Jonathan Dahlén | C/LW

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Fun read on Dahlén from The Athletic:

https://theathletic.com/600759/2018/10/19/the-gifted-canucks-prospect-jonathan-dahlen-can-create-hockey-magic-thanks-to-his-superior-edge-work/

 

Looks at around 30 video snips breaking down what makes JD one of "The Gifted" and among the NHL's 10 "most fascinating prospects" of 2018.

 

Really does a good job highlighting Dahlén's "slingshot" style release and his exceptional edgework.

[Kosmo Kramer]

I expected him to stand out more for sure,  but it's a transition period for him so its understandable. 

 

Still very hopeful for him, probably too hopeful.

[JeremyCuddles]

Not much on the news front for Dahlen? Been that average? 

[Connor comet]

pretty average play so far. still looks timid, some people say he doesn't wanna be here, but I'm not seeing that. he's still not used to the speed of play and plays an outside game. He needs to add weight and muscle to be effective in this league. It will take some time.

[UticaHockey]

21 hours ago, N7Nucks said:

Not much on the news front for Dahlen? Been that average? 

If this is allowed I am going to quote "Bad Goalie" from HF Boards.  I think his analysis is better than what you will find from any of the Canucks Twitter mainstays.  It may be hard to take for some Canucks fans that thought Dahlen was NHL ready based on his play in Sweden last year but I believe that it is honest and accurate.

 

Dahlen is the last guy you would ever imagine was the MVP of any hockey league. A prolific scorer would be expected to score some goals in 8 contests. I expected to see a guy who could make things happen with the puck on his stick. I was expecting him to be a serious offensive threat and make some great set up passes. In contrast, he has rarely carried the puck more than a few feet and treats it like he must pass immediately. WHY? Someone is coming at him. I would have expected to see some moves, some skating, stick, and puck skills. He appears allergic to physicality and therefore never employs any of those skills I was sure he must have. He never goes to the dirty areas unless there is no defender there. That's where he was for his only goal, off to the right of the net and snapped one into the open side when the puck slid over to him. It was a PP goal and he was unchecked on the back side. Yes, he has 3 assists and thus is .5 PPG. 2 0f his 3 assists are also on the PP where he gets more time to think things through, dish off readily when contested, and make the pass to the open man or shoot when he's the open man. He is usually looking for a pass rather than working to get himself into an open spot where that pass makes him dangerous. At even strength Jonathan Dahlen is the last guy on the ice you would believe is a dynamic skater, play maker, and threat to score goals.
When you see him actually do something he does it very well, but he is invisible a whole lot more often that he is a guy doing something that catches your eye.
Defensively, I won't outright call him lazy, but when coming back on the back check he is most often the last Comet to cross back into his own end. He isn't exactly what I would call a defender who ever challenges an opponent. Lots of stick checking. He is good at taking a pass in his own zone and very quickly making a touch pass or a clean pass to a mate breaking by him. When the pass isn't there he most often loses the puck as grinding along the boards fighting for possession doesn't seem to be something he has done a whole lot of. I think the smaller rink is creating most of these difficulties for him at the moment. We should see him start making adjustments accordingly and if he has the skill sets the hype that preceded him said he had, those adjustments should be very noticeable step after step and should start happening soon.

[JeremyCuddles]

10 minutes ago, UticaHockey said:

If this is allowed I am going to quote "Bad Goalie" from HF Boards.  I think his analysis is better than what you will find from any of the Canucks Twitter mainstays.  It may be hard to take for some Canucks fans that thought Dahlen was NHL ready based on his play in Sweden last year but I believe that it is honest and accurate.

 

Dahlen is the last guy you would ever imagine was the MVP of any hockey league. A prolific scorer would be expected to score some goals in 8 contests. I expected to see a guy who could make things happen with the puck on his stick. I was expecting him to be a serious offensive threat and make some great set up passes. In contrast, he has rarely carried the puck more than a few feet and treats it like he must pass immediately. WHY? Someone is coming at him. I would have expected to see some moves, some skating, stick, and puck skills. He appears allergic to physicality and therefore never employs any of those skills I was sure he must have. He never goes to the dirty areas unless there is no defender there. That's where he was for his only goal, off to the right of the net and snapped one into the open side when the puck slid over to him. It was a PP goal and he was unchecked on the back side. Yes, he has 3 assists and thus is .5 PPG. 2 0f his 3 assists are also on the PP where he gets more time to think things through, dish off readily when contested, and make the pass to the open man or shoot when he's the open man. He is usually looking for a pass rather than working to get himself into an open spot where that pass makes him dangerous. At even strength Jonathan Dahlen is the last guy on the ice you would believe is a dynamic skater, play maker, and threat to score goals.
When you see him actually do something he does it very well, but he is invisible a whole lot more often that he is a guy doing something that catches your eye.
Defensively, I won't outright call him lazy, but when coming back on the back check he is most often the last Comet to cross back into his own end. He isn't exactly what I would call a defender who ever challenges an opponent. Lots of stick checking. He is good at taking a pass in his own zone and very quickly making a touch pass or a clean pass to a mate breaking by him. When the pass isn't there he most often loses the puck as grinding along the boards fighting for possession doesn't seem to be something he has done a whole lot of. I think the smaller rink is creating most of these difficulties for him at the moment. We should see him start making adjustments accordingly and if he has the skill sets the hype that preceded him said he had, those adjustments should be very noticeable step after step and should start happening soon.

