Prospects, and the future of the NHL

why the hell is he signing a BU jersey? i hate him now too bob.

 

lmao

 

I love rookie hype.

I'm reading all the BOO-YAH!!! on the U-23 roster for the world cup and it made me think of Gostisbehere.

Only 3 defensemen have a better shooting % than Ghost. They include Kevin Klein, Danny DeKeyser, and Brooks Orpik. Ghost is at 12+%.

Some rookie dman comparisons:

Ekblad actually went up a little bit this year. Shattenkirk has been incredibly consistent since his NHL debut.

Klingberg went from 11+% to 7%
Dumba dropped significantly,
Krug went from about 8 to 6 down to less than 2% now,
Trouba went from 8+ down to a little over 5
Justin Schultz shot a hair under 10% as a rookie
Muzzin was over 9%
Gardiner's first year was about 9%
Faulk dropped off significantly after his rookie year (this year, years later, he was on a tear)
Fowler shot over 8% as a rookie, he's under 5% since.
You get the idea.

In other words, dig Ghost for his skating and playmaking ability, don't hang to much on the actual point production. That shooting % is going to drop and those shooting lanes will close up sooner or later. As a general rule, don't read much into the point production if the shooting % is over 8%.

 

Isnt the shooting % more directly related to the actual shots taken? So, Ghost has a higher % because of the fact he's just flat out more contributing to the point production. His speed and not being shy to shoot may be the contributing factors.

Some of the higher % d-men you listed may not take that many shots, but when they do, good things happen at a higher %.

Im glad their is some hype on Ghost... he's not very big, but he plays like it. Could be the type to get more players to pursue the D-man area, because I still dont get why they are at such a premium.

 

everyone's shooting percentage will eventually fall closer to the league average. of course some will be higher and some lower but no one stays that much higher for very long.

 

the thing about ghost is he moves around a lot to give himself an open lane or shot or pass to someone else. he's not a slug at the blue line who doesn't move around. he's smart and makes smart choices. the flyers need more like him!

 

I'm not saying he's bad, or that he won't be very good. I'm saying don't get sucked onto the BOO-YAH hype train that picked up all those players I listed in recent years.

 

What I'm saying, as with the other names listed, the league will adjust and there will be a statistical correlation. If he produces the same points or goals, it will be accomplished differently than we've seen.

 

You weren't looking at Stempniak's PDO were you?

 

im just happy the flyers farm system finally produced someone good! it's been a long ass time since the last decent prospect was seen in south philly.

 

Giroux's not that old!

 

It's interesting that in Cat's last message he said:

He talks about a long ass, and you bring up Giroux. Coincidence? I think not.

 

I like Hextall, there's hope.

 

Mr. Lee is gonna have the best possession numbers in the league playing w/ Bergeron.

 

PDO is shooting % + Save %, (Luck stat). Lee is at 102+ for the year, which is high and usually unsustainable over a large enough sample size against good competition.

Wait, this is a prospect thread.
Boston's prospects suck (double meaning there too!)

 

lol, fair enough.

let me rephrase that then. Mr Lee's PDO will rise because he plays w/ the NFK.

 

sounds like you've never heard of Rob O'Gara. think Hal Gill as a ceiling.

 

The way NFK has played this year, I wouldn't be surprised.

Speaking of the future, Connolly and Vatrano are NOT it at RW

 

apparently you haven't heard from Sully lately.
Vatrano and Griffith = Panarin and Kane

Seneshyn = Seguin, Sully just doesn't know that he's gonna say that quite yet.

 

Staying on this topic and somewhat related to these Boston posts, I'm looking at UDFA signings and who is left after drafts and it made me think of many things. One that isn't discussed much is the value of wings in relation to centers. I think the old assumption carries the argument but I'm not as convinced as I used to be.

I really think the importance of centers in relation to wings has really been overblown this decade. WIth everything being about systems and offenses being dependent on dmen's ability to move the puck and find a space/lanes, I think the value of wings, in relation to everything else has moved up.

Almost every dman can skate. Every forward has to play defense and every defenseman has to be able to create/exploit opportunity in the offensive zone now. The league is moving closer to just having 5 skaters out there instead of the traditional set positions. 4th lines are largely gone from what they used to be and 3rd lines are filled with undersized limited playmakers. Teams with and without 2 or 3 good centers are scrambling for wings alike too.

It's funny, for both Chicago and Boston, the problem at 1LW and 1RW, respectively, was a tremendous problem. For Minnesota and STL the problem at 1C was a similar problem. Voracek's slump and Kessel's slumps were crippling for top 1Cs. LA has been struggling to match wings up in all zones but teams like MTL and OTT are still in trouble because of the lack of 1C. Stamkos struggles without a good playmaking wing and Filppula can't do much without a scorer on either side. Kesler and Getzlaf couldn't get anything going until the back end started making good decisions with the puck.

It's really tough to make an argument that a 1D or 1C is more important than a 1W for a given shift in anysituation.

I still think a 1D is the most important, but that's just because they play 3-7 minutes more per game than everybody else. At the end of the game, after the extended commercial break, I find it really tough to justify taking one over the other compared to say a decade ago.