Prospect Info: Sean Farrell, C/LW, 124th Overall

[SlafySZN]

Farrell has now 22 points in 14 games.

Last year he ended the season with 28 points in 24 games

So he's already at 6 points of his total of last year with 10 games less played.

 

[SlafySZN]

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Agreed, HuGo would trade Lane for Luke Hughes in a nano second, they are on entirely different tiers.

I do stand by my assertion that Hutson is not a good defender as his pivots and backskating are really bad which is compounded by his tiny reach and egregious lack of strength. His anticipation and tenacity are great and allow him to defend against the many poor opponents that he faces but he has been absolutely awful on too many plays where he is beat by pure speed and strength. This would be exploited to the enth degree at the next level and everyone would be blowing past him with ease. He is 18 and has a ton of time to improve so no reason to get too worried.....just trying to inject some reality into bubble of bliss that many posters are blindly engulfed in.

Anyways......back to Farrell who also has me guessing as to how he will turn out.

Hutson is a good rush defender, but poor once the puck enters the zone. He attacks in the neutral zone & aggressively prevents zone entries. He can get in underneath people and strip pucks away. Has solid hand skills for that.

Once the puck is in his end though he struggles with defensive duties. He basically acts as puck support waiting for a turnover created by someone else, an opportunity to intercept a pass or pickup an outlet.

He's too passive in his own end. NHL you can't give players time & space. You can't "wait" and watch a play develop. The end result of that is a puck in your own net.

He has another year of NCAA. It'll be imperative for him to work on his defensive skills in his own end.

 

[blueberry]

Hutson is a good rush defender, but poor once the puck enters the zone. He attacks in the neutral zone & aggressively prevents zone entries. He can get in underneath people and strip pucks away. Has solid hand skills for that.

Once the puck is in his end though he struggles with defensive duties. He basically acts as puck support waiting for a turnover created by someone else, an opportunity to intercept a pass or pickup an outlet.

He's too passive in his own end. NHL you can't give players time & space. You can't "wait" and watch a play develop. The end result of that is a puck in your own net.

He has another year of NCAA. It'll be imperative for him to work on his defensive skills in his own end.

One of the problems I see with Hutson is the little stick. Even at his size he has a small stick. It's tiny. Anyone that has played hockey knows that with a little stick you can stick handle in a phone booth but you won't have any power on a shot. You'll have to flick the puck from in close. And you can see he can't really stick check either because of this. He can't play in the nhl with that kiddy stick and I'm not sure he can fix it. He may try a longer stick but he won't be as effective handling the puck which is his bread and butter. Plus he's got tiny little legs. I would temper my expectations with him. But that's just me.

 

[Destopcorner]

Beautiful... He was the main catalyst on all his team goals and just pancaked his man on the last one. Can't wait till he signs before season end.

 

[McGuires Corndog]

Came here to see Farrell updates, walked into people discussing the length of Lane Hutson’s stick.

Pierre McGuire would be proud of you guys.

 

[Weber Fan]

We can all agree that he has to turn pro this year…

 

[SlafySZN]

We can all agree that he has to turn pro this year…

Yes, he is 100% ready.

Can't see him stay a 3rd year in Harvard.

 

[KevSkillz4]

Imagine Farrell and Roy with Caufield, Suzuki, Dach and Slafkovsky. They are going to have fun on PP.

I certainly see Farrell make great passing play to Slafkovsky.

 

[Adam Michaels]

We can all agree that he has to turn pro this year…

I think they'll sign him when his college year is over.

 

[Rob Sense]

Came here to see Farrell updates, walked into people discussing the length of Lane Hutson’s stick.

Pierre McGuire would be proud of you guys.

better his stick than something that rhymes with stick.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Hutson is a good rush defender, but poor once the puck enters the zone. He attacks in the neutral zone & aggressively prevents zone entries. He can get in underneath people and strip pucks away. Has solid hand skills for that.

Once the puck is in his end though he struggles with defensive duties. He basically acts as puck support waiting for a turnover created by someone else, an opportunity to intercept a pass or pickup an outlet.

He's too passive in his own end. NHL you can't give players time & space. You can't "wait" and watch a play develop. The end result of that is a puck in your own net.

He has another year of NCAA. It'll be imperative for him to work on his defensive skills in his own end.

Hutson is a terrible rush defender as he was beat many times to the outside in this tournament and even when he wasn't cleanly beat he almost always concedes possession. He is not a strong skater and really struggles with his pivots which is further amplified with his serious lack of reach and the fact that he is too weak to bump most players off of the puck. He is way behind where Mete was as a defender due to Mete's vastly superior skating and Mete was awful.

