Texas Stars and Prospects Thread

[The Frugal Gourmet]

I never actually bothered to look at videos of him before, but his skating is not shabby at all.

[Troy McClure]

It's nice to see he has a variety of moves to get the puck into a scoring area.

Unlike a certain other Russian winger we watched.

[The Frugal Gourmet]

Roman Lyashenko?

[ToddM]

Good read on Tufte:

https://www.nhl.com/stars/news/heading- ... -290385040

[Knives Out]

typical bleeding heart liberal Tufte Piece.

[Jason]

The NHL and AHL team will have similar systems, but the Stars will allow the AHL coaches to add their own slight modifications depending on personnel.

Ken Hitchcock told me the most important thinkg is the terminology. He wants Derek Laxdal and Karl Taylor using the same terminology in Cedar Park as the NHL team is using in Dallas. That way when a player is called up there aren’t any confusions when it comes to communication.

[ToddM]

[Knives Out]

What's Poope Hintz up to?

[Jason]

[ToddM]

Jason Robertson with four goals in his first five games.

No assists, tho, so he probably sucks.

[Troy McClure]

Jason Robertson with four goals in his first five games.

No assists, tho, so he probably sucks.

I see what you're doing. Let's dig into it.

Robertson: On a 65.6 goal/point pace (if the OHL played 82 games -- 4 goals, 0 assists in 5 games, tying him for 3rd in scoring on his team and 4th in goal scoring in his whole league).

Nichushkin: On a 27.3 goal/point pace (if the KHL played 82 games -- 4 goals, 0 assists in 12 games tying him for 12th in scoring on his team and something like 50th in goal scoring in his whole league).

Yes, Nichushkin sucks. Sadly, his skill ceiling was so low that the best you can say about him is he's a generic second or third liner on a decent but not great KHL team. It turns out he's really good when he's bigger and stronger than other 17 year olds, but his game has never elevated to allow him to compete at a high level against men.

[ToddM]

Nich's skill level is actually pretty high. He didn't look out of place on the most lethal first line in the NHL as a rookie. And considering the rotating cast of characters who've been slotted into that spot ever since, well... there was definitely something there. At least before the injury.

[Troy McClure]

Even as a rookie, his wrist shot was beer league quality. If you struggle to lift the puck, your skill level isn't high. But he was pretty good at playing hockey like a game of shuffleboard because all he does is push the puck along the ice.

[The Frugal Gourmet]

His skating was good and that's what attracted scouts to him. He never put in the work or developed the skills necessary to capitalize on that.

[ToddM]

He couldn't elevate his shot, true. But his skating was (is?) otherworldly. He was a constant breakaway threat at any time he was on the ice. Weirdly, he never seemed all that fast: his strides were pretty deceptive, which just added to the excitement (and to the number of d-men covering him).
Even more impressive than that was his cycling skills in the corner. Jagr-esque. You couldn't take the puck away from him. Eventually he'd launch a pass to a hopefully-open teammate, after tiring out the d-man for ten seconds.
Those are pretty valuable skills, and rarely combined in the same player. We'll see how it all shakes out.

[Troy McClure]

So a guy who gets a bunch of breakaways yet scored on very few of them... he was pretty much the NHL equivalent of a good punter.

But this stuff about him being like Jagr in the corners is just fantasy.

[SaintAngerBH]

So a guy who gets a bunch of breakaways yet scored on very few of them... he was pretty much the NHL equivalent of a good punter.

But this stuff about him being like Jagr in the corners is just fantasy.

I agree. I remember him being pretty weak, actually. Even if he kept the puck in the corners, he did nothing else with it.

[ToddM]

Robertson with a deft goal from two feet away (at the 35 second mark):

http://ontariohockeyleague.com/video/oc ... 3-kgn-2-so

Also a nice behind-the-back assist, also from a foot away, at 1:20 or so.

[ToddM]

One advantage to being an ice giant is that you can do stuff like this:

[ScubaSteve]

Tufte but fair.

[ToddM]

Tufte, Dickinson, and Robertson are scoring at a 2-goals-every-three-games pace right now. Including this ridick one man wrecking crew OT goal from Robertson:

[wonko80]

What a puck hog.

[slaps]

Steve Ott scored at furious pace in the minors, too.

[BigAl]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9038&p=405873#p405873

So I made this post almost 4 years ago, quoted here for your convenience.

Here's the highest scoring forwards of the 2012 and 2013 Dallas draftees and their YTD scoring (Courtesy of hockeydb and some math).
Which of these guys is going to make the NHL?

Code: Select all

                                   GP   G   A  Pt  Pt/Gm
Jason Dickinson round 1 2013, OHL  52  19  39  58  1.12
Remie Elie      round 2 2013, OHL  43  19  23  42   .97
Cole Ully       round 5 2013, WHL  51  24  31  55  1.08
Radek Faksa     round 1 2012, OHL  43  19  16  35   .81
Devin Shore     round 2 2012, NCAA 24  12  19  31  1.29
Gemel Smith     round 4 2012, OHL  51  29  30  59  1.16
Branden Troock  round 5 2012, WHL  42  20  26  46  1.10 


So it seems the answer is —if you score a ton of points in juniors or college then you have about a 50% chance of becoming an unremarkable depth player.

[B Kat]

I wouldn't consider Faksa to be a depth player or unremarkable. He plays on the lower lines, yes, but his role is way more than depth. 5 of those players have games in the NHL, which is fairly good. Dickinison has not even scratched the surface. All in all pretty decent.

[ToddM]

And Shore is on the #1 PP unit.

I'm also singling out guys who are scoring goals, not accumulating points. Dickinson, Robertson, Tufte, Heiskanen... these guys aren't stocking up with secondary powerplay assists to pad their totals. They're putting pucks in the net, driving the engine of their teams' offenses. I think that's pretty significant.

[Troy McClure]

And Shore is on the #1 PP unit.

I'm also singling out guys who are scoring goals, not accumulating points. Dickinson, Robertson, Tufte, Heiskanen... these guys aren't stocking up with secondary powerplay assists to pad their totals. They're putting pucks in the net, driving the engine of their teams' offenses. I think that's pretty significant.

Most of those guys are probably two or more seasons away. When you look at the guys one step down, it's not a pretty picture.

BigAl's post made me go look at the Texas Stars stats to see how some of those kids are doing. Dickinson is putting up great goal scoring numbers (tied for 4th in the league). Ully can't score. Hintz is doing subpar.

Guarianonv... Jesus Christ, Gurianov has zero goals in nine games. He only has nine shots in those nine games. One shot a game?!? For a guy trying to get into the NHL as a goal scorer, that's *fargin'* pathetic. I remember his low goal total from last season being explained away as "he came on strong late in the season" or some similar excuse, but this is not good. Not good at all.

[ScubaSteve]

Maybe Gurianov needs to star colluding with his teammates.

[B Kat]

GMJN 1.0 was responsible for the 2012 picks and GMJN 2.0, 2013.

[ToddM]

Yeah, Gurianov has not impressed this season at all. He had four of those assists in three straight games, but has been a non-factor in all the other games, disappearing for long stretches.

Dickinson is the shizz 4 realz. He'd better *fargin'* be the first injury call-up.