We should start talking about Shane Wright

57special

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Early January birthdate syndrome.

Ahead of your peers until about age 16, then suddenly those extra months don’t mean much anymore.

I should know, I was in the gifted class in school, as an early Jan b-date. Now, My classmates are all brain surgeons and CEOs and here I am posting on HF boards.
Yeah, Bobby Hull was a Jan 3 birthday, and where did it get him?
 

Hockeyville USA

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Dec 30, 2023
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Early January birthdate syndrome.

Ahead of your peers until about age 16, then suddenly those extra months don’t mean much anymore.

I should know, I was in the gifted class in school, as an early Jan b-date. Now, My classmates are all brain surgeons and CEOs and here I am posting on HF boards.
In all seriousness, that is part of it. He did play up with the 2003s in minor hockey and looked really good. His 15 year old season, he looked damn good as well. Missing his whole 16 year old season lit a year of development on fire, not good, but his u18 was very solid. His 17 year old season was just fine but nothing special for a top end prospect. 18 year old season was a massive step back and 19 year old season was fine but still unspectacular in the A.

Just not enough year over year growth since missing a season. There are still tons of Canadian January birthdays who make it, Jeff Carter comes to mind, but he had blazing speed and was given opportunities off the bat with the Flyers once he entered pro. Maybe Wright needs a trade.
 
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Lafleurs Guy

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In all seriousness, that is part of it. He did play up with the 2003s in minor hockey and looked really good. His 15 year old season, he looked damn good as well. Missing his whole 16 year old season lit a year of development on fire, not good, but his u18 was very solid. His 17 year old season was just fine but nothing special for a top end prospect. 18 year old season was a massive step back and 19 year old season was fine but still unspectacular in the A.

Just not enough year over year growth since missing a season. There are still tons of Canadian January birthdays who make it, Jeff Carter comes to mind, but he had blazing speed and was given opportunities off the bat with Flyers once he entered pro. Maybe Wright needs a trade.
Was upset when Montreal didn’t take him. Then there was the stare down and I immediately felt better.

Haven’t had the opportunity to really watch him but sorry that he’s struggling. As others have said, some guys take a while to put it together and maybe that’s what’ll happen here.

If he’s getting dominated the AHL may be where he should work to find his game.
 

MS

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Wright to me is just not a C, nothing about him projects as an NHL C, and I don't know why they're persisting in keeping him at C. He just doesn't have the defensive chops or motor to play that position in the NHL.

He's a guy with a Brock Boeser sort of skillset and if/when he has success in the NHL it will be riding shotgun to a star C.
 
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WhiskeyYerTheDevils

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They're both super disappointing - people can talk about it all they want. So insecure!
Slafkovsky has 58 points in his last 82 games. For a guy who was drafted with an expectation that he'd take some time to reach his potential, that's pretty much what you'd hope to see out of him as a 19/20 year old.

On the other hand, Wright has 2 points this year in 18 games, with only 12 shots on goal. He's been a healthy scratch the last two games. They don't belong in the same sentence at this point.
 

WhiskeyYerTheDevils

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As things stand today Montréal got two of the top 4 players in that draft, potentially even 1st and 2nd, talk about disappointment.
Yeah, at worst you could say Hutson will be a top 5 D in the draft, potentially the best D if he rounds out his play. I think it will be between him, Casey, and Mintyukov when all is said and done.

Cooley and Gauthier are probably the only 2 forwards who could realistically get votes over Slaf for top forward in the draft as of now.
 

Rufus T Firefly

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Jul 8, 2020
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You’d think some of you dudes knew him personally or something…

If you hate somebody, call them and tell them. If you don’t have their number, you probably don’t know them well enough.
I actually agree with the sentiment of your post, but given what you wrote and your username, I have to ask: do you have the Leafs' number? :D
 

Plastic Joseph

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Mar 21, 2014
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Yeah, at worst you could say Hutson will be a top 5 D in the draft, potentially the best D if he rounds out his play. I think it will be between him, Casey, and Mintyukov when all is said and done.

Cooley and Gauthier are probably the only 2 forwards who could realistically get votes over Slaf for top forward in the draft as of now.
How in the world could Cutter Gauthier get any votes over slafkovsky as of now?

I mean, anything is possible in the future - but like you said Slafkovsky has 58 pts over his last 82 games and Gauthier has 8 pts in 18 gp this year, its good but nobody in their right minds would take Gauthier over Slafkovsky today if given the choice. Like I said in a few years time anything can happen, but right now there is no way.

As for Wright, what a bad year so far, I wasn't expecting a game breaker but I was hoping for like 30-40 pts over 82 gp. I still think he can be good but it will take some time, maybe in a Danny Cleary fashion where he completely has to reinvent his game. So many things can gone wrong with this guy, we haven't seen the OG Shane Wright since the u18s in 2021 and maybe that foot injury did more damage than people anticipated. His skating never recovered and he's been far less assertive since then. Its crazy looking back that this guy was clearly better at 16 than McTavish, Stankoven and Guenther were at age 17 at the u18s.
 
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WhiskeyYerTheDevils

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How in the world could Cutter Gauthier get any votes over slafkovsky as of now?
I probably wouldn't, but I could see some people preferring his game as an up tempo goal scoring power forward.
I mean, anything is possible in the future - but like you said Slafkovsky has 58 pts over his last 82 games and Gauthier has 8 pts in 18 gp this year, its good but nobody in their right minds would take Gauthier over Slafkovsky today if given the choice. Like I said in a few years time anything can happen, but right now there is no way.
Gauthier has 44 shots vs Slafkovsky's 21 this season, he's just been crazy snake bit. His all situations on ice sh% is 9.4% vs Slaf's 14.2%.

