Popular Post Down by the River Posted September 21, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted September 21, 2020 (edited) Here we go! Now that the 2020 draft has concluded, we actually have some new prospects to follow. JB and co. did us a favor by selecting a bunch of Euros whose stats we can actually track. This thread is for keeping track of Canucks prospects through the 2020-21* season. My definition of 'prospect' is relatively broad to include players that fans have an interest in. If there is someone you want on the list that hasn't been added, just let me know. I graduated Demko, Hughes, Gaudette, and Pettersson all graduated from last year's list. I'll keep MacEwen on. Bear with me in setting this thread up as I need some time to figure out whether certain guys are still the property of the Canucks. As usual, we will also follow ~5 draft eligible prospects ranked somewhere around where we expect the Canucks to finish. I'm thinking we focus on guys expected to go somewhere around 15-20. If you have players in mind, let me know. I decided to start the thread early to see if there was any consensus as to which 2021 draft eligible players we should follow this year. For context, I've posted last years final numbers. FAQ: 1) How often will the thread be updated? I plan to update about twice per month 2) Where do you get the stats from? All stats are pulled from the player's HockeyDB page. 3) What do the colored fonts mean? Red indicates that point per game totals are down from the year before. Green indicates they are up. Gold indicates that points are down but that the player played in a lower league. 4) How do I find a specific player quickly? If you are looking for a specific player, players are sorted alphabetically by first name. Draft Eligible Prospect Profiles: I'll update this every month or so with some more qualitative information about how each prospect is progressing. There are so many different rankings to look at. I decided to rely on Scott Wheeler's from The Athletic because he provides details/justifications for his rankings that I can use to help contextualize the stats that players are putting up. *Note - as of Oct 7 this section is in progress.Simon Edvinsson (6'4, 185lbs, LHD from Frolunda of the SHL). Ranked #2 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Size, skill, and skating. There was an earlier article in the Athletic about how hard it is to judge the offensive capabilities of young Swedish defencemen in the SHL. Kris Versteeg described the SHL as being in a Rugby scrum. Lots of 1990s-style clutching and grabbing. Maybe that's where Petey honed his elusiveness given that players were able to get away with more of that over there? It does seem to handicap the offensive abilities of dmen. This might be especially true on the larger ice surface. His shot apparently isn't outstanding, but shooting and skating are two of the things that I think are easiest to develop if a player has the right work ethic. He will be playing in Frolunda, considered the gold standard of prospect development. Likely won't be available when the Canucks make their selection. Ranked #3 by Craig Button, 9th by Dobber, 10th by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: 1OA. With the SHL getting more eyes and ears due to the pandemic, I think poorer numbers from SHL defencemen will be overlooked and scouts will have a better understanding of the player and not just their points. Brandt Clarke is another high-end dman, but he took a while to get going in the OHL last year. It wasn't until a coaching change that he took off. The greatest players won't need a change in coaches to excel. That's why I have Edvinsson higher. Ceiling: Victor Hedman? Floor: Rasmus Ristolainen Aatu Räty (6'1, 181lbs, C from Kärpät of Liiga). Ranked #5 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Some have Räty as going first overall. Good on the cycle and a strong shot. Not fast/quick but still a strong skater. He might be one of those guys that looks better when playing with better players because they do all the right things. Similar to Quinn Hughes in that when players are in the right spot, he knows where to find them. Younger guys that are running around out of position don't tailor themselves to Räty's game. He might be a guy that falls a bit this year. A name that has just been around a while but not living up to expectations. He's also an older player for his draft class, which always makes me wary. Was he able to dominate earlier in the junior ranks because the difference of 9 months at age 15 is much different than 9 months at age 17? Or, are his offensive numbers a product of trying to get ready for the pro game that he'll be expected to play in Finland's top league? Ranked #1 by Craig Button, Dobber, and The Hockey Writers My Ranking: 6OA Ceiling: Jonathan ToewsFloor: Mikko Koivu Luke Hughes (6', 161lbs, LHD from U. Michigan, NCAA). Ranked #10 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. The only guy from the NCAA on the list. Yeah, its a pandemic and there is no hockey south of the border, but its hard to leave Hughes' towering (relatively speaking) younger brother off the list. Unlike Raty, Hughes is one of the youngest draft eligible players. He's got two big brothers to