2023 Prospects Tourney

[Sarasti]

Kuznetsov is a nice steady presence on D and closes gaps nicely.

Morin had some great pinches in the O zone. Need to see more of him before I make judgements on his defensive game 

[travel_dude]

5 minutes ago, Sarasti said:

Kuznetsov is a nice steady presence on D and closes gaps nicely.

Morin had some great pinches in the O zone. Need to see more of him before I make judgements on his defensive game 

 

I think Morin is a copy of Poirier, just a couple years behind him.  I would expect him to work on his defensive game to go with the offence.  Kuz is at the same development level as Poirier, but Kuz is finally able to show his offensive side a bit more.  He reminds me a bit of Zadorov, in that he loves to hit to disrupt plays.  Honestly I didn't see much of this game, but that's what I remember of him.  

[Sarasti]

6 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

I think Morin is a copy of Poirier, just a couple years behind him.  I would expect him to work on his defensive game to go with the offence.  Kuz is at the same development level as Poirier, but Kuz is finally able to show his offensive side a bit more.  He reminds me a bit of Zadorov, in that he loves to hit to disrupt plays.  Honestly I didn't see much of this game, but that's what I remember of him.  

 

The Zadorov comparison tracks for sure. This game he was more inclined to disrupt plays with good position and an active stick. 

Along with his physicality he's frustrating for opposing forwards. 

[jjgallow]

3 hours ago, rocketdoctor said:

you can see Honzek and Lapinski play together.  Been the best line so far in this one.

 

[travel_dude]

57 minutes ago, jjgallow said:

 

 

What?

Two players on a line and you make this silly comment?

[jjgallow]

15 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

What?

Two players on a line and you make this silly comment?

 

[travel_dude]

[conundrumed]

Watched the replay last night. Lipinski showed much better. Outside of Kerins having 2 dreadful giveaways on the same shift he seems more comfortable. I think most guys were, so the pace was much better. Morin loking a lot more comfortable. I liked Klapka moving down and Stromgren up. I thought Stromgren ran that line with Lipinski and Honzek with aggressive forechecking and hitting.

Kerins and Coronato were together all tourney which makes sense. Same age, playmaking C with a shoot-first RW.

I still think Duarte looked like the most responsible player and Pilling and Diotte the best invites. See how main camp goes if Pilling earns a contract.

Parker Bell was solid and consistent in all 3 games, no complaints there.

Murphy had a solid game. I agree with teams going 50/50 splits with goalies. Radomsky's only start was an awful team in front of him. Murphy got the next 2 where the team started gelling a lot better.

Next year remind me not to watch Game 1.lol

[jjgallow]

3 hours ago, conundrumed said:

Watched the replay last night. Lipinski showed much better. Outside of Kerins having 2 dreadful giveaways on the same shift he seems more comfortable. I think most guys were, so the pace was much better. Morin loking a lot more comfortable. I liked Klapka moving down and Stromgren up. I thought Stromgren ran that line with Lipinski and Honzek with aggressive forechecking and hitting.

Kerins and Coronato were together all tourney which makes sense. Same age, playmaking C with a shoot-first RW.

I still think Duarte looked like the most responsible player and Pilling and Diotte the best invites. See how main camp goes if Pilling earns a contract.

Parker Bell was solid and consistent in all 3 games, no complaints there.

Murphy had a solid game. I agree with teams going 50/50 splits with goalies. Radomsky's only start was an awful team in front of him. Murphy got the next 2 where the team started gelling a lot better.

Next year remind me not to watch Game 1.lol

 

Personally I felt Francis was the best one there.

[travel_dude]

4 hours ago, jjgallow said:

 

Personally I felt Francis was the best one there.

 

We don't always keep our best, #1 prospect.  Sometimes they move on to better things.

Still has a chance to come back from the ECHL.

Maybe gets a contract out of it in the AHL.

[bosn111]

I didn’t get to watch a lot of the tourney, so relying on the eyes of others. 
 

I believe I heard on multiple occasions that Stromgren has a ton of speed. As long as he is defensively responsible, this could be a future counter to McDavid and other speedsters in the league. Good energy for 3rd or 4th line.

[The_People1]

Saw the highlights.  Seems like Klapka had a great game.  Does he have a chance to make the Flames?  

