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HockeytownRules19

Matt Wuest Prospect Tournament Thread

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Some random thoughts from the highlights.

Larkin mantha and athanasiou together is an amazing line combo, you could have two literal pylons playing defense with them and I feel like there still wouldn't be any fast breaks against us. And damn can mantha finish.

Everytime I see little Bert play, I like him more and more. For being a "pest" he's pretty damn good positionally.

Nosek is another one I hope we have room for in Detroit at some point, he does a lot of good things.

And turgeon looks like he's getting a lot better quickly, his skating looks much more fluid than it did last time I watched him.

We have a lot of prospects who have NHL futures, there's just not room for them all.

Edited by jimmyemeryhunter

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Some random thoughts from the highlights.

Larkin mantha and athanasiou together is an amazing line combo, you could have two literal pylons playing defense with them and I feel like there still wouldn't be any fast breaks against us. And damn can mantha finish.

Everytime I see little Bert play, I like him more and more. For being a "pest" he's pretty damn good positionally.

Nosek is another one I hope we have room for in Detroit at some point, he does a lot of good things.

And turgeon looks like he's getting a lot better quickly, his skating looks much more fluid than it did last time I watched him.

We have a lot of prospects who have NHL futures, there's just not room for them all.

Yup. I bolded the Nosek part because Holland took some heat for trading Janmark and Jarnkrok. But you touched on it. Where would the club have found room for some of these guys?

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Nosek is a decent young player, but I don't ever expect him to crack the Red Wings lineup. There's just waaay too many guys ahead of him. I don't think he's a top 6 player at the NHL level and our bottom six is overloaded as it is. None the less, he was a great pickup for Grand Rapids for a few seasons. Maybe he'll find a home on another NHL squad ala Andrej Nestrasil.

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Ok guys...

I was there the first two days and had an absolute blast. Talked to Brodeur, Peverly, Wallin, Adam Graves, Barry Smith, Dave Taylor, Draper, Maltby, Ken Hitchcock, etc and thats just the guys i talked to. I watched both games super closely though and here's my take...

1. Dylan Larkin - Played what seemed like double shifts. Took every important draw. Hustles like a mad man...was clearly the highest upside kid out there, but just short of dominated.

2. Jake Paterson (goalie) - Way better than his scouting reports. Just short of dominated. Super solid, never rattled.
3. Andreas Athanasiou - Easily the most advanced kid on the ice. Crazy hustle, super fast, good hands. Would be a lock to make the team if we hadn't of signed Cleary, while already having too many forwards.
4. Tyler Bertuzzi - Wasn't a dominant as last year. Wasn't nearly as noticeable. One of the only kids to consistently get physical though.
5. Joe Hicketts - Hockey's Dustin Pedroia. Leader, solid, driven but tiny. When he coughed up the puck, he got pissed and went after the guy only to get leveled. Never quits though.
6. Ville Saarijarvi - Looks like Pulkkinen. Quite poised for being 18.
7. Evgeni Svechnikov - Super stoked that we drafted him. Is built as well as any of our kids, if not better. Classic Wings type player...two way guy, 200 ft game, with real nice upside.

Last but certainly least...

Anthony Mantha - I watched him closer than any kid there. Total letdown. Looks worse than last year. Had a goal but doesn't look like he even cares about playing. Coasts the entire game. Almost never wins battles. Kids that are Joe Hicketts size beat him to pucks and in battles. Im not convinced the kid will ever play more than a handful of games in the league let alone ever dominate. I don't see him having more than 45-50 points in GR, tops. All the terrible scouting reports from his draft year, that i really couldn't believe, are spot on. Has the size, reach, skill, etc to be Corey Perry 2.0 but he has less spunk than Franzen, if thats possible. When he got that chance to score you could tell that he kicked it into "now I'm going to try mode"...and he scored. Its so frustrating watching him...its everything that drives us nuts about Franzen but he doesn't have the confidence that Franzen has.

fyi...its hard to see, but my Wife and two kids are in the first row in view during the big fight. Also, in person, that fight was awesome. I haven't saw a good tilt like that in awhile.

As for other teams, i watched Dallas, Carolina, and St. Louis.

Carolina - Tolchinsky. Tiny but he has great hands and is quite confident with the puck.