As a guy that really though he was NHL ready this makes me a bit sad. But I guess it makes some sense. The ice in Europe is so much bigger not everyone comes over and lights up NHL sized ice like a Pettersson. Hopefully over the course of the season he starts to adjust. Would be a shame if he ends up like Rodin. Thanks for the write up. 

[Kanukfanatic]

1 hour ago, UticaHockey said:

If this is allowed I am going to quote "Bad Goalie" from HF Boards.  I think his analysis is better than what you will find from any of the Canucks Twitter mainstays.  It may be hard to take for some Canucks fans that thought Dahlen was NHL ready based on his play in Sweden last year but I believe that it is honest and accurate.

 

Dahlen is the last guy you would ever imagine was the MVP of any hockey league. A prolific scorer would be expected to score some goals in 8 contests. I expected to see a guy who could make things happen with the puck on his stick. I was expecting him to be a serious offensive threat and make some great set up passes. In contrast, he has rarely carried the puck more than a few feet and treats it like he must pass immediately. WHY? Someone is coming at him. I would have expected to see some moves, some skating, stick, and puck skills. He appears allergic to physicality and therefore never employs any of those skills I was sure he must have. He never goes to the dirty areas unless there is no defender there. That's where he was for his only goal, off to the right of the net and snapped one into the open side when the puck slid over to him. It was a PP goal and he was unchecked on the back side. Yes, he has 3 assists and thus is .5 PPG. 2 0f his 3 assists are also on the PP where he gets more time to think things through, dish off readily when contested, and make the pass to the open man or shoot when he's the open man. He is usually looking for a pass rather than working to get himself into an open spot where that pass makes him dangerous. At even strength Jonathan Dahlen is the last guy on the ice you would believe is a dynamic skater, play maker, and threat to score goals.
When you see him actually do something he does it very well, but he is invisible a whole lot more often that he is a guy doing something that catches your eye.
Defensively, I won't outright call him lazy, but when coming back on the back check he is most often the last Comet to cross back into his own end. He isn't exactly what I would call a defender who ever challenges an opponent. Lots of stick checking. He is good at taking a pass in his own zone and very quickly making a touch pass or a clean pass to a mate breaking by him. When the pass isn't there he most often loses the puck as grinding along the boards fighting for possession doesn't seem to be something he has done a whole lot of. I think the smaller rink is creating most of these difficulties for him at the moment. We should see him start making adjustments accordingly and if he has the skill sets the hype that preceded him said he had, those adjustments should be very noticeable step after step and should start happening soon.

I read the HF Utica thread, or used to, until bad goalie would write diatribes about the prospects. Yes, I do want to have real info on our prospects down in Utica but bad goalie seems to only be able to write in an offensive manner with scathing personal put downs. I have no interest in what bad goalie writes and a lot of people on HF boards also don't as can be witnessed on that board. Recently bad goalie cries and whines and threatens to leave the site (he shouldn't threaten - just do it already). Who cares if he leaves with all that hyperbole and over the top negativity. Most people don't want to read that tripe any longer (although to be fair - HF boards itself is a cesspool). He hates management and personally attacks young players.

 

You however, UticaHockey, are someone I am interested in getting an opinion from. You seem able to give one without it sounding or reading like a personal overly negative attach on a young player.

 

For example, look at some of the writing BG used above:

Dahlen is the last guy you would ever imagine was the MVP of any hockey league.

I was expecting him to be a serious offensive threat

I would have expected to see some moves, some skating, stick, and puck skills. He appears allergic to physicality...

