2021-2022 CHL prospects general discussion thread

[TimSJ]

Kuznetsov was excellent last night.

We really struggle in our own end. Kuz is really the only one on the team that can play defense.

great game and atmosphere last night. too bad about the ot loss but 4 points for the Dogs after 2 games against arguable the 2 best teams.

Its been a great week so far here in SJ for the tournament.

[mile]

Hope Kuznetsov can turn into a Tanev-type

[Tbull8]

Seadogs beat Shawinigan to book their ticket to the finals!

[Reggie Dunlop]

Nice goal by Poirier

https://twitter.com/user/status/1540812605257912323

[Sandman]

Jun.25th:

Kuznetsov had 1a,-2. 3gp/1g/2a/3pts,+1, 4 PIM.

Francis had 1a,+3. 3gp/2g/2a/4pts,+8, 6 PIM.

Poirier was second star with 1g,1a,-1. 3gp/1g/2a/3pts,+3, 2 PIM.

Islanders prospect William Dufour was first star with 4 goals, and 15(!) shots.

[Tbull8]

Seadogs win the Memorial Cup knocking off the Hamilton Bulldogs

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Totally forgot that was on tonight, oops. How did the Flames' boys look tonight?

[bigrangy]

I saw one highlight pack that was “the bulldogs can’t break out on a rush, because st john keep stepping up in the neutral zone with good checks”, and the first highlight was poirier stepping up then the next one was kuznetsov.

So they were good at that i suppose. I only caught the third, they defended ok. I don’t see the omg wow offensive ability in Poirier that had everyone thinking he was going in the first round way back when though.

[Sandman]

Neither Poirier nor Kuznetsov had any points- Poirier was minus 1, Kuz was even. Francis had 2a.

[mile]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1542384806448619520

[Flames1217]

Still don't understand why Francis wasn't signed.

[RedHawk12]

Originally Posted by Flames1217

Still don't understand why Francis wasn't signed.

We have a lot of similar smallish forward prospects, especially wingers: Coronato, Phillips, Beck, Kerins, etc. And on the big club we also have Johnny, Mangiapane and Dube. The team probably felt Francis wasn't going to be better than any of those above him on the depth chart.

Also probably why we took a guy like Stromgren in the 2nd round last year, who's a big two-way winger, rather than a guy like Stankoven or Raty. I think Stankoven is going to become a better player than Stromgren, but you just can't have too much of the same type of players on a team.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Cole Huckins has been traded from Acadie-Bathurst to the Sherbrooke Phoenix, according to eliteprospects.com

From Google Translate:

Taking advantage of the opening day of the QMJHL trade period on Saturday, the Phoenix got their hands on the 19-year-old forward in return for the second-round pick of the Val-d'Or Foreurs in 2023.

Stéphane Julien does not hide the expectations he has of his new player. He says he loves Cole Huckins' style of play which he has followed since his days at Stanstead College in 2017.


“He has an extremely dangerous shot. I also think he can be a good passer and change the game on the power play. He's a top 6 guy who can bring us a lot offensively. He can approach 70 points in the season in a good team, ”says the Phoenix coach.

Huckins played 41 games for the Titan last season, scoring 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points. In eight playoff games, he has two goals and two assists.

"For sure this year the Titan had a good offense, so maybe they didn't get all the ice time they wanted. Here, he will have the opportunity to prove himself, especially with the loss of Xavier Parent”, indicates Stéphane Julien, already mentioning that it would not be impossible to see Huckins evolve with Joshua Roy.

https://www.latribune.ca/2022/07/02/...f9904223e23454

Huckins, of course, was suspended for part of the season for unspecified reasons.

Sounds like the Phoenix want him to play a prominent role with their team going forward.

[agulati]

Good to see he would get some additional ice time this upcoming season. Statistically, he didn’t have the best season last year.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by RedHawk12

We have a lot of similar smallish forward prospects, especially wingers: Coronato, Phillips, Beck, Kerins, etc. And on the big club we also have Johnny, Mangiapane and Dube. The team probably felt Francis wasn't going to be better than any of those above him on the depth chart.

Also probably why we took a guy like Stromgren in the 2nd round last year, who's a big two-way winger, rather than a guy like Stankoven or Raty. I think Stankoven is going to become a better player than Stromgren, but you just can't have too much of the same type of players on a team.

This is terrible asset management and locked in positional thinking. Instead, they should take the better player and not be afraid to then leverage the enhanced value that player creates through a trade later on.

Stromgren example is perfect. Stromgren is pretty much useless at this point. No growth curve is going to take him to the NHL in a reasonable time frame at this point. His value in a trade is probably nil. Stankoven just won CHL player of the year. He could no doubt be traded to fill a hole somewhere else on the roster.

[RedHawk12]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

This is terrible asset management and locked in positional thinking. Instead, they should take the better player and not be afraid to then leverage the enhanced value that player creates through a trade later on.

Stromgren example is perfect. Stromgren is pretty much useless at this point. No growth curve is going to take him to the NHL in a reasonable time frame at this point. His value in a trade is probably nil. Stankoven just won CHL player of the year. He could no doubt be traded to fill a hole somewhere else on the roster.

I completely agree with you and I fully advocate for drafting BPA in every single round, but the thing is BPA is an incredibly difficult thing to pin down, especially in later rounds. And when there are two players that are roughly ranked the same, they will draft based on need.

Teams have "tier" lists, and the further down the draft, the bigger the tier groupings, and within those tiers, they draft based on need.

Extremely probable that we had Stromgren in the same tier or even a higher tier as Stankoven, for example, and we drafted the type of player we didn't have a lot of in our system.

It's also why we took a guy like Wotherspoon instead of Kucherov. If I recall correctly, we took Marcus Granlund first, and then Wotherspoon, even though we had interest in Kucherov. Granlund and Kucherov were similar style players in their draft. We most likely had Granlund in a higher tier than Kucherov. Wotherspoon might have been in the same tier as Kucherov, or maybe Kucherov was in an even lower tier, and so we drafted the defenseman instead of another smallish forward after we already took Baertschi and Granlund.

It's not necessarily bad drafting. It's just that it's incredibly difficult to say for certain that one player is definitely a tier above another, especially after the first 15 picks or so, and without the benefit of hindsight.

[Knut]

OR it could be that their Scouts do not see Ryan Francis doing much at the pro level.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Flames1217

Still don't understand why Francis wasn't signed.

Went undrafted today, so every team disagrees with you