Dallas - Deep team. Stephen Johns is a beast; poised. Julius Honka was the best young D I watched at the tourney. Jan mark didn't do anything special.

St. Louis - Robbi Fabbri.

Edited by achildr1

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Huh. Thanks for your perspective. Mantha looks pretty good in those highlights. He scores 2 goals and started the play for the first one. It's hard for me to imagine that the guy that gets the game winner+1 out of 3. can be a "total let down." But I wasn't there so you had much more to judge on. He does have lax body language (maybe there's a better word for it). Even when he scores the first goal he looks like little effort is being exerted.

To me it might be partly big man syndrome, where one stride gets you far than it would for others so it never looks like you're exerting as much. Also, Mantha was never advertised as a gritty board battle player - I think that his size created some false expectations for some people.

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Huh. Thanks for your perspective. Mantha looks pretty good in those highlights. He scores 2 goals and started the play for the first one. It's hard for me to imagine that the guy that gets the game winner+1 out of 3. can be a "total let down." But I wasn't there so you had much more to judge on. He does have lax body language (maybe there's a better word for it). Even when he scores the first goal he looks like little effort is being exerted.

I missed his first goal...was trying to find a seat but I just saw it in the YT clip. I'll have to find the minute mark but there is a play that, at the time, I thought was his best play of the game. He had the puck and circled around with possession for awhile in front of CHI net. But the telling thing, upon re watching it it on the YT clip is what he does as soon as he looses the puck. He just gets lost...skates off and watches the play. Where he's at, he should have went right to the front of the net to get a rebound. If he doesn't get the puck in the offensive zone, it's like he doesn't even care that he has it. I watched guys battle him, take the puck, and it's like he just isn't phased...no big deal. Hicketts lost the puck to a guy and got so pissed that he ran him, the guy crushed him, but he still got up and went after him. When Larkin loses the puck to a guy, good luck dealing with him afterwards. Mantha doesn't have that bone in his body.

Edited by achildr1

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I missed his first goal...was trying to find a seat but I just saw it in the YT clip. I'll have to find the minute mark but there is a play that, at the time, I thought was his best play of the game. He had the puck and circled around with possession for awhile in front of CHI net. But the telling thing, upon re watching it it on the YT clip is what he does as soon as he looses the puck. He just gets lost...skates off and watches the play. Where he's at, he should have went right to the front of the net to get a rebound. If he doesn't get the puck in the offensive zone, it's like he doesn't even care that he has it. I watched guys battle him, take the puck, and it's like he just isn't phased...no big deal. Hicketts lost the puck to a guy and got so pissed that he ran him, the guy crushed him, but he still got up and went after him. When Larkin loses the puck to a guy, good luck dealing with him afterwards.. Mantha doesn't have that bone in his body.

Yet Hicketts and Larkin are both probably having unicorn dreams about Matha's shot tonight.

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I mean with that size you better have a good shot, honestly he does look kind of lazy in highlights and what not, Tatar uses his body better than this guy isn't he 6'5? Man I'd be the cockiest guy on the ice throwing my body everywhere and going to the front of the net and in all the corners if I had that size and skill, Franzen is a good comparison he'll probably produce more and be more consistent tho, the nhl is going soft anyway.

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I mean with that size you better have a good shot, honestly he does look kind of lazy in highlights and what not, Tatar uses his body better than this guy isn't he 6'5? Man I'd be the cockiest guy on the ice throwing my body everywhere and going to the front of the net and in all the corners if I had that size and skill, Franzen is a good comparison he'll probably produce more and be more consistent tho, the nhl is going soft anyway.

Tatar has to play that way because he's a smurf. Hummingbird vs bald Eagle. Boy that Eagle sure does float around a lot up there.

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If Mantha could be the next Franzen I take it. People are very quick to forget how good Franzen was 2006-2012. Mantha's not perfect work ethic can be compensated by Larkin/Anastasou/Svechnikov just like Franzen's was by Datsyuk or Zetterberg.

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If Mantha could be the next Franzen I take it. People are very quick to forget how good Franzen was 2006-2012. Mantha's not perfect work ethic can be compensated by Larkin/Anastasou/Svechnikov just like Franzen's was by Datsyuk or Zetterberg.

People are also very quick to forget that Franzen became that good by working his ass off. Hence why his nickname was 'The Mule' to begin with.

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