Just watched the CHL Top Prospects game that I PVR'd a few months back. A few notes
Man are there some big top prospects available
- On D: Jones 6'3, Nurse 6'3, Zadorov 6'5, (Ristolainen wasn't in the game but 6'3), Morin 6'7
- Up front: Mantha 6'4, Gauthier 6'5,
- Jones: rushes the puck, joins the rush, no hesitation to jump in offensively, great mobility
- Nurse: meaner than Jones, great mobility, not as offensive minded as Jones, looks like he'll be very strong when he fills out (already strong and has room to add weight)
- Zadorov: looks for big hits, great size/strength, skating didn't seem too bad
- Morin: got beat to the outside once or twice, absolute mammoth out there, did jump into the offensive zone a few times, weakest skating of the 4 d
- Mantha: really good speed for his size, has scored a ton in the Q this year but wasn't overwhelming in this game
- Gauthier: also a good skater for his size
It'd be nice to add some size with at least one of our first rounders this draft.
Tried to watch for Monahan but he didn't really stand out too much. Other players that showed some glimpes that I liked were Dickinson, Erne and Horvat.
As for MacKinnon vs Drouin vs Jones. In this game I liked MacKinnon the best despite getting no points.
- MacKinnon: Tremendous acceleration, excellent puckhandler, protects the puck well in the offensive zone with his body and wide skating stance, can shoot a very hard wrister (reminded me a bit of Sakic) or set guys up, looked a lot stronger on the puck than Drouin, good core strength
- Drouin: not his best game that I've seen. he did show excellent speed though. didn't protect the puck as well as MacKinnon and wasn't beating defenders like you've seen on the youtube clips.
- Jones: didn't hesitate to jump into the play. If there's a knock on him its that maybe you'd like to see him crush guys a bit more often. Tremendous size/strength/skating combo. I'd drop him a slight notch in the rankings just based on the fact that as an American he may decide he wants to play in the US later in his career and not stay as a franchise player for the Flames.
Given how close the top few prospects are I think you can start to bring in tiebreaking factors like position and nationality.
My top 3 from this game
1. MacKinnon - I give the edge to him based on his breakaway skating ability, the fact he plays centre and is Canadian. Would love it if we landed him
2. Jones
3. Drouin
Haven't seen enough of Barkov and Lindholm and Nichuskin to slot them in. I did see why Craig Button has Nurse so high on his list, he shows a lot of potential to be a big, physical #2 defensemen with some puck skills. I'm not going to be thrilled if we draft undersized guys like Domi or Petan based on what I saw in this limited action. I'm kind of hoping one of Ristolainen/Zadorov/Mantha/Gauthier might end up with us, always love size