[The_People1]

On 9/19/2023 at 3:51 AM, conundrumed said:

Watched the replay last night. Lipinski showed much better. Outside of Kerins having 2 dreadful giveaways on the same shift he seems more comfortable. I think most guys were, so the pace was much better. Morin loking a lot more comfortable. I liked Klapka moving down and Stromgren up. I thought Stromgren ran that line with Lipinski and Honzek with aggressive forechecking and hitting.

Kerins and Coronato were together all tourney which makes sense. Same age, playmaking C with a shoot-first RW.

I still think Duarte looked like the most responsible player and Pilling and Diotte the best invites. See how main camp goes if Pilling earns a contract.

Parker Bell was solid and consistent in all 3 games, no complaints there.

Murphy had a solid game. I agree with teams going 50/50 splits with goalies. Radomsky's only start was an awful team in front of him. Murphy got the next 2 where the team started gelling a lot better.

Next year remind me not to watch Game 1.lol

 

Is Coronato a lost cause?  Doesn't pass which gets predictable and easy to defend against.

[travel_dude]

1 hour ago, The_People1 said:

 

Is Coronato a lost cause?  Doesn't pass which gets predictable and easy to defend against.

 

On the PP, Draisaitl stays in the exact same position for the majority of his shifts.  He scores from that area a ton.  Ovi does nearly the same thing.  Both are predictable.  Both score.  This isn't a comparison to MC, just that if you are a sniper first, you need to be good at it.

[conundrumed]

2 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

Is Coronato a lost cause?  Doesn't pass which gets predictable and easy to defend against.

Nope. Maybe he was over-compensating to make an impression, but him and Kerins were out of sync a fair bit. Just kind of not playing together so aren't getting open for each other/not sure where to be. Kerins is a good passer and sees the ice quite well as he showed setting up Klapka. Plays were dying on both of their sticks just not being in tune with each other, which is expected. But Coronato can do better keeping his head up with the puck. He was always trying to take the puck to where he could get a shot off as opposed to relying on linemates to move the puck around. Cross Hanas with the Wings does the same thing.

We need shoot first guys, but they need to balance it with some playmaking or the goalie always knows.

First game skates. I watched him enough in U to know that he'll be fine as he gets more comfortable.

Gotta use his teammates more.

[conundrumed]

2 hours ago, The_People1 said:

Saw the highlights.  Seems like Klapka had a great game.  Does he have a chance to make the Flames?  

I'm not sold. He was also one of the oldest/pro experienced in the tourney. Like a 20yr old still in jr, you should be one of the best. I noticed he's getting a lot of hype for a good tourney, but I'm very wait-and-see as the competition elevates. I doubt he's near Duehr or Rosie yet. I can compare him to another 6'8" guy in a similar tourney in Soderblom. Soderblom dominated near every shift to the point of, "why are you here"? Klapka wasn't really close to that. One of the better players, but not clearly scary in that environment. And Elmer's 2 yrs younger with zero guarantee that he'll make the Wings roster. So I doubt Klapka has a great chance. Most of his abilities seem pretty average imho.

[travel_dude]

1 hour ago, conundrumed said:

I'm not sold. He was also one of the oldest/pro experienced in the tourney. Like a 20yr old still in jr, you should be one of the best. I noticed he's getting a lot of hype for a good tourney, but I'm very wait-and-see as the competition elevates. I doubt he's near Duehr or Rosie yet. I can compare him to another 6'8" guy in a similar tourney in Soderblom. Soderblom dominated near every shift to the point of, "why are you here"? Klapka wasn't really close to that. One of the better players, but not clearly scary in that environment. And Elmer's 2 yrs younger with zero guarantee that he'll make the Wings roster. So I doubt Klapka has a great chance. Most of his abilities seem pretty average imho.

 

He has his purpose, but I don't think it's anything other than a call up option when we lose a bigger player.  4th line max that is.  He should be one of the best there if he was going to threaten for a 13/14 spot on the Flames.  There are better options.

[jjgallow]

8 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

Is Coronato a lost cause?  Doesn't pass which gets predictable and easy to defend against.

 

I don't feel he's a lost cause.  You need shooters, and it very much depends on the makeup of the line.

 

I think some people have it in their head, though, that he will just be that goal-scorer our top passing line needs.  As a 5'10 prospective rookie, this is highly unlikely.  It is also highly unlikely that his prime years will overlap with the productive years of our aging top line.

 

If it happens, great.     But with where this team is right now I'd much rather prefer having a D or G prospect at his caliber.   The same goes for Honzek.   It's time to start building out from the net, and give up the forward bail-out strategy.

