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Originally Posted by Ashasx
My biggest concern with Ritchie isn't even his weight. Hell, Kessel has a belly and is one of the fastest skaters in the league.
It's that Ritchie lacks any sort of hockey sense. Of the top 10 rated prospects, he has the worst, and it's not even close. He can't effectively use his teammates and often makes the same mistakes over and over.
Yeah, he racks up his points by being on average 50 pounds heavier than his competition, but that's not something that will transition to the NHL.
He's the easiest player to predict to be a bust at this point in time.
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All I have to say is "Wow".
Clearly, you do not like Ritchie as a prospect, but it is beyond evident that you aren't familiar with him at all, other than his physical stature. Lacking any sort of hockey sense? Seriously Ashax, you CLEARLY are very unfamiliar with him at best, and at worst you are just plainly making stuff up to support your dislike of this prospect.
You should read the following on the prospect:
Edmonton Journal had a really long article about him - not professional scouting by any means, but just as valid as any poster on here really: Just really a take on one single game, but his summary of this game seems to closely mirror that of most scouting services.
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/201...e-oilers-need/
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His shot is excellent. It is hard and accurate. He also has a great release, as you don’t really see the puck once it’s near him for the one-timer. On the Petes’ first PP, he rang a high hard one off the post before he scored his first of the night, top shelf. He could be even more selfish though as he passed up at least two chances to shoot when in the high slot.
Ritchie had very good defensive zone awareness. He was aware of his point man, but the Petes play a system that asks him to come down low to collapse the net so he took the man in the slot when necessary once. There was an economy of movement in the defensive zone – no wasted effort. Seemed to be in the right spot at all times and anticipated potential dangerous situations well.
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http://prospects.dobbersports.com/in...7-nick-ritchie
Talks about his 200ft game, his playmaking ability, HOCKEY SENSE, etc.
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Ritchie is an intelligent two-way player who is an excellent skilled playmaker, using his hockey sense, vision and slick puck handling ability to execute top-end passes. His size and aggressiveness allows him to provide a physical presence and he has been known to drop his mitts to defend teammates. Ritchie is a 200-foot player who reads the play equally well in the defensive zone as he does on the attack. Heading into his third OHL season and first draft year, Ritchie has the opportunity to become a top five draft pick if he continues to play his two-way possession game and avoids injury, something he has had difficulty doing in the past. Brendan Ross
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http://lastwordonsports.com/2014/04/...-nick-ritchie/
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Ritchie might have the best wrist shot in this draft class. It is tremendously powerful, and features a very good release. It can be in the back of the net before the goaltender even knows that he’s shot the puck. That wrist shot is already NHL ready.
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Every scouting report I see on Ritchie is either listing him favorably as having good-to-great Hockey IQ. Where exactly are you getting your (mis)information from exactly?
From what I have gathered from reading up on him from various scouting sources, here is a better compiled list of his strengths and weaknesses.
Weaknesses:
Conditioning issue: Seems to be a bit 'fat'. Not overly so. However, he maintains a very good level of agility and speed.
Inconsistency issues: Most prospects have these anyways, but this seems to come up in regards to Ritchie a bit more often. Most scouts are attributing this to his conditioning issue, however.
Durability issue: Seems like a non-issue at the moment from all the scouting services that have written about him, but it does worry me personally. He has missed a lot of time in the previous 2 seasons, and has had shoulder surgery last year. It doesn't bother me as much if a prospect who plays a skilled and fast game has shoulder surgery, but a power-forward 'tough' player that relies at least partly on physical play for success worries me a bit. He seems to have been healthy all year, but this personally does raise a bit of a flag (the biggest one for me out of his weaknesses).
Strengths:
Size: He is big and strong. Saying he is dominating due to his size now and will not be able to do so in the NHL is actually quite the short-sighted argument. EVERY prospect will have issues strength-wise in the NHL at first. It would be a concern if Ritchie was a 'one trick pony' who relied on driving the net and getting dirty goal after dirty goal, without much else. Having size is a HUGE strength moving forward, and saying he won't be able to dominate implies he will just stop growing and getting stronger. Might as well cross Ekblad off the list too since he will obviously not be able to contain NHL players, right? Cross out all the players who have size, right? There is no reason to think that Ritchie is 'finished' growing or gaining size and strength, and most scouts feel his game will translate very, very well to that of a powerforward who dominates along the boards.
