Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Phillips is a weird player for me as while his production in the AHL is obviously impressive, I was never impressed watching him. He never looked like a guy who was dominating with hockey sense, creativity, or agility (some of the stuff you see from smaller guys that give them success in the NHL). He never stood out to me, and in his incredibly short NHL stint, he looked like the exact same player he was in the AHL.
It’s hard for me to imagine his success translating, but I didn’t watch anything close to every Wranglers game. It was just odd watching him put up multiple goals and still leave a lot to be desired.
The only AHL players that really impressed me/looked like NHL players at times were Wolf and Poirier. Though I could see Kuznetsov and Solovyov making the NHL at some point. Zary was probably the most disappointing.
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The AHL is a weird league and hard to look "impressive" in, from a technical standpoint, because it's so much more disjointed. My theory is that's why Walker Duehr actually looked way better in the NHL than he did in the AHL (where he's never impressed me at all), because it's way easier to thrive playing in a north-south system away from the frenzied, mistake-filled nature of the AHL.
I think it can also massively affect finesse guys, too, though. Zary is one whose game really comes and goes in the A. Pelletier thrives because he's both quick and chippy, and he's really good at capitalizing off mistakes. Phillips is like that, too — at 5v5, he scores a lot of rebound goals, tap-ins, etc. It's river hockey. So unless you
really take over games by yourself — and almost nobody does at that level — it's hard to "look" impressive on the surface.