push him. Not a 'high risk' pick per se, but the floor is lower than most in the top 10... but there are only a few guys with a higher ceiling than him either. Will be pretty cool to see three brothers in the NHL. Ranked #8 by Craig Button, #7 by Dobber, and #9 by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: 8OA (Just so that he doesn't have bragging rights over Quinn). Ceiling: Quinn Hughes Floor: Neal Pionik Fabian Lysell (5'10, 176lbs, LW from Frolunda of the SHL). Ranked #11 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. I feel like the 2020 draft has about 100 undersized forwards to choose from. How those guys fare in the upcoming season might dictate whether scouts are bullish on Lysell or not. He is the most skilled playmaker of the guys we're tracking this year. He might be a candidate to move up the rankings because he hasn't had a lot of games to get that opportunity to be noticed consistently. Also from the Frolunda system. He was drafted by the Giants but unclear whether he will ply for them or not. I think there is a trend for some of the smaller guys to not be terrific skaters. Lysell doesn't fit into that category. Ranked #6 by Craig Button and #8 by Dobber and by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: 7OA Ceiling: Mitch Marner Floor: Josh BaileyIsak Rosen (5'10, 154lbs, LW/RW from Leksands IF of the SHL). Ranked #19 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Another undersized forward but unlike Lysell he's particularly light. Creative with a good shot that can beat goalies clear from outside the hashmarks. The type of guy you might put in charge of zone entries on the PP because he is good at reading the defence. Ranked #19 by Craig Button, #23 by Dobber, and #26 by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: XOA Ceiling: Too Early Floor: Too Early Edited June 3, 2021 by Down by the River 3 4 2 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Vintage Canuck- Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 Thanks for doing this again, @Down by the River. I've pinned the thread. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 OP updated. Also check out the draft-eligible prospect profiles (work in progress). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted September 30, 2020 Author Share Posted September 30, 2020 OP updated and another profile added. Frustrating about Podz's lack of playing time but Russia going to Russia... but it is this type of stuff that hurts the Red Machine's ability to fair well in international competition. Tryamkin seems to have taken steps in his offensive game which is a relief to see. I was uncertain last year about whether he would even be valuable to have on the Canucks' roster. He's changing that opinion. I'm more surprised by Hoglander's 0 PIMs than I am by his four assists in two games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 OP updated. I haven't had time to do any new profiles for the 2021 draft eligible guys, but I quickly added the 2020 draft picks that are currently active in some league (haven't added Kunz because he's not currently active anywhere). Nice to see Podz get a couple points after dealing with typical KHL BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted October 27, 2020 Author Share Posted October 27, 2020 Sorry for delays, getting killed at work. Will update this weekend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Castiglione Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 Thanks for doing this again! Always love this as a reference instead of searching hockey db for every player. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 OP updated with stats through Nov. 6. Sorry for the delay... fortunately nothing much happened in the last month. Unfortunately that means not a lot of counting stats for our prospects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted November 14, 2020 Author Share Posted November 14, 2020 OP updated with stats through November 13th/14th-ish. Podz is back in the KHL and has 2pts in 2 games. Hopefully that will lead to more TOI. Hogs is back to putting up points after 5-7 games of really struggling offensively. Also interesting to see 0 PIMs after being a bit of a loose cannon last year. The USHL/NCAA has started up, which thankfully will give us some more players to keep our eye on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted December 26, 2020 Author Share Posted December 26, 2020 Merry Christmas! OP Updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 OP updated with stats through January 16. Nice to be able to see Hoglander and Juolevi graduate to "With the Club". I am going to update the draft eligible sheet now that NCAA games are in action (e.g., I'll add Owen Power). If there are any others you'd like to see, just respond to the thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 OP Updated with stats through Feb 4. Hoglander and Podz have been bright spots.... everyone else has been quite underwhelming. Added Owen Power. He's off to a great start. Luke Hughes has had a massive jump. There are quite a few excellent dmen out there (Edvinsson another). I have a strong feeling that this board is going to pay a lot more attention to draft-eligible prospects the way the Canucks are playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuktravella Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 (edited) On 9/20/2020 at 10:26 PM, Down by the River said: Here we go! Now that the 2020 draft has concluded, we actually have some new prospects to follow. JB and co. did us a favor by selecting a bunch of Euros whose stats we can actually track. This thread is for keeping track of Canucks prospects through the 2020-21* season. My definition of 'prospect' is relatively broad to include players that fans have an interest in. If there is someone you want on the list that hasn't been added, just let me know. I graduated Demko, Hughes, Gaudette, and Pettersson all graduated from last year's list. I'll keep MacEwen on. Bear with me in setting this thread up as I need some time to figure out whether certain guys are still the property of the Canucks. As usual, we will also follow ~5 draft eligible prospects ranked somewhere around where we expect the Canucks to finish. I'm thinking we focus on guys expected to go somewhere around 15-20. If you have players in mind, let me know. I decided to start the thread early to see if there was any consensus as to which 2021 draft eligible players we should follow this year. For context, I've posted last years final numbers. FAQ: Reveal hidden contents 1) How often will the thread be updated? I plan to update about twice per month 2) Where do you get the stats from? All stats are pulled from the player's HockeyDB page. 3) What do the colored fonts mean? Red indicates that point per game totals are down from the year before. Green indicates they are up. Gold indicates that points are down but that the player played in a lower league. 4) How do I find a specific player quickly? If you are looking for a specific player, players are sorted alphabetically by first name. Draft Eligible Prospect Profiles: Reveal hidden contents I'll update this every month or so with some more qualitative information about how each prospect is progressing. There are so many different rankings to look at. I decided to rely on Scott Wheeler's from The Athletic because he provides details/justifications for his rankings that I can use to help contextualize the stats that players are putting up. *Note - as of Oct 7 this section is in progress.Simon Edvinsson (6'4, 185lbs, LHD from Frolunda of the SHL). Ranked #2 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Size, skill, and skating. There was an earlier article in the Athletic about how hard it is to judge the offensive capabilities of young Swedish defencemen in the SHL. Kris Versteeg described the SHL as being in a Rugby scrum. Lots of 1990s-style clutching and grabbing. Maybe that's where Petey honed his elusiveness given that players were able to get away with more of that over there? It does seem to handicap the offensive abilities of dmen. This might be especially true on the larger ice surface. His shot apparently isn't outstanding, but shooting and skating are two of the things that I think are easiest to develop if a player has the right work ethic. He will be playing in Frolunda, considered the gold standard of prospect development. Likely won't be available when the Canucks make their selection. Ranked #3 by Craig Button, 9th by Dobber, 10th by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: 1OA. With the SHL getting more eyes and ears due to the pandemic, I think poorer numbers from SHL defencemen will be overlooked and scouts will have a better understanding of the player and not just their points. Brandt Clarke is another high-end dman, but he took a while to get going in the OHL last year. It wasn't until a coaching change that he took off. The greatest players won't need a change in coaches to excel. That's why I have Edvinsson higher. Ceiling: Victor Hedman? Floor: Rasmus Ristolainen Aatu Räty (6'1, 181lbs, C from Kärpät of Liiga). Ranked #5 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Some have Räty as going first overall. Good on the cycle and a strong shot. Not fast/quick but still a strong skater. He might be one of those guys that looks better when playing with better players because they do all the right things. Similar to Quinn Hughes in that when players are in the right spot, he knows where to find them. Younger guys that are running around out of position don't tailor themselves to Räty's game. He might be a guy that falls a bit this year. A name that has just been around a while but not living up to expectations. He's also an older player for his draft class, which always makes me wary. Was he able to dominate earlier in the junior ranks because the difference of 9 months at age 15 is much different than 9 months at age 17? Or, are his offensive numbers a product of trying to get ready for the pro game that he'll be expected to play in Finland's top league? Ranked #1 by Craig Button, Dobber, and The Hockey Writers My Ranking: 6OA Ceiling: Jonathan ToewsFloor: Mikko Koivu Luke Hughes (6', 161lbs, LHD from U. Michigan, NCAA). Ranked #10 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. The only guy from the NCAA on the list. Yeah, its a pandemic and there is no hockey south of the border, but its hard to leave Hughes' towering (relatively speaking) younger brother off the list. Unlike