Worth noting that during his draft year Wennberg was viewed in a very similar light as Andersson - solid all around player but a lot of questions of whether or not his offense would translate.
Though I also think that Wennberg's production in the first half of last year will prove to be a blip. I view him as a 40 point type guy
Seems a bit pessimistic to view him as such. As Scorp notes he's on the upswing of his career and likely has not peaked.
He was very highly regarded in that draft year. It was a deep draft. I don't recall a lot of questions about his offence translating, I think he's always been viewed as having top two line centre upside.
I mean I can go back and find some scouting reports if you don't believe it.
ISS
Report Card
Size/Strength GOOD
Skating VERY GOOD
Puck Skills VERY GOOD
Shot EXCELLENT
Offensive Play VERY GOOD
Defensive Play VERY GOOD
Physical Play VERY GOOD
Competitiveness VERY GOOD
Hockey Sense VERY GOOD
Strengths
1. Great release on shot
2. Slick with puck
3. Finds open ice well
Weaknesses:
1. Needs to add power
2. Could be more physical
Weight: 195
Skill: Slick offensive talent who can create and finish very well.
Scouting Report:
A very smooth offensive talent, Wennberg is a player who is flying slightly under the radar due to the fact he did not receive as much exposure due to his late birthdate this year. Playing his first full season of Men’s hockey, Wennberg put up very impressive numbers and was the third highest scoring junior eligible player in Sweden’s second highest league, the Allsvenskan. Wennberg is a very good skater who reads the play well around the puck and can win himself space well with and without the puck. He places his shots very well, shows very good active motion in the offensive zone and has solid instincts. He can kill penalties but is best suited in offensive situations.
NHL Potential: Very good secondary offensive weapon with room to grow into an impact player."
FC
"STRENGTHS: Wennberg is a skilled forward who has been steadily rising up our draft boards all season. He skates extremely well and has good top-speed with excellent acceleration. He is very strong on his skates. It’s easy to be fooled by his lean stature and weaker looking frame, but he’s extremely hard to knock off balance. Wennberg has a great ability to keep his head up while engaging in a puck battles or making moves around a defender and can shake off opponents with twists and turns near the board with agility. Wennberg is a great positional player as he knows where to be on the ice and makes himself available for one-timers. He’s a pretty smart shooter, however, his shots are short on velocity and he lacks the confidence to use them consistently. His goals are often scored closer to the net thanks to his great positioning and shiftiness in the offensive zone. He protects the puck very well, knowing when to extend his stick and put his body in between the puck and his opponent, keeping control of the puck, and knowing when to engage physically. Wennberg can control the puck at high speed and in traffic, whether it’s along the boards or off the rush. He has decent puck skills and doesn’t try those coast- to-coast flashy rushes but has the ability to maintain the puck and deke around a defender at high speed. A pass-first player, he is one who can control the puck, show good patience and find players with both crisp passes or with saucers. He is willing and consistently ventures into traffic and towards the gritty areas of the ice. Wennberg is a smart player position-wise with an active stick and is slippery/tricky in tight spaces. He is tenacious and hard-working but not really an effective physical player yet and as such, works with his stick a lot to strip the puck from opponents or get it into passing lanes. Defensively, he has good closing speed, goes to the dirty areas and will sacri ce the body to block shots on occasion. Still raw in a lot of ways but has some very intriguing tools, including his ability to adapt to the situation and what is requested of him by his coaches.
WEAKNESSES: Wennberg’s biggest flaw is his lack of strength. He doesn’t weigh much and is knocked around by bigger opponents. With that said, he isn’t afraid of heavy traffic or getting hit but he lacks the functional strength to be successful along the wall and his checks are not that effective. While his vision for the offensive play is great and he’s trying hard to be in the right position defensively all the time, he’s not quite there yet as a two-way performer. He can get running around too much trying to break-up plays and lose his responsibility. Surely a sign of inexperience, as his attention to detail when it comes to covering shooting lanes and coming back using his speed on the back check is a plus.