 

So, yeah I think he has value and I think it's okay that he shoots.  Given the right environment, it can work.   We have the right environment on the top line, but again it's unlikely for those productive years to overlap.   So, nothing wrong with the kid, but would consider him in a trade all the same.

[The_People1]

5 hours ago, conundrumed said:

I'm not sold. He was also one of the oldest/pro experienced in the tourney. Like a 20yr old still in jr, you should be one of the best. I noticed he's getting a lot of hype for a good tourney, but I'm very wait-and-see as the competition elevates. I doubt he's near Duehr or Rosie yet. I can compare him to another 6'8" guy in a similar tourney in Soderblom. Soderblom dominated near every shift to the point of, "why are you here"? Klapka wasn't really close to that. One of the better players, but not clearly scary in that environment. And Elmer's 2 yrs younger with zero guarantee that he'll make the Wings roster. So I doubt Klapka has a great chance. Most of his abilities seem pretty average imho.

 

4 hours ago, travel_dude said:

 

He has his purpose, but I don't think it's anything other than a call up option when we lose a bigger player.  4th line max that is.  He should be one of the best there if he was going to threaten for a 13/14 spot on the Flames.  There are better options.

 

Ya I mean, he's definitely 4th line or bust.  Not expecting much from him but RHS RW with size will look good in the bottom 6.

[travel_dude]

4 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

 

Ya I mean, he's definitely 4th line or bust.  Not expecting much from him but RHS RW with size will look good in the bottom 6.

 

I think it's a bit early to sentence him to the 4th line or bust.  I was referring to him being used this year.  Ryan Reaves was less productive at that age and managed a long career.  Generous to call him middle 6 but that sometimes what he was.  

 

I find it somewhat difficult to project a player with so little NA experience.  The Euro numbers don't translate very well and hard to tell the icetime and competition.  They signed him for some reason and Burke wasn't here.  When you play mostly with smaller AHL players, the skill doesn't always show up right away.  

 

I'm not going to project him to score 30 in the AHL but I don't think that would that big of a stretch.  13g in 60 AHL games and 4g in 9 playoff games.  With top 6 minutes, it's not that difficult if he is any good.

[The_People1]

21 hours ago, travel_dude said:

 

I think it's a bit early to sentence him to the 4th line or bust.  I was referring to him being used this year.  Ryan Reaves was less productive at that age and managed a long career.  Generous to call him middle 6 but that sometimes what he was.  

 

I find it somewhat difficult to project a player with so little NA experience.  The Euro numbers don't translate very well and hard to tell the icetime and competition.  They signed him for some reason and Burke wasn't here.  When you play mostly with smaller AHL players, the skill doesn't always show up right away.  

 

I'm not going to project him to score 30 in the AHL but I don't think that would that big of a stretch.  13g in 60 AHL games and 4g in 9 playoff games.  With top 6 minutes, it's not that difficult if he is any good.

 

He's 23 already so there's not much to develop anymore from here.  He should be the final product more or less.  4th line is his realistic ceiling right now.

 

I also don't think he's a great fighter, unless the ability to absorb a beating is considered a skill.  He only fights because he's big but he's a slow puncher.  I don't think he ever lands anything.  He's literally just an elite punching bag.

 

But that said, it's the combination of everything that makes him intriguing.  Size, RHS RW, decent speed, decent defense, decent awareness, etc.  He doesn't even need to give us anything elite as long as he's not a liability out there.  Just be a bigger Ritchie and grind away for 8 to 12 minutes a night.

[conundrumed]

I'm higher on Duarte to be a 4th line guy. He'll be 21 soon, undrafted, doesn't provide much offence, but knows his role.

I'd compare him to some of Lomberg's attributes. Constant motor, upbeat personality, skilled enough to be a distraction. RW/C.

Hopefully I can watch him in the A a bit.

BT not recognizing his own find in Lomberg's attributes will always annoy me. He's a constant motivator for FLA, like we didn't need that. He keeps that team jacked right up. For BT, he can't be a middle 6 so you throw him away.

This will be the same with Duarte. He isn't going to elevate up the lineup, he knows his role and hopefully he keeps perfecting it

I've always been of the mind that the bottom of your roster has to be as solid as the top, in that role.

Duarte had a solid tourney, let's see how camp goes, but he's got time to develop that game at the pro level.