Raty, Hughes is one of the youngest draft eligible players. He's got two big brothers to push him. Not a 'high risk' pick per se, but the floor is lower than most in the top 10... but there are only a few guys with a higher ceiling than him either. Will be pretty cool to see three brothers in the NHL. Ranked #8 by Craig Button, #7 by Dobber, and #9 by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: 8OA (Just so that he doesn't have bragging rights over Quinn). Ceiling: Quinn Hughes Floor: Neal Pionik Fabian Lysell (5'10, 176lbs, LW from Frolunda of the SHL). Ranked #11 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. I feel like the 2020 draft has about 100 undersized forwards to choose from. How those guys fare in the upcoming season might dictate whether scouts are bullish on Lysell or not. He is the most skilled playmaker of the guys we're tracking this year. He might be a candidate to move up the rankings because he hasn't had a lot of games to get that opportunity to be noticed consistently. Also from the Frolunda system. He was drafted by the Giants but unclear whether he will ply for them or not. I think there is a trend for some of the smaller guys to not be terrific skaters. Lysell doesn't fit into that category. Ranked #6 by Craig Button and #8 by Dobber and by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: 7OA Ceiling: Mitch Marner Floor: Josh BaileyIsak Rosen (5'10, 154lbs, LW/RW from Leksands IF of the SHL). Ranked #19 by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Another undersized forward but unlike Lysell he's particularly light. Creative with a good shot that can beat goalies clear from outside the hashmarks. The type of guy you might put in charge of zone entries on the PP because he is good at reading the defence. Ranked #19 by Craig Button, #23 by Dobber, and #26 by The Hockey Writers. My Ranking: XOA Ceiling: Too Early Floor: Too Early i’m love our prospects but one thing that concerns me ethan keppen is our only chl prospect no one else coming up from whl ohl or the q. I like our european and college kids but why no canadian junior talent mixed in. I feel like focht will be a good 3rd line center for us lind as well but we need to draft more in canadian junior Edited February 14, 2021 by canuktravella Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCanuck Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 2 hours ago, canuktravella said: love our prospects but one thing that concerns me ethan keppen is our only chl prospect no one else coming up from whl ohl or the q. I like our european and college kids but why no canadian junior talent mixed in. I feel like focht will be a good 3rd line center for us lind as well but we need to draft more in canadian junior Best player available Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 OP updated with stats through Feb 13. Comets are back! Lind on fire. Gadj with a fight. Hoglander hasn't been on the scoresheet but he's been exceptional since the start of the season. Karlsson is playing out of his mind, albeit in the Allsvenskan not the SHL. Petrus Palmu... I remember Vancouver media acting incredulous about his handling in Utica. Looks like he just wasn't that good to begin with. Not really fair to blame the kid given he was drafted in like the 6th/7th round, but media over-hyped him. Aidan McDonough on fire with 3 PP goals on Saturday. He had a multi-point game today but this isn't factored into his point totals yet (I don't think). In terms of draft eligible guys, a surprise has been William Eklund. Really strong numbers in the SHL compared to his peers. Luke Hughes has been a points machine after a slow start to the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odjick the Warrior Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 God dam if even one of those guys pans out for the Canucks 3rd line soon https://canucksarmy.com/2021/02/21/comets-weekly-lfg-line-heats-up-as-comets-finish-week-with-a-win-and-a-shootout-loss/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 OP Updated with stats through Feb 27th. Utica Comets off to a great start with the kids leading the way. Unfortunate about DiPietro being stuck on the taxi squad. Missing a chance at improved development. I've updated the draft eligible prospects by adding a few guys and changing some rankings. Note that the rankings don't include all categories because there are players that will likely be drafted in certain positions that I'm not tracking for various reasons (e.g., not playing or playing in weird leagues like Brandt Clarke in Slovakia). One guy on the rise is local product Kent Johnson from Port Moody. Had a great year with the Trail Smoke Eaters last year and followed things up with a p/pg pace in Michigan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 OP updated with stats through March 6. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 OP updated with stats through March 20. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AriGold Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 At this point I would take any 1 of Owen Powers, Brandt Clarke or Luke Hughes. Simon Edvinsson has BUST written all over him... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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