SCOUTS QUOTE: “To start the season, Wennberg was bouncing up and down the line-up and not really relied upon much when it came to key situations for struggling Djurgården of the SEL-2. However, as the season wore along, he’s been used for special teams, the power play in particular, and in key, late-game situations.”
NHL POTENTIAL: Top Six Offensive Forward"
REDLINE
"Plays a very complete brand of hockey – skating, hitting, crashing net and creating. Good thought process at both ends. Speedy with soft shooter’s hands and can go upstairs even under pressure or from bad angles. Stickhandles well enough to beat defenders off the rush and create lanes for teammates. Plays with intensity and determination, and we like his effort and attitude. Anticipates well, making surprising passes that result in scoring chances. Goes to traffic areas looking for tips and rebounds. Versatile and can handle a variety of roles well. Continues to compete hard even late in lost cause games. Diligent defensively, backed by sound instincts and positioning. More comfortable battling 1-on-1 as his lanky frame fills in and strengthens. Has come a long way in a short of time — great development.
Projection: Solid two-way, 2nd line scorer."
Doesn't really seem like people were strongly questioning his offensive ability. Wennberg would probably easily be a top 10 pick if he were in this year's draft.
Last edited by Flames Draft Watcher; 06-01-2017 at 05:21 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Flames Draft Watcher For This Useful Post:
It's always interesting to see who unexpectedly drops in the draft.
Players like Deangelo, Kylington, Shinkaruk, Merkley, and Ritchie all seemed to fall down quite a few spots.
Deangelo likely fell for personality reasons. Maybe scouts thoughts Kylington was too one dimensional. Perhaps scouts thought that Shinkaruk's and Merkley's skills wouldn't translate to the NHL. And maybe they thought Ritchie lacked high end offense or speed.
The Russian factor tends to cause a few drops as well. Nichushkin was projected to be a top 5 pick.
A lot of the falls tend to shock us. However, the NHL teams often end up being correct in their skepticism.
There are exceptions to this. Filip Forsberg was supposed to be a high pick, but he fell to 11th overall.
Any predictions on who will drop this year? And are there any projections on potential steals?
The Following User Says Thank You to 1qqaaz For This Useful Post:
It's always interesting to see who unexpectedly drops in the draft.
Players like Deangelo, Kylington, Shinkaruk, Merkley, and Ritchie all seemed to fall down quite a few spots.
Deangelo likely fell for personality reasons. Maybe scouts thoughts Kylington was too one dimensional. Perhaps scouts thought that Shinkaruk's and Merkley's skills wouldn't translate to the NHL. And maybe they thought Ritchie lacked high end offense or speed.
The Russian factor tends to cause a few drops as well. Nichushkin was projected to be a top 5 pick.
A lot of the falls tend to shock us. However, the NHL teams often end up being correct in their skepticism.
There are exceptions to this. Filip Forsberg was supposed to be a high pick, but he fell to 11th overall.
Any predictions on who will drop this year? And are there any projections on potential steals?
Kylington's reason for falling was somewhat that he was a bit too one dimensional (scouts definitely questioned his defensive acumen for sure), but the main reason he fell so much was that he seemingly didn't take a step forward in his draft year. A lot of it had to do with him being bounced around between teams and coaches of course, but question marks arose about his character (which has since been thrown out the window with his time in Stockton) as well as how good offensively he really was.
In retrospect, I can see now why he fell somewhat, but watching him play I am for sure happy that the Flames have him in their cupboards. I still say he will make it, but I can also see why he fell. However, I do think that the Flames were lucky he fell THAT much. I still think he was a legitimate first round talent in his draft, and his body of work in the AHL I believe does confirm this to me.
People also forget that Andersson 'fell' as well. Going into his draft season, one or two preliminary rankings had him as (IIRC) a top 6 or 8 pick. Throughout the season he fell, and I can only assume it was due to fitness issues, as I thought he had a productive draft year.
The Following User Says Thank You to Calgary4LIfe For This Useful Post:
FWIW, one of the reasonings I heard for Kylington falling in 2015 wasn't so much that he wasn't good at defense but that he didn't feel like he had to get good at defense (e.g., he felt that his offense and skating were good enough to cover up for his shortcomings elsewhere).