Just stop viewing guys that will only be 4th liners as throwaways, like we did with Lomberg. JFC BT, that guy should have been your pride and joy find FOR THE FLAMES...bet you'd love him on the Leafs...dummy.

[rocketdoctor]

Cross is notable in his absence in this thread.

 

Anyone got contact with him?

[conundrumed]

48 minutes ago, rocketdoctor said:

Cross is notable in his absence in this thread.

 

Anyone got contact with him?

He gets fed up and goes on hiatus sometimes I believe. Completely understandable.

He's very knowledgeable and a boon for the board. He's also very measured about sticking with being confident about the team and players. 

I respect him a ton. This board can be downright depressing when the overtones hit an almost crescendo of negativity. It truly isn't worth being around. I almost didn't bother returning a few years ago, I had better things to do than read about how everything sucks all of the time.

It was actually seeing an email that @robrob74 dm'd me I thought maybe I'd try again after quite awhile away and renewed the "positivity" thread. He's only learned that right now, it was literally that email.lol

As for @cross16, I'm a big fan. Reading comprehension is a skill. There are more than a few indications in his tone at times that he's had enough. And that's completely fair. I hope that he's had a great summer and we can have conversations again that aren't widespread pissing and moaning.

Which is almost asking too much from CDN fanbases.

What is the SC scoreboard now? Something like US franchises: 37 Canada: 0.

I'm certain that there aren't reasons.🙄

 

 

[jjgallow]

5 hours ago, conundrumed said:

He gets fed up and goes on hiatus sometimes I believe. Completely understandable.

He's very knowledgeable and a boon for the board. He's also very measured about sticking with being confident about the team and players. 

I respect him a ton. This board can be downright depressing when the overtones hit an almost crescendo of negativity. It truly isn't worth being around. I almost didn't bother returning a few years ago, I had better things to do than read about how everything sucks all of the time.

It was actually seeing an email that @robrob74 dm'd me I thought maybe I'd try again after quite awhile away and renewed the "positivity" thread. He's only learned that right now, it was literally that email.lol

As for @cross16, I'm a big fan. Reading comprehension is a skill. There are more than a few indications in his tone at times that he's had enough. And that's completely fair. I hope that he's had a great summer and we can have conversations again that aren't widespread pissing and moaning.

Which is almost asking too much from CDN fanbases.

What is the SC scoreboard now? Something like US franchises: 37 Canada: 0.

I'm certain that there aren't reasons.🙄

 

 

 

Soo..  I'm gonna call BS on that.  Not necessarily BS on you, but that whole concept which has been brought up on here a few times about why people don't stay on the boards.

 

I can list a Lot of reasons why.  I'm glad to see @Kulstad back, and I hope he stays around and addresses more of them.  He asked for us to submit any issues to him but it wasn't specified if that should be  in the format of a google doc or more like a database that can be queried.   Anyway things seem to be on the up and up there.

 

If you read @cross16's last few posts,

 

Yes, okay.  He got into it with me, and a few others, about the whole rebuild concept. True.

 

However.

 

His posts are not the shining example of positivity this summer that you described.   Actually his general tone is that he is Pissed.   At, well, the owners.    He argues against "rebuilds" but he is also very much Not a supporter on here of some of the short term decisions made and he has very openly blamed ownership for that.

 

I've never actually thought of his views as that different from mine, and some of the others on here that he has run-ins with.   The only real big differences I can see are:
1.  He gets pissed when people aren't speaking his language

2.   He believes that fans should remain positive, trust management, spend more time enjoying the product than questioning it

3.   He believed in BT.  He saw the flaws, but blamed ownership for them.

 

Other than that, yeah, I don't think he's against keeping draft picks, making good draft decision, developing players, I don't actually think there are any core conflicts.  I don't believe there ever were.

 

His posts have been, to be honest, rather negative this summer and in conflict with #2.

 

Really, I think he, and Many, many fans right now, are conflicted, and this causes them to enter into:

 

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".

 

 

tbh.  I think that is the current situation.

 

I get like that too during playoffs and leading up to playoffs.  Others follow it more broadly.

 

Big questions remain around ownership.  Big questions remain around Conroy.   I think I might just be the biggest Conroy supporter on these boards to date, but even I've got questions.

 

Honzek better be good.

 

Call it whatever you want, we are, clearly going through a transition period and that is hard on some people.  Especially if you've got a claim on some sweet seats.