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Jackson Kunz | LW


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2 hours ago, elvis15 said:

If he can figure out his skating, they probably have.

Yeah. Gadjovich was a big guy big scorer in junior, but struggled with his skating at the world junior and in the AHL. He has been working at it and has improved, but it is definitely slowing his development. Fortunately, Jackson will have more time to work on it in college and hopefully get it worked out.

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The thing I love about almost all the picks, but particularly this one and Jurmo is that they all share late birthdays. Kunz is August birthday and Jurmo is April birthday. I find that a good statistical portion of successful late round draft picks come from late birthdays. In the past scouts would not take this into consideration as they can only scout what they see. However I've found that players born from around May onwards tends to have an average of 25-35% statistical increase in their stats year over year after their draft year. What this means is you get better value for your pick because scouts don't pick up on this anomaly unless they have stat guys working for them. 

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36 minutes ago, TGokou said:

The thing I love about almost all the picks, but particularly this one and Jurmo is that they all share late birthdays. Kunz is August birthday and Jurmo is April birthday. I find that a good statistical portion of successful late round draft picks come from late birthdays. In the past scouts would not take this into consideration as they can only scout what they see. However I've found that players born from around May onwards tends to have an average of 25-35% statistical increase in their stats year over year after their draft year. What this means is you get better value for your pick because scouts don't pick up on this anomaly unless they have stat guys working for them. 

We relying on Mysticism now?XD

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Kind of surprised about this pick given the guys still on the board, but this is why fans need to trust scouts and not just name recognition. Someone on Benning's staff obviously liked this kid enough to make a case for why guys like Nybeck/Villeneuve/Berard/Chromiak/Tullio, etc. shouldn't be drafted. 

 

Also, any pick that makes that wart of a human JD Burke upset is good by me.

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Warming up to this pick but still have a fair bit of skepticism around this one.

 

Thought the overall scouting report sounded a bit familiar to me like a hybrid of Jonah Gadjovich and Ethan Keppen. They're described very similarly to Kunz, strong on the puck, physical, good in front of the net, and a strong shot - but the same denominator of skating needs work.

 

I haven't seen Kunz at all so I won't say much about his skating, but just by description it sounds like running down the same rabbit hold hoping for a different outcome.  I'm warming up, but not super excited about this one to be honest.  Hope im wrong though, would love for him to turn out and see the other 2 names also prove me wrong too. 

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5 hours ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

In today’s game, skating, while incredibly important, is actually considered one of the easier flaws to fix. And apparently Kunz has already made significant improvements over the past year. He’s very young, and headed down a development path (USHL and then a top college program) that should afford him plenty of opportunities to improve his skating.

 

EDIT: One positive thing I’ve seen written behind some of the paywalls is actually some praise for Kunz’s edge work and shiftiness for a big man. Definitely there are concerns around his skating, but these seem more to do with his simple, straight line speed and acceleration. He’s not able to catch up on the back check when he’s caught deep. There’s some degradation in his stride when he covers longer distances. And possibly some simple conditioning and fatigue issues. While I can’t say I’ve seen his games, these issues (while definitely needing improvement) don’t seem overly serious. Skating specific coaching and focused physical training should be able to correct them, assuming Kunz has the mental makeup to put in the work. Also, he’s a young kid from a high school level program, so he probably hasn’t had a good skating coach yet. And he’s also a huge kid who scores 50 goals a season, so I doubt his coaches have been beating him over the head about his skating issues. That kind of tough love will likely come when he becomes a full time USHL player, and even more so when he joins the college ranks. He’ll also have access to the coaching and training he needs to address these issues and I’d expect his skating will improve significantly.

I did see that he made improvements this past year, so that's encouraging. We've all seen plenty of players with that knock never quite get to an acceptable NHL level. They can't all be Horvat.

 

4 hours ago, Ray_Cathode said:

Yeah. Gadjovich was a big guy big scorer in junior, but struggled with his skating at the world junior and in the AHL. He has been working at it and has improved, but it is definitely slowing his development. Fortunately, Jackson will have more time to work on it in college and hopefully get it worked out.

It does happen that some never pick up the game at the higher speed. Having skating hold someone back, even a little, can really make that tougher. Kunz having a lot of other positives and time to improve hopefully makes it easier when he does go pro.

