Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
Pettersen IMO is the most overrated Flames prospect. He was 42nd in Division 1 scoring last year based on PPG. He was a sophomore which is in his favor but there are plenty of sophomores and a few freshman on that list. His game is entirely dependent on scoring as he is a no show in his own zone so I am rather skeptical he ever gets a sniff of the bigs. Pretty good 6th round pick and what do I know, he could easily carve out an Austin Czarnik career. The fact that Flames already signed him shows he has progressed.
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I suspect the reason Pettersen looks less noticeable than the numbers indicate is because he really is a powerplay specialist at this point, not unlike Rob Schremp and Sam Gagner did in their pre-NHL years - which is a nod to your viewings.
20 of Pettersen's 35 points this year came with the man advantage, representing 57% of his points which is incredible for a forward - that share is powerplay QB defenceman territory. Generally you will see forwards in the 25-35% range, but a higher percentage of powerplay goals are scored in NCAA hockey relative to other leagues. However, even with that in mind the average NCAA forward is in the 35-40% range.
Last season wasn't as bad as he was in the expected range, but noteworthy was him scoring just one non-powerplay goal in 40 games which is why I was much lower on him than the Forum consensus in last years edition of this.
Consider Pettersen now has 8 non-powerplay goals in 76 games (27 assists) and I am deeply concerned he may not be able to translate his offence to the next levels, and, as a perimeter player, he may not have the all-round game to succeed in other roles.
Not at all intended to be a Pettersen hit piece but there isn't really a way to word it without it seeming that way. He just has some extreme outliers in his metrics that need to be considered, in my opinion.
