Managed to catch most of this tournament in/around camping. Every year I'm more and more of the opinion that this tournament is kind of a waste of time and a vehicle for bad takes, other than getting some general impressions of guys you aren't familiar with, and that's doubly the case this year with so many guys there who were really too old for this and shouldn't have been there.
Not even going to discuss any of the Abbotsford guys who I've seen play 50-100 times. When you've seen guys play a ton in actual games against real competition making any real adjustments to your opinion based on what's essentially a September scrimmage against teenagers is a folly. Only comment I'll really make is how often Klimovich *still* makes blind guess-passes and egregious puck management errors after 3 years of AHL coaching. Guy is dumb as rocks.
Of the 2024 draftees :
- people are complimenting Riley Patterson's skating but I thought his stop/starts, turns, and general agility were really lumbering and poor. Didn't give me a very positive first impression overall.
- Romani can't skate but the high-end pucks skills are obvious. Was certainly one of the most dangerous U20 players in the tournament for any team. But yeah, the skating needs massive work.
- Alcos showed well relative to his draft position and very young age. Kept it simple, looked fairly mobile and competent.
- Sansonnens looked like a total coke machine.
Generally speaking not really a good group of skaters that we picked in this draft, especially given that Fernstrom's biggest weakness is his skating as well.
- EP2 is big, mean, skates pretty well, and has serviceable puck skills and other than Lekkerimaki was obviously the best prospect there other than the AHL vets. Will need 100 AHL games but you can see where a Kaedan Korczak-type development curve is very reasonable.
- Lekkerimaki skated better than in Abbotsford and his puck skills and shot were obviously at another level relative to this tournament. But he still looks so small and weak. Very curious to see how he goes in actual NHL preseason games.
- Mynio's footwork is ++ but like Lekkerimaki he looked small/weak even playing against kids. But his skating did stand out positively.
- I've never been wowed by Kudryatsev. I don't see it. Sloppy set of games from a guy whose calling card is supposed to be reliability. Struggled defending speed on the rush.
- Alriksson was noticeable and got some points but to me he just kinda looks like Nathan Rempe without the fighting. Very awkward-looking player.
- Mueller was quite vanilla and disappointing for a player of his age/pedigree. Should have been the sort to stand out.
- Felton was solid and flashed a bit more skill than you'd expect from his point totals, but also was obviously old for the tournament. Also looked a bit shorter/smaller than listed.