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I think Kunz is a bit of a miss at 4. I think more talented players were still on the board. I think the Canucks should have gone for someone with higher hockey IQ. 

 

Kunz doesn't really have anything in his game that stands out except his size which will mean nothing if he can't improve his skating and vision. The Canucks also don't really need another bottom 6 winger type. I wish they went for someone that could have filled a positional needs at centre or RHD.

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1 hour ago, CRAZY_4_NAZZY said:

Warming up to this pick but still have a fair bit of skepticism around this one.

 

Thought the overall scouting report sounded a bit familiar to me like a hybrid of Jonah Gadjovich and Ethan Keppen. They're described very similarly to Kunz, strong on the puck, physical, good in front of the net, and a strong shot - but the same denominator of skating needs work.

 

I haven't seen Kunz at all so I won't say much about his skating, but just by description it sounds like running down the same rabbit hold hoping for a different outcome.  I'm warming up, but not super excited about this one to be honest.  Hope im wrong though, would love for him to turn out and see the other 2 names also prove me wrong too. 

Chances are, at best one of the three will turn out. The most recent draft analysis gives second rounders a 35% chance of playing at least 100 NHL games, third rounders 25%, and fourth rounders 20%. If you take one second rounder (Gadjovich) and two fourth rounders (Keppen & Kunz), you get an average chance of 25%, so just getting one NHLer out of the three would be hitting above average.

 

Power forwards are difficult to draft. In 2012, Tom Wilson was ranked #15 among North American player by Central Scouting, behind guys like Gaunce and Sissons. When Washington took him at #16, it was widely seen as a reach due to his skating issues. He barely scored above 0.5ppg in his draft year.  Nick Ritchie, on the other hand, was ranked #7 among N.A. players in 2014 and was seen as a good pick for Anaheim at #10; he had scored 1.2ppg in his draft year. Or take Lucic, picked #50 in 2006, versus Kyle Beach, picked #11 in 2008.   

 

I think what Benning and co. have been doing in the past few years is using a lower pick or two on a power forward every draft. It's kind of like how a lot of teams will take a goalie every year -- most of them won't turn out, but they don't need to. Just hitting one would be a good payoff. Anyone you pick outside of the first round has a much higher chance of flaming out than making it, so you might as well take a chance. Championship teams need a deep bottom six -- we've seen that throughout the playoffs.  If you build up a pool of power forwards, and one turns out, then you got a pretty useful player for a low price. 

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12 hours ago, Crabcakes said:

JD Burke was pretty salty when he admitted he had no idea who Kunz was.  When he recovered, he said there was a reason why he was off his radar.

 

If this isn't a good sign, I don't know what is :lol:

 

Jurmo wasn't on his 'radar', either, evidently.

Is the guy desperate for attention, or what?

Might want to work to develop his 'radar' - apparently virtually anything Benning does falls in one of this guy's endless array of blindspots.

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8 hours ago, bertuzzi44fan said:

We relying on Mysticism now?XD

Contrary to what you may believe it is a thing that the analytics community is looking more at. Of course you can't teach skill even if the guy is a year younger than some in his draft class, but these kids develop so much year to year. If you draft a guy born July/August, just because he hasn't shown you the stats that an older player may have doesn't mean he won't get there given a few more months. Case in point Jonah Gadjovich was a second round overager who looked amazing stat wise. Sure lock right? Why was he even available in second round? Guess what he is October birthday so when he was drafted he was already a full 2 years older than Kunz was when he was drafted. That's why it's important to take age into consideration.

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7 hours ago, CallAfterLife said:

I think Kunz is a bit of a miss at 4. I think more talented players were still on the board. I think the Canucks should have gone for someone with higher hockey IQ. 

 

Kunz doesn't really have anything in his game that stands out except his size which will mean nothing if he can't improve his skating and vision. The Canucks also don't really need another bottom 6 winger type. I wish they went for someone that could have filled a positional needs at centre or RHD.

I like some of his intangibles, but we really haven't had a look at the player. Personally I was hoping Blake Biondi was going to fall to us, but I dont know much about this draft. 

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1 hour ago, KKnight said:

I like some of his intangibles, but we really haven't had a look at the player. Personally I was hoping Blake Biondi was going to fall to us, but I dont know much about this draft. 

