Prospect Info: St. Louis Blues Top-20 Prospects: #8

[ChicagoBlues]

2022 Prospect Rankings:

#1 Zachary Bolduc (75.8%)
#2 Jake Neighbours (50.9%)
#3 Jimmy Snuggerud (51%)
#4 Scott Perunovich (86.8%)
#5 Joel Hofer (50%)
#6 Alexei Toropchenko (55.3%)
#7 Nikita Alexandrov (33.3%)
#8 ?

You can change your vote.

Poll closes in 2 days.

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[STL fan in MN]

Kessel again.

 

[Beauterham]

Buchinger again. Have the feeling I don't need to think about another choice for at least a few rounds.

 

[Memento]

Going with Kostin. Then Robertsson, then Dickinson, then Loof.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Now that Alexandrov has won a poll, I shall shift my “hate” to Robertsson.

I don’t see it with him either. A bland player that hasn’t really dominated at any level.

In the video of the two I’ve seen, Kaskimaki is a way more dynamically skilled player. Robertsson is just…there. All the scouting reports tout Robertsson’s shot but it’s never translated to many goals at any level.

I voted for Kessel here but after that it’s likely Kostin and Kaskimaki for me.

 

[STL fan in MN]

I’ll note that the Blues have the potential to have quite a few prospects in this year’s WJC. But none of them are locks.

Bolduc - CAN
Snuggerud - USA
Kaskimaki - FIN
Robertsson - SWE

I’ll note that Koromyslov is of that caliber too. He made Russia’s 2022 WJC team as a double underager (age 17) but that was for the WJC that got canceled. Russia wasn’t in the rescheduled August one and won’t be in the 2023 one in Dec/Jan either.

 

[542365]

I went with Loof. I think he’s the surest bet to be a useful NHLer. Kessel, Kostin and Buchinger came to mind as well.

 

[Majorityof1]

Now that Alexandrov has won a poll, I shall shift my “hate” to Robertsson.

I don’t see it with him either. A bland player that hasn’t really dominated at any level.

In the video of the two I’ve seen, Kaskimaki is a way more dynamically skilled player. Robertsson is just…there. All the scouting reports tout Robertsson’s shot but it’s never translated to many goals at any level.

I voted for Kessel here but after that it’s likely Kostin and Kaskimaki for me.

Robertsson has been playing against men at 17-18 years old. He is not a Austin Matthews near-generational player that he can do that with huge success. He has done fairly well when playing against younger players in J20/J18, averaging ppg+ most years. Since he is playing in the SHL, those are all smaller sample sizes than most of his peers. His shot is tremendous, but yes, he has struggled to get it off enough at higher levels. I am comforted by the fact that they keep playing him at those levels though despite the lack of production. It tells me he is doing other things correctly to earn that spot as a 17/18 year old.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Robertsson has been playing against men at 17-18 years old. He is not a Austin Matthews near-generational player that he can do that with huge success. He has done fairly well when playing against younger players in J20/J18, averaging ppg+ most years. Since he is playing in the SHL, those are all smaller sample sizes than most of his peers. His shot is tremendous, but yes, he has struggled to get it off enough at higher levels. I am comforted by the fact that they keep playing him at those levels though despite the lack of production. It tells me he is doing other things correctly to earn that spot as a 17/18 year old.

Yes, he did “fairly well” in Sweden’s Jr league with 23 pts in 21 games. I won’t judge him on total points as he only played about half the games but on a pt/game basis he was 48th. Take out players that played less than 10 games to reduce the small sample size bias and he was 42nd. Someone with true NHL aspirations typically is way higher on the list at his age.

A nice, technically sound shot is nice but if he can only get it off when he has tons of time and space, it’s not very useful and will become even less useful as he tries to climb the ranks and the speed of the game ramps up.

I haven’t seen a ton of these guys so it’s all small sample sizes but in the video I’ve seen, Kaskimaki’s skills are way more NHL projectable than Robertsson’s.

Hopefully he’s able to make a couple of key adjustments that will really lead to his skills being able to be utilized to becoming actual weapons with real results but as of now, I’m not seeing it with him.