Defensively, I won't outright call him lazy,

 

Even if some of that is true, it comes across as personal attacks rather than an objective assessment of a player. Look at the first sentence - it is just a childish sarcastic jab. bad goalie puts players down to such an extent that it sounds like bad goalie himself thinks he walks on water and can do no wrong. It would be easy for people to think BG is just a pompous windbag the way he writes things.

 

Like I said, I really do want to read objective assessments of our prospects, but BG is incapable of writing one without personal attacks.

 

UticaHockey, you do a much better job from what I have read and I would rather your opinion in your own less negative style of writing.

[UticaHockey]

21 minutes ago, Kanukfanatic said:

I read the HF Utica thread, or used to, until bad goalie would write diatribes about the prospects. Yes, I do want to have real info on our prospects down in Utica but bad goalie seems to only be able to write in an offensive manner with scathing personal put downs. I have no interest in what bad goalie writes and a lot of people on HF boards also don't as can be witnessed on that board. Recently bad goalie cries and whines and threatens to leave the site (he shouldn't threaten - just do it already). Who cares if he leaves with all that hyperbole and over the top negativity. Most people don't want to read that tripe any longer (although to be fair - HF boards itself is a cesspool). He hates management and personally attacks young players.

 

You however, UticaHockey, are someone I am interested in getting an opinion from. You seem able to give one without it sounding or reading like a personal overly negative attach on a young player.

 

For example, look at some of the writing BG used above:

Dahlen is the last guy you would ever imagine was the MVP of any hockey league.

I was expecting him to be a serious offensive threat

I would have expected to see some moves, some skating, stick, and puck skills. He appears allergic to physicality...

Defensively, I won't outright call him lazy,

 

Even if some of that is true, it comes across as personal attacks rather than an objective assessment of a player. Look at the first sentence - it is just a childish sarcastic jab. bad goalie puts players down to such an extent that it sounds like bad goalie himself thinks he walks on water and can do no wrong. It would be easy for people to think BG is just a pompous windbag the way he writes things.

 

Like I said, I really do want to read objective assessments of our prospects, but BG is incapable of writing one without personal attacks.

 

UticaHockey, you do a much better job from what I have read and I would rather your opinion in your own less negative style of writing.

I see how Bad Goalie can get under some people's skin and even I just skim over some of his posts that can go on forever but if you ignore some of the opinion portions of his posts and concentrate on the analysis of players and post game recaps I think he is spot on most of the time.  In the case of Dahlen I agree with what he stated because that is the same thing I am seeing from him.  If you watch every game you will see one or two nice set ups that he creates but then he may go two full periods where you would never know that he is on the ice.

 

Are we being hard on Dahlen in our analysis?  Probably but when you read so much hype about him and what he did with Timra last season the expectations were high and he is not living up to them.  Some players make the transition from playing in Sweden on the larger ice and less physical play to North America very quickly and others it takes some time.  It's very early in Dahlen's career over here but the expectation that he would come over and shine in the AHL were probably a bit too high.

[dpn1]

JD is not EP.  You had to know his transition would be not as quick.  I have watched all Utica's games so far and I will admit he has not yet been a world beater but there are good signs.  There are other Euro Players that take a longer time to develop.  The one guy I think of is Filip Forsberg (Hope I spelled that right).  I think in January or February we will see a better JD.

[Kanukfanatic]

1 hour ago, UticaHockey said:

I see how Bad Goalie can get under some people's skin and even I just skim over some of his posts that can go on forever but if you ignore some of the opinion portions of his posts and concentrate on the analysis of players and post game recaps I think he is spot on most of the time.  In the case of Dahlen I agree with what he stated because that is the same thing I am seeing from him.  If you watch every game you will see one or two nice set ups that he creates but then he may go two full periods where you would never know that he is on the ice.

 

Are we being hard on Dahlen in our analysis?  Probably but when you read so much hype about him and what he did with Timra last season the expectations were high and he is not living up to them.  Some players make the transition from playing in Sweden on the larger ice and less physical play to North America very quickly and others it takes some time.  It's very early in Dahlen's career over here but the expectation that he would come over and shine in the AHL were probably a bit too high.

Thank you UticaHockey. I do appreciate your analysis even if the news is not good because of the way you state it plainly and as a matter of fact.

[aGENT]

It takes most players, that aren't elite freaks, time to adjust to different levels of hockey/Euro to North American. Junior to AHL, Europe to AHL etc. 

 

Most of us weren't counting on guys like Dahlen, Lind, Gadjovich etc to translate almost immediately to the NHL. And it's quite likely that not all of them will translate at all let alone in the 1-3 years that it will likely take for those that do.

 

If you want to be disappointed in that, well....