I liked Bondi as well. I think there were also players drafted after Kunz that would have been better. I liked Alex Jefferies and Matteo Costantini. Jefferies played in the same league as Kunz and scored the same amount of points but with 13 less games. Costantini also has an August birthday like Kunz and will be going to UND. 

 

I think Kunz is a bit of a reactionary pick to the Vegas series. I think Benning and the scouting team are looking for an Alex Tuch type player. I guess I'm glad they're doing it with a fourth round pick. I just think there were players that had more talent and were also at least 6 feet or over. I think with Kunz size was prioritized over talent. 

 

But oh well. Kunz is a Canuck so I'll cheer for him regardless. 

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Vancouver Canucks pick Grand Forks native Jackson Kunz in the fourth round

 

Jackson Kunz was in for a pair of surprises Wednesday.

 

The first one came when he was changing in the Green Bay Gamblers locker room after practice.

 

Head coach Pat Mikesch hauled into the room to tell him some unforgettable news. The Vancouver Canucks selected Kunz, the Grand Forks native and former Red River standout, in the fourth round of the NHL Draft.

 

Kunz, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound winger, went with the No. 113 overall pick, making him the ninth-highest drafted North Dakotan of all time. He also became the highest-drafted Greater Grand Forks player in 17 years, since Ryan Potulny went No. 87 in 2003.

 

"I was surprised it was Vancouver, because I didn't have a strong contact with them throughout the year," Kunz said. "But I was happy about it.

 

"I didn't really know where I was going to go to be honest. I was kind of just hoping to get picked. I knew I wasn't going super early. I knew I'd be waiting a while, but the fourth round wasn't too bad."

 

Then came Kunz's second surprise.

 

Vancouver Canucks star Brock Boeser, who led UND to the 2016 NCAA national championship, congratulated him through Twitter.

 

"Congrats to @jacksonkunz9 on getting drafted to the Nucks #gosioux," Boeser wrote.

 

"That was pretty cool," Kunz said. "I was shocked when I saw that. That was awesome."

 

Kunz said he's never met Boeser.

 

"I watched him when he was at UND and ever since he went to Vancouver," Kunz said. "I've always wanted to meet him, so maybe I can now."

 

Kunz, who spent draft day with his parents, Josh and Angela in Green Bay, also received a call from Vancouver Canucks director of player development Ryan Johnson.

 

Johnson starred at UND for two years before launching a 13-year NHL career. His two brothers, Greg and Corey, also played at UND.

 

"He welcomed me and told me congrats," Kunz said.

 

A power forward

 

After a breakout freshman year at Red River, Kunz spent the last two seasons at Shattuck-St. Mary's Prep School in Faribault, Minn. He tallied 40 goals and 65 points in 45 games last season as a junior before moving on to Green Bay, where he'll play his senior year.

 

"He has a powerful, all-around game," Mikesch said. "He's heavy with everything he does. He's got very unique in-tight, offensive skills -- tipping pucks, pulling pucks away from goalies and getting around them. He knows that and he loves playing net front. We talked about the power play and different places he's been. He said he's always at the top of crease. He has a good feeling of where strengths are at.

 

"One thing he wants to work at is being better through the middle of ice and in transition. His skating has come a long way. It's just being able to make more transition plays to get through defenders' sticks and skates to have more offensive entries as well. At Shattuck, he could probably lean on people. Our league will force him to play with more pace."

 

Kunz's college arrival date is still up in the air, but now he has his development path in front of him -- UND-to-Vancouver's organization.

 

"It's one step farther in the process," he said. "I'll get back after it tomorrow."

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Skating issue sounds a bit like another player .....

 

“Bo Horvat is another great two-way player who can score some clutch goals,” adds David Burstyn, director of scouting for McKeen’s Hockey. “He was one of coach Dale Hunter’s favourites. Bo’s skating improved throughout the course of the year, especially diagonally and laterally. He still needs to work on some of his straight-ahead speed, but this is a player that just doesn’t give up. He’s always going to the front of the net to score greasy goals, he always back checks, blocks shots, takes valuable faceoffs. This is a guy that arguably played two minutes of the penalty kills and was also out on the power play, so he plays both special teams. He scored 33 goals, which is pretty impressive"

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