The kid is not a good defender in any area of the game and the notion that some people think he could be ready sooner than later is ludicrous.

It may sound as though I don't like the kid because I am being forced to counter absolutely bizarre levels of fanboyism with Lane but I am still glad we drafted him and I simply consider him a longer term prospect than other posters but likely not other scouts. If he can clean up his skating which I think is possible as he is very skinny and physically weak and put on some meat it is possible that he may become a passable defender especially if he grows a little which I am not counting on as an inevitability like some are. I love his compete level and he is extremely smart so I would be foolish to count him out considering his impressive puck skills but posters on here are so embarrassingly biased towards him that it is hard to sound positive when countering such absurdity.

 

[WeThreeKings]

His defensive metrics in the WJC was weak defending the rush and actually surprisingly good defending the in zone cycle.

 

[Habs Icing]

I do stand by my assertion that Hutson is not a good defender as his pivots and backskating are really bad which is compounded by his tiny reach and egregious lack of strength. His anticipation and tenacity are great and allow him to defend against the many poor opponents that he faces but he has been absolutely awful on too many plays where he is beat by pure speed and strength. This would be exploited to the enth degree at the next level and everyone would be blowing past him with ease. He is 18 and has a ton of time to improve so no reason to get too worried.....just trying to inject some reality into bubble of bliss that many posters are blindly engulfed in.

It feels so good to have someone else see what I see.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Hutson is a terrible rush defender as he was beat many times to the outside in this tournament and even when he wasn't cleanly beat he almost always concedes possession. He is not a strong skater and really struggles with his pivots which is further amplified with his serious lack of reach and the fact that he is too weak to bump most players off of the puck. He is way behind where Mete was as a defender due to Mete's vastly superior skating and Mete was awful.

The kid is not a good defender in any area of the game and the notion that some people think he could be ready sooner than later is ludicrous.

It may sound as though I don't like the kid because I am being forced to counter absolutely bizarre levels of fanboyism with Lane but I am still glad we drafted him and I simply consider him a longer term prospect than other posters but likely not other scouts. If he can clean up his skating which I think is possible as he is very skinny and physically weak and put on some meat it is possible that he may become a passable defender especially if he grows a little which I am not counting on as an inevitability like some are. I love his compete level and he is extremely smart so I would be foolish to count him out considering his impressive puck skills but posters on here are so embarrassingly biased towards him that it is hard to sound positive when countering such absurdity.

Yeah, I'm not a huge defender of his. I just think you criticize him to ultra-extreme levels.

If you're into analytics at all, kid has an extremely high PNHLe.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

We can all agree that he has to turn pro this year…

Yeah, I'm not a huge defender of his. I just think you criticize him to ultra-extreme levels.

If you're into analytics at all, kid has an extremely high PNHLe.

Not into analytics because they simply don't work in a vacuum.

I have watched alot of the kid and I do like him but most of the fans here simply are blinded by him embarrassing crappy NCAA players but turn a blind eye to him consistently being beat by good players and moving forward there will be fewer and fewer crappy players for him to beat. American college hockey has a huge gap between it's best players and it's worst players and every team has a handful of players that are very easy to exploit, especially for a unique talent like Hutson who most of these lesser players are just not used to defending on their own blueline.

If the narrative on this board was that he is an exciting offensive talent with some serious flaws that will need to be worked on over the next few years then you would hear very little if any argument from me. Unfortunately that is not the case and the declarations of him being a good defender and our best prospect and better than Luke Hughes lol are just embarrassing to have to read.

So hopefully that clears things up with my stance on Lane Hutson as I cheer for him to do well as much as anyone but I prefer to deal with reality and will always defer to objectivity when expressing my opinion.

 

[salbutera]

Hutson will need at least 3-years of college, and hopefully will have bulked up a bit by end of year 3. Then focus shifts to ironing out Dzone play which may take 1-2 years in Laval.

He’s a solid 2.5 - 3 years away IMO

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

His defensive metrics in the WJC was weak defending the rush and actually surprisingly good defending the in zone cycle.

This is why I don't bother with that nonsense. I was calling him out in real time against Sweden as he was consistently dominated on both the rush and the cycle. He looked equally as terrible against Canada and Slovakia but played his best against weaker opponents even though he was still being sheltered with limited ice time. I find that posters tend to see most action through the lens of their confirmation bias and the only way to show them otherwise is to call it out in real time. I have watched live games with people who I have entirely changed their perspective by predicting how plays will develop and predicting how players effect the development of a play. With players like Lane and Slaf fans are blinded by their need for the player to be special and gush over anything that they perceive to be positive while entirely dismissing the sometimes significant volume of poor plays.

