Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
He keeps close tabs on them. I think it is a mistake when people assume because they have a different opinion than you - that it means they must know less.
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Well, he's entitled to his opinion and I like his blog. However when I see how volatile some of his rankings are on guys like Janko, Kulak, Ollas-Mattsson, Mangiapane I definitely don't think he's got as strong a read on the prospects as some others who follow the prospects more closely. I mean people following more closely would never have put Hunter Smith ahead of Kulak in the first place in any way - upside or readiness. That was clearly a case of punishing Kulak for his ECHL stint and rewarding Smith for his team success in a worse league than the ECHL.
I don't blame Darren, or anyone voting in CP Prospect polls for being wrong, because most of us don't follow closely. I sure don't. But the few that do - Drury18, PMM, Ron Sutter, Alberta Beef, Caged Great etc tend to have more reliable, repeatable rankings from what I can usually tell. That's all. It's fair criticism to look at Kulak going from unranked to 11th and ask: did the player really improve from where he was at in April or did you just get a better look up close at him during Pentincton / Preseason? That also explains Karnaukhov's odd precence at 15 despite poor stats - the Hitmen play right here at home so there's more opportunity to go watch him. It's an interesting source of bias worthy of conversation - would Pavel be ranked the same if he played in Siberia with Rafikov? I don't think so.
Still, it was an entertaining read.