Foote is taller than I thought, Petterson/Glass/Hischier look to have a lot of frame left to fill out, and Liljegren/Makar actually the same height. Rasmussen is massive already. Kailer Yamamoto is Gaudreau-sized - 5'7.5" / 146.4lbs and might not get picked until the second round. Patrick looks NHL-sized already.
__________________
"May those who accept their fate find happiness. May those who defy it find glory."
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to GranteedEV For This Useful Post:
Foote is taller than I thought, Petterson/Glass/Hischier look to have a lot of frame left to fill out, and Liljegren/Makar actually the same height. Rasmussen is massive already. Kailer Yamamoto is Gaudreau-sized - 5'7.5" / 146.4lbs and might not get picked until the second round. Patrick looks NHL-sized already.
Yamamoto performed quite well on a lot of the tests though. Good on the peak power, pull ups, and VO2 max tests.
You can't teach his skilll and I would have no issue with the Flames taking him at 16, or trading back and taking him.
The Following User Says Thank You to SuperMatt18 For This Useful Post:
Lias anderson isn't tall, but at 201lbs, I don't think he'll ever be considered small.
I would be happy to get him, as it seems that a lot of mock drafts have us taking him.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by snipetype
k im just not going to respond to your #### anymore because i have better things to do like #### my model girlfriend rather then try to convince people like you of commonly held hockey knowledge.
Safin is a promising player who should be a lock to make the NHL in one role or another, as long as he puts in the necessary work. He has the basics down — size, skating, hockey IQ — so teams shouldn’t worry about him too much. The team that selects him gets a center with a lot of upside and a prototypical frame.
The Hockey Writers didn't make a mention of his IQ at all, which is a bit surprising to me. Not good, not bad - just absolutely no mention.
LWOS didn't provide any info on his IQ either, but they did provide 2 different comments that I guess you can interpret as IQ. One was concerning, the other one was great.
Perhaps he does not have the on-ice vision to make the necessary plays. Perhaps he lacks the confidence to make creative plays. Whatever it is, the concern is that it will hold him back from maximizing his offensive potential.
The good:
Quote:
Safin has a well-developed defensive game for his age. He has very good positioning. He also anticipates well, and can see plays developing and then break them up.
FC doesn't provide any insight into his IQ either.
I don't think the Flames draft him anyways. He is ranked in the late 1st round until the middle of the 2nd round. There are players I definitely seem to like better than Safin, but Safin is a very intriguing prospect. Players of his size with his quickness and speed and potential offensive upside (he is known for his lethal shot and his speed) is something that NHL teams simply covet. Will be interesting to see when he gets drafted. If the Flames do end up taking him at 16, then they must really, really like him. I think it is more likely that if they like him, they do a trade down and grab a second, and hopefully address goaltending.
I also really like Lias. There are actually a solid handful of prospects that I do think project well that may be available at 16 and later. Safin wasn't on my radar at all until I saw his agenda posted up online with the Flames' interview, so naturally I looked him up and I really like what I see in him too. Definitely a very interesting prospect, and I am sure that the Flames have been scouting him for a while since they seem to be finding FAs out of the Czech Republic these days. He does seem like a smart player to me, so the reference of him having poor IQ is news to me. Where did you find it?
Yamamoto performed quite well on a lot of the tests though. Good on the peak power, pull ups, and VO2 max tests.
You can't teach his skilll and I would have no issue with the Flames taking him at 16, or trading back and taking him.
Size matters not if it's a kid with Japanese ancestry.
But seriously, if what you expect from the later first round is simply a roster player, you could do worse. The kid is a scorer, with good possession stats, and could play a good Byron-like PK role IMO.
I have studied my THN draft issue, and there are only a handful of players (after the top 2) that interest me at all - so much meh. Luckily, it seems a few of those should go right around our pick, so I am somewhat hopeful that we will land something interesting. I pray that there are a lot of trades during the draft to liven up the proceedings, as the actual drafting does not promise to hold much interest - the scramble for bottom 6 forwards and #4/5 d-men is only so exciting.
