IMO, which you are free to totally disagree with, it would behoove this team to take the tact that teams who have more successfully groomed and developed their forward prospects. GIVE them (un-earned) responsibility and live with the growing pains. To me giving GP top six minutes and lots of PP1 time WHETHER OR NOT HE EARNS IT is an easy no-brainer. Jack Hughes was even worse than Laf his first year, but was stapled to PP1 and the top six. He was a bit better his second year and took off his third. All while making shit tons of mistakes and not getting yanked around over it. Now I'm not claiming Laf would have reached Hughes' level or anything, just that he would likely be way closer to his OWN ceiling way faster.

You're mistaken on the first point. No contending team with a special teams unit that operates at the top of the league (so doesn't need to be fixed) will just give away one of the spots to unproven prospect. If you disagree there's no point to continue - you have a different opinion from FOs re. how short term- vs long-term goals need to be managed (that is also separate from the discussion about how you think prospects should be developed). Again this is based on state of the team and state of its PP performance.

The second point is that Perreault is not on the team right now but you're assuming next year will be the same shit show including recently how PP looked. IMO it is not so obvious it will be the case. So if your starting point is that 2025-2026 will be the same shit show overall and PP in particular - I'd agree with you, but I'm not sure your starting point for this argument is unquestioned.

 

[bhamill]

That and college scoring is down this year.

I can’t tell if SA is serious or not most of the time though. This was a popular jovo talking point that got shattered pretty much immediately though.

You may be right, I may have missed his sarcasm.

 

[bhamill]

You're mistaken on the first point. No contending team with a special teams unit that operates at the top of the league (so doesn't need to be fixed) will just give away one of the spots to unproven prospect. If you disagree there's no point to continue - you have a different opinion from FOs re. how short term- vs long-term goals need to be managed (that is also separate from the discussion about how you think prospects should be developed). Again this is based on state of the team and state of its PP performance.

The second point is that Perreault is not on the team right now but you're assuming next year will be the same shit show including recently how PP looked. IMO it is not so obvious it will be the case. So if your starting point is that 2025-2026 will be the same shit show overall and PP in particular - I'd agree with you, but I'm not sure your starting point for this argument is unquestioned.

I'm sure NONE of my opinions or observations can be considered unquestioned, so that's fair. Hahahaha. It's still the way I see it. In any case I'm not a person that needs everyone (or anyone for that matter) to agree with me. Just giving MY take, bud! I respect yours as well.

 

[romba]

I agree with @kovazub94

As an example of one our younger guys, Laf is terrible on the PP. He's slow with the puck and honestly Kakko, who didn't look good on the PP either, looked better than Laf does now. Kakko would at least move the puck quickly which Laf is unable to do. Laf receives the pass on the side boards, looks for a seam pass, it isn't there so he then skates down low the puck hoping the seam pass will miraculously open from his slick skating. On the PP you need to move the puck quickly- he should be surveying for the seam pass before he gets the puck so he can either quickly make that pass or then give it to the next man to get the PKers moving. Skating with the puck when it looks like you have space on the PP doesn't cause defensive breakdowns, it allows the PKers to slowly hone in on you while blocking passing lanes, and pressure the guys closer to you who might be receiving the puck from you.

Zibs stinks whenever there's a teensy bit of pressure on him and I wouldn't hate seeing him bumped off PP1 but at least has a good wrister and slapper which is his saving grace.

I think Gabe will show his slickness at the NHL level, something few of our prospects show, and the coaches will reward him with some PP1 opportunities and if he looks good, he'll stick, if not he won't.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

I agree with @kovazub94

As an example of one our younger guys, Laf is terrible on the PP. He's slow with the puck and honestly Kakko, who didn't look good on the PP either, looked better than Laf does now. Kakko would at least move the puck quickly which Laf is unable to do. Laf receives the pass on the side boards, looks for a seam pass, it isn't there so he then skates down low the puck hoping the seam pass will miraculously open from his slick skating. On the PP you need to move the puck quickly- he should be surveying for the seam pass before he gets the puck so he can either quickly make that pass or then give it to the next man to get the PKers moving. Skating with the puck when it looks like you have space on the PP doesn't cause defensive breakdowns, it allows the PKers to slowly hone in on you while blocking passing lanes, and pressure the guys closer to you who might be receiving the puck from you.

Zibs stinks whenever there's a teensy bit of pressure on him and I wouldn't hate seeing him bumped off PP1 but at least has a good wrister and slapper which is his saving grace.

I think Gabe will show his slickness at the NHL level, something few of our prospects show, and the coaches will reward him with some PP1 opportunities and if he looks good, he'll stick, if not he won't.

Laf was amazing on the PP until he got to the Rangers.

I can see the same thing happening to Gabe

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Easy. He is just GIVEN it.
GP declined from 1.7 PPG to 1.4 PPG, and he was slowed by injury, its not like he started playing like garbage. hahahaha.

He was clearly making fun of Ed.

 

[romba]

Laf was amazing on the PP until he got to the Rangers.

I can see the same thing happening to Gabe

I didn't follow Laf in juniors, but what Gabe does on the PP, disguising intent be it with shots or passes, works at the NHL level against both d and goalies. I doubt Laf (who was younger) was pulling the same shtick in juniors, because he doesn't do any of that at the NHL, but I could be wrong.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Just getting the Powerplay time is the challenge, let alone what he does with it.

 

[bhamill]

He was clearly making fun of Ed.

Im getting that. Slowly. Hahaha.

 

[egelband]

Give us an example who should have gotten it? Is it Kakko? Lafreniere? Chytil? Jones? Fox had no problem getting it even with ADA doing well ahead of him?

Yep. Cuylle too. Sometimes these guys either don’t have it, like Andersson and Kravtsov. Or sometimes they need a kick in the ass like JT and maybe Kakko. I’m not saying the rangers are great at developing players but ‘rangers can’t develop players’ is way overblown.