Gauthier only has 2 goals vs 6+ expected goals (which he should honestly be overperforming against, considering his release).

That would give him ~6g 13p through 19 career games, which is pretty comparable to Slafkovsky's production rates. Slaf has also been snakebit this year, but also plays with a much more established set of linemates.

I feel pretty confident in saying that Gauthier projects to be the better goal scorer and higher pace player, though I would probably lean Slafkovsky if I had to pick one.
 
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Plastic Joseph

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I probably wouldn't, but I could see some people preferring his game as an up tempo goal scoring power forward.

Gauthier has 44 shots vs Slafkovsky's 21 this season, he's just been crazy snake bit. His all situations on ice sh% is 9.4% vs Slaf's 14.2%.

Gauthier only has 2 goals vs 6+ expected goals (which he should honestly be overperforming against, considering his release).

That would give him ~6g 13p through 19 career games, which is pretty comparable to Slafkovsky's production rates. Slaf has also been snakebit this year, but also plays with a much more established set of linemates.

I feel pretty confident in saying that Gauthier projects to be the better goal scorer and higher pace player, though I would probably lean Slafkovsky if I had to pick one.
just stop with this, I get it now - YOU prefer Gauthier to Slafkovsky. That's fine, I have my opinions as well and sometimes I am right vs the consensus and sometimes I am wrong.

All I am saying is that 32/32 GMs take Slafkovsky today vs Gauthier without question. You could be right in the future , you could be wrong, but saying "as of now" there is nobody in any position to draft who takes the gamble on Gauthier at this point.
 

ijuka

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Shane Wright just is a very vanilla player, which would mean a low-ceiling player. Playing solid can allow you to perform against juniors who are just flying all around with no sense of direction, but it's hard to become a difference-maker without having something more than that. Wright, of course, would make for an excellent middle 6 player, but for a player drafted in such an early position, he's expected to be a first liner. Perhaps something like Anze Kopitar is the hope, but it just feels a bit difficult to see him get to that point. He's tracking more like a second-liner, which isn't horrible, but is also rather disappointing.

I also think that it's fair to question his attitude, because I didn't like many of the things he said. Talk is cheap, of course, but he still gave me that sort of an entitled type, and I got the vibe that he wasn't necessarily willing to put in the work when encountering setbacks. Right now, I think that it's fair to say that he's encountering one extended setback, and whether he does something about it or just sulks will be quite telling.

It also highlights some challenges with projecting junior-level players, since at 16, he was easily looking like a franchise-level prospect.
 

WhiskeyYerTheDevils

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just stop with this, I get it now - YOU prefer Gauthier to Slafkovsky. That's fine, I have my opinions as well and sometimes I am right vs the consensus and sometimes I am wrong.
I literally said that I would take Slafkovsky.
All I am saying is that 32/32 GMs take Slafkovsky today vs Gauthier without question. You could be right in the future , you could be wrong, but saying "as of now" there is nobody in any position to draft who takes the gamble on Gauthier at this point.
I wasn't limiting it to the list of GMs, I was thinking about people who actually follow prospects. And the "as of now" isn't referring to who is better now, its who they would project to be better as of now.
 

shaner8989

Registered User
Aug 6, 2005
23,616
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Early January birthdate syndrome.

Ahead of your peers until about age 16, then suddenly those extra months don’t mean much anymore.

I should know, I was in the gifted class in school, as an early Jan b-date. Now, My classmates are all brain surgeons and CEOs and here I am posting on HF boards.
My kids a December baby he’s playing against kids almost a full year older. It’s great though cause he’s been forced to catch up and then hopefully come draft year the “December” label will help.
 
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Hockeyville USA

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How in the world could Cutter Gauthier get any votes over slafkovsky as of now?

I mean, anything is possible in the future - but like you said Slafkovsky has 58 pts over his last 82 games and Gauthier has 8 pts in 18 gp this year, its good but nobody in their right minds would take Gauthier over Slafkovsky today if given the choice. Like I said in a few years time anything can happen, but right now there is no way.

As for Wright, what a bad year so far, I wasn't expecting a game breaker but I was hoping for like 30-40 pts over 82 gp. I still think he can be good but it will take some time, maybe in a Danny Cleary fashion where he completely has to reinvent his game. So many things can gone wrong with this guy, we haven't seen the OG Shane Wright since the u18s in 2021 and maybe that foot injury did more damage than people anticipated. His skating never recovered and he's been far less assertive since then. Its crazy looking back that this guy was clearly better at 16 than McTavish, Stankoven and Guenther were at age 17 at the u18s.
McTavish was better than Wright overall in that U18. The crazier one to me is Johnston. But Johnston exploded in production in 2021-22 whereas Wright stagnated a bit compared to expectations. Johnston took off even further and Wright has not grown much overall.
 

a mangy Meowth

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Jun 21, 2012
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Slafkovsky has 58 points in his last 82 games. For a guy who was drafted with an expectation that he'd take some time to reach his potential, that's pretty much what you'd hope to see out of him as a 19/20 year old.

On the other hand, Wright has 2 points this year in 18 games, with only 12 shots on goal. He's been a healthy scratch the last two games. They don't belong in the same sentence at this point.
I really don't care. You're responding to a 7 month old post
 

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