Edited October 26, 2018 by aGENT

[Sean Monahan]

55 minutes ago, aGENT said:

And it's quite likely that not all of them will translate at all let alone in the 1-3 years that it will likely take for those that d

But they’ve been pencilled into various posters’ projected future top 6’s since they were drafted. Surely you jest. 

[mll]

4 hours ago, UticaHockey said:

I see how Bad Goalie can get under some people's skin and even I just skim over some of his posts that can go on forever but if you ignore some of the opinion portions of his posts and concentrate on the analysis of players and post game recaps I think he is spot on most of the time.  In the case of Dahlen I agree with what he stated because that is the same thing I am seeing from him.  If you watch every game you will see one or two nice set ups that he creates but then he may go two full periods where you would never know that he is on the ice.

 

Are we being hard on Dahlen in our analysis?  Probably but when you read so much hype about him and what he did with Timra last season the expectations were high and he is not living up to them.  Some players make the transition from playing in Sweden on the larger ice and less physical play to North America very quickly and others it takes some time.  It's very early in Dahlen's career over here but the expectation that he would come over and shine in the AHL were probably a bit too high.

It might have to do with the level of Allsvenskan.

 

The SHL expanded the year Rodin won MVP.  Two teams that would have otherwise played in Allsvenskan were promoted to the SHL and were replaced by 2 teams from their 3rd tier league - i.e. they took away at the top and replaced at the bottom of the standings.  Also with 2 additional SHL teams the better players of Allsvenskan found opportunities in the SHL which also impacts the level of the league. 

 

Players drafted out of the SHL are also now going to the AHL to develop instead of returning to the SHL.  The SHL made a presentation to the NHL GMs in March a year ago to explain that it's impacting the competitiveness of their league.  They are concerned that they won't be able to develop talent if players go to the AHL instead of returning to Sweden until they are NHL ready.  They estimate that at least 130 of their best players are now in the NHL or AHL.  On a 14-team league that has an impact and it trickles down to Allsvenskan as the SHL needs to find players from somewhere. 

 

Dahlen was Allsvenskan's MVP and was to play in the SHL - that's one talented player less in the SHL. Pettersson was the best player in the SHL and he is now in Vancouver. That's two players but 30 other teams are doing the same with their own top prospects.  

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by mll

[cuporbust]

Not impressed so far with his analytics , or really anything he has done in the AHL. Not a great sign after 10 games , but hey, maybe he will get it together long term. Sure isnt looking like a game breaker yet that's for sure . 

Edited October 28, 2018 by cuporbust

[cyoung]

4 hours ago, cuporbust said:

Not impressed so far with his analytics , or really anything he has done in the AHL. Not a great sign after 10 games , but hey, maybe he will get it together long term. Sure isnt looking like a game breaker yet that's for sure . 

Needs time to adjust, gain confidence. We gotta be patient. 

[Phat Fingers]

10 hours ago, cuporbust said:

Not impressed so far with his analytics , or really anything he has done in the AHL. Not a great sign after 10 games , but hey, maybe he will get it together long term. Sure isnt looking like a game breaker yet that's for sure . 

Not sure if your being sarcastic?  

 

10 games into his NA pro debut, not setting records and is already a bust!  Love the bi polar CDC. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by Phat Fingers

[cuporbust]

1 hour ago, Phat Fingers said:

Not sure if your being sarcastic?  

 

10 games into his NA pro debut, not setting records and is already a bust!  Love the bi polar CDC. 

Honestly i was just in a pessimistic mood after the game . Lol. 

[Phat Fingers]

10 hours ago, cuporbust said:

Honestly i was just in a pessimistic mood after the game . Lol. 

Fair enough!  I happily partied like a much younger me,  so I missed the debacle. 

 

If you want to cheer up check out the Hughes, Woo and Juolevi pages... not joking, we actually have d prospects nowadays, it’s weird to say that.  

[cuporbust]

3 hours ago, Phat Fingers said:

Fair enough!  I happily partied like a much younger me,  so I missed the debacle. 

 

If you want to cheer up check out the Hughes, Woo and Juolevi pages... not joking, we actually have d prospects nowadays, it’s weird to say that.  

Oh trust me , i follow them all closely . Watching prospects ( especially in their respective leagues in their draft years) , is sort of a hobby 4 me . 

[Phat Fingers]

8 hours ago, cuporbust said:

Oh trust me , i follow them all closely . Watching prospects ( especially in their respective leagues in their draft years) , is sort of a hobby 4 me . 

Same for me. 

 

On the dark days I don’t even go into the main forum, but hang in the prospects forum. Guess that makes me an optimist.