It is also no surprise that there was not a peep on this board about him for most of the tournament as he struggled mightily and was used sparingly by his coach. This was of no surprise to myself whatsoever and entirely backed up what I have seen in glimpses when he is faced with defending top college players.

Lane is still really young and extremely physically immature. I am equally as excited as I was when we drafted him and am not disappointed in his poor defensive play because I already accepted that as a problem as did every other NHL scout which is why he almost fell out of the 2nd round. Let's see where his development is in two years because I absolutely see the potential for him to be a special player in the NHL one day

Gotta give you credit on Cooley as well....I would absolutely take him over Wright at this point.

 

[SlafySZN]

Sean Farrell.

 

[morhilane]

Sean Farrell.

Is going to be a steal like Caufield said when he was drafted.

 

[HankyZetts]

This is why I don't bother with that nonsense. I was calling him out in real time against Sweden as he was consistently dominated on both the rush and the cycle. He looked equally as terrible against Canada and Slovakia but played his best against weaker opponents even though he was still being sheltered with limited ice time. I find that posters tend to see most action through the lens of their confirmation bias and the only way to show them otherwise is to call it out in real time. I have watched live games with people who I have entirely changed their perspective by predicting how plays will develop and predicting how players effect the development of a play. With players like Lane and Slaf fans are blinded by their need for the player to be special and gush over anything that they perceive to be positive while entirely dismissing the sometimes significant volume of poor plays.

It is also no surprise that there was not a peep on this board about him for most of the tournament as he struggled mightily and was used sparingly by his coach. This was of no surprise to myself whatsoever and entirely backed up what I have seen in glimpses when he is faced with defending top college players.

Lane is still really young and extremely physically immature. I am equally as excited as I was when we drafted him and am not disappointed in his poor defensive play because I already accepted that as a problem as did every other NHL scout which is why he almost fell out of the 2nd round. Let's see where his development is in two years because I absolutely see the potential for him to be a special player in the NHL one day

Gotta give you credit on Cooley as well....I would absolutely take him over Wright at this point.

This is all a bit ridiculous though, as you're talking about an 18-year old, undersized, offensive wizard-style defenseman, at the U20s. Over the years, I don't know how many of those, who were not drafted in the top-5 of their respective drafts, I've seen be able to excel in defending against the best 18-19 year old forwards in the world.

He was also counted on to provide offense in critical situations for the US, and made some really good plays for them. I thought he had a good tournament overall. I would bet he dominates the scoresheet next year with an expanded role and another year of maturity to him and his game.

 

[Supersonic]

So that Sean Farrell guy huh? Excited that we will see him in the team next year over several of our useless wingers we have currently. Instant upgrade.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

This is all a bit ridiculous though, as you're talking about an 18-year old, undersized, offensive wizard-style defenseman, at the U20s. Over the years, I don't know how many of those, who were not drafted in the top-5 of their respective drafts, I've seen be able to excel in defending against the best 18-19 year old forwards in the world.

He was also counted on to provide offense in critical situations for the US, and made some really good plays for them. I thought he had a good tournament overall. I would bet he dominates the scoresheet next year with an expanded role and another year of maturity to him and his game.

If you think being objective is being ridiculous then so be it....

He was not counted on in many big situations and was more often than not overlooked even on the power play. He had a poor tournament and was underwhelming to say the least in most of his games.....any other way of looking at it is just false.

Yes he made some good plays........but like I pointed out earlier you are glossing over a larger volume of poor plays in order to support a failing bias.

So you think that being among the least used dmen and not producing and clearly not being trusted by the coach equals a good tournament? Imagine if he was just decent, I am sure half the board would be putting him in the HHOF. How many times did you need to see him turn it over and lose the foot race or have attackers beat him to the outside or get easily pushed off of the puck on the cycle? He showed early on that he was not physically ready and the coach cut his ice time accordingly.

Why is it so hard to just be honest and say the kid is a great talent but was overmatched this time around because of his current physical limitations?
I hope he has a great tournament next year as hopefully he will have gotten bigger, stronger and faster but he was just too slow and too weak to be effective this time around.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Imagine Farrell and Roy with Caufield, Suzuki, Dach and Slafkovsky. They are going to have fun on PP.

I certainly see Farrell make great passing play to Slafkovsky.

We already have 4 of those guys on the pp and its the worst unit in the NHL....im just saying our prospects are nice but yeah lol temper expectations on the PP without an elite dman out there.

 

[SlafySZN]

We already have 4 of those guys on the pp and its the worst unit in the NHL....im just saying our prospects are nice but yeah lol temper expectations on the PP without an elite dman out there.

Kinda true lol the most important is a PP QB