Morgs
#16 #34 #44 #88 #91
What's funny to me is that because he was on such a strong defensive team, and he wasn't on the ice for a lot of goals (nobody was with Garand in net) he got classified as a low-offense / all-defense player despite the borderline 1st round production. I'm straight up not even certain there's a plus defensive player in there like everyone in this thread/scouting community thinks there is. The pick reminds me so much of Knies in that there were a couple things that were telephoned on about in the scouting community (low-upside, bad skating, strong defense) that you really need to watch the guy play to understand what makes him who he is. Not to mention both came into their draft year with top-10 type production and didn't improve their production in their D0.The comparisons don't even make sense. Not even stylistically. It's basically just people listing random defensive C's. I've also seen Paul mentioned several times.
Schaefer is way more Paul esque. Minten is a technically sound player with better hands, skating and shooting ability than guys like Paul/Kampf/etc. have ever had at any stage in their development.
Backlund is the perfect comparison. Purely stylistically, there's some Horvat/B. Schenn/Kempe/etc. mixed in there. RHD gets talked about as one of the most scarce positional assets in the league but a close second is skilled two-way C's with functional physicality, even in a 2/3C role.
It will be fun to re-read this thread after Minten's D+1, Memorial Cup, and WJC (this yr or next). He's primed for a hype explosion a la Knies.
For me the stylistic comparable is Sam Bennett. Functional physicality, great shot he arguably uses too much, passing leaves some to be desired, skating is above average but nothing special. Bennett was also a much better prospect at this point and was derailed due to injury though.