Hockey IQ: Good-to-Great. Obviously not at Reinhart's level - but it seems nobody else in the entire draft is at that level. Ritchie has a very good hockey IQ. For those concerned about the "Kassian and Biggs" comparisons, please go back and look up their draft scouting reports. You will see "poor hockey IQ" as part of their scouting reports. Ritchie has "Great hockey IQ" listed in all the scouting reports that make a mention of IQ.
Speed: This is where it gets interesting. Again, the Kassian and Biggs comparisons - they were listed as below average in speed and agility. Ritchie is listed as "average" in speed, and "above average" in agility - he frequently wins those races to the puck. Again, the Kassian and Biggs comparisons are absolutely wrong here.
Shot: One of the fastest, most accurate and hardest releases in the CHL. Some scouts feel it is the very best shot in the draft. It is NHL ready, and he can score both from distance and in-tight. Very soft hands.
Playmaking: Apparently he is quite the playmaker. Extremely underrated here (which surprised me - I thought he was more selfish, but I haven't seen him play often). Scouts seem to think he has very good vision.
Defensive acumen: In reading a bunch of reports here creating the post, I also had no idea that Ritchie seems to be a very good 200ft player who backchecks well, and is alert to the defensive side of the game. Is aware when a defencmen pinches and often covers for them.
Physicality: Overly-physical at times to a detriment. However, loves to initiate contact. Loves to forecheck and punish the defencemen. Will drop the gloves to stick up for his teammates. Has the ability to make defenders bounce off of him (which is underrated - many big guys don't have the balance and ability to do it).
I actually wasn't so high on Ritchie. I have him outside my top 5. I had him around 8th or so before I read a bunch of reports just to create this bit of a rebuttal to what seems to be the thrashing of this pick (unfairly in my opinion), and he has jumped up to being a solid 6 on my list now. Maybe he won't stay there, and maybe he will.
However, people I think are overreacting to the past. There is a huge difference in what the Flames were drafting 5-10 years ago. Remember, the Flames were mostly drafting in the middle-to-late in the 1st round for the most part. You don't get prospects with that size and skill combination. Most of them had very big warts (Nemisz and his poor skating/physical play, Pelech with his below average skating, poor skill-level, etc). Seems people here 'cringe' when a mention of a big power-forward comes up with flashbacks of those days.
At the top end of the drafts, this is where you can find the very rare combination of size + skill. Sure, you can maybe find it and develop it different parts of the draft (like Benn and Lucic), but those I consider 'miracles'.
I would be shocked if Ritchie busts - and if he does, I bet it would be injury-related.
Comparing Biggs and Kassian to Ritchie is about as fair and correct as comparing Reinhart and Bennett to Brendl and Daigle. The similarities aside from size are simply not there. It is not even close.
Ritchie has 15 more goals in his draft year than Kassian did.
Biggs? Even a worse comparison.
TWO FULL YEARS after the draft, Biggs scores 26 goals for the Oshawa Generals. TWO FULL YEARS AFTER THE DRAFT (repeated for emphasis).
Ritchie scored 39 in his draft year. How many would he score two years after the draft? LoL
Biggs and Kassian are very annoying comparisons. They simply are not legitimate comparisons in the least. In fact, the only thing that is comparable about Kassian is his size (smaller than Ritchie was in his draft year), and his size is probably the ONLY thing making Kassian an NHL player at the moment. He is a big physical and hard to handle guy in the NHL right now. My guess is that Ritchie will be at least equally 'hard to handle' as well.
Seriously Ashax, where in the world do you pull "lacks any hockey sense" from? I would seriously love to know where you are getting this from.
Again, let me be clear here.
Ritchie is NOT my favorite prospect. My rankings are still Reinhart-Ekblad-Bennett-Dal Colle-Draisaitl. Ritchie is 6th, and I feel there is a gap between 5th and 6th right now (and even then, Ritchie has been bouncing between 6th and 9th for me).
Just because I am writing a big long rebuttal supporting Ritchie here, make no mistake he is not someone I am 'hoping' the Flames pick. I like him as a prospect, but I do not love him. If the Flames do select him, I will be a bit disappointed, but at least I can start feeling more positive about that pick since some scouts feel he can literally be the biggest impact player in the draft with the highest potential, and fills a very huge need in Calgary's prospect pool that is mostly populated by top-six undersized players. I don't see this as a 'horrible' outcome at all.
Just felt that Ritchie is continually getting compared to inferior players, and it seems more posters are jumping on the "Kassian and Biggs" comparisons which make absolutely no sense at all to me as the scouting reports differ considerably, as did their relative successes at the same ages.
