Is that really what a 6.5 skating looks like? His acceleration seemed pretty good. On more than one of the highlights he really seemed fast. I figured it would have been 7 or more. What aspects of his skating do you think he needs to improve? Great video as always. It seems like this kid has great potential. If the draft were today would he make it past 8th? Center with some size who can clearly win draws. Along with all his other tools. It's going to be hard for some teams to ignore.
The grading numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt. It's a general idea of how I think the skill will compare at the NHL level. 6.5 basically means that he's on the higher end of the average and that I couldn't decide between above average and average 😆. Overall the skating is a bit inconsistent. There's a clip that I put in the video where he slows down then explodes to side step the defenseman and get to the net. It looked great. But I also saw times where he couldn't do it against defenders skating backward who had to pivot. If he gets speed through the neutral zone, he has decent speed but considering that he doesn't win an overwhelming amount of short races or long races in the Q, I had a hard time giving it an above average grade. Mechanically speaking he also seems a bit limited. He's a bit heavy on his skates and doesn't really have a full extension when trying to gain speed. As he gets stronger in his legs, it will improve but how much is the question. Imo, the ceiling for his skating is similar to the guy in your handle. Suzuki gets by efficiently in the NHL, he can get up to speed if he has space to do it and he's a fluid skater. But by no means he's an explosive or a high end skater. Maybe slightly above average. Honestly, I find it very hard to find 8 players to place above him. There's a top 4 and maybe a top 5 if McQueen comes back someday 😆 but outside of those, I can't say that I necessarily prefer Frondell, Eklund, Lakovic and company over him.
@bluechipprospect Ty for the breakdown. In that one clip you mentioned where he bursts around the defender, I feel like in that example it's more about that little fake he does. It reminded me a lot of Lane Hutson actually. But yea personally I love seeing stuff like that from prospects. Guys like that will do anything to get an edge. If Habs are picking outside the top 5 and he's there I think there's a fairly good chance they'll take him. When solid Quebecois players are available and make sense for where we're picking, I'm absolutely for it. Because I think he has high odds of being a solid player in the NHL. If he's there for the Habs I won't complain. Nick Suzuki may be a very good comparison. A lot of teams can use a player like that.
I can already hear Martin Lapointe and Bobrov talking about him in the post draft interview. " He's a good kid who plays hockey the right way. Competes hard, plays on 200 foot. Has leadership qualities and character...." 😆
I know that according to NHL edge he has a lot of speed bursts. But that doesn't make him a high end skater overall. Skating is a lot more than the speed you can get to from D zone to O zone. I didn't check but I'd put a 2 that most of those bursts come from the PP when they drop pass the puck to him after circling back on every single entry cause no one else outside of Hutson can get the puck cleanly into the zone 😆 He's not a bad skater by any means and so is Desnoyers. They seem to have very similar strength. But I wouldn't call them high end skater or anything like that. But that's just my opinion.
Merci pour l'excellente analyse! Great job as usual. Do you think when he gains muscle mass (quite thin at 6'2", 172lb), this could help improve his top speed, explosiveness and perhaps his offensive performance as a whole?
Yeah, I think the skating will get better by adding some power to those legs. He seems to have a frame to play around 190, 195 in the NHL which is a significant jump. But I'm not sure the 172 lbs is accurate though. He looks bigger and stronger than a typical 170 pound player. It's like when the KHL said Michkov was 163 pounds or something but the guy looked like a cube on the ice and was out muscling players in the KHL. Until we get measurements from the combine or at the minimum manually done measurements by central scouting, you can't really count on those to be accurate.
Thanks ! Yes I do ! I had him 10th in my preliminary and he's only moved up from there. I have him 6th right now 🤫 I saw on X that you're not as big a fan of him as I am 👀 Didn't have the time to catch the new Pod yet but i'm excited to see what you have to say about him.
@@bluechipprospect I love Caleb. It's just that I'm way too high on Spence, Lakovic, O'Brien and Bear, so this makes Desnoyers, Eklund, Smith, Frondell and Hensler slide 😅. I also have Cootes above him, but the scores are so close. One good viewing and he can move up a few spots and vice-versa. SCORES: 11. Smith : 264.4 12. Cootes : 263.9 13. Desnoyers : 263.0 Desnoyers has a better floor than most of these guys (O'Brien, Cootes), I just don't know if the upside is as high though. I think his best chair would be as a 2nd line center / 1st PP / 1st PK.
8:57 the red cheek intangible. I'm convinced!
😆 Red Cheeks/60 is off the chart ! 📈
Is that really what a 6.5 skating looks like? His acceleration seemed pretty good. On more than one of the highlights he really seemed fast. I figured it would have been 7 or more.
What aspects of his skating do you think he needs to improve? Great video as always. It seems like this kid has great potential. If the draft were today would he make it past 8th? Center with some size who can clearly win draws. Along with all his other tools. It's going to be hard for some teams to ignore.
The grading numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt. It's a general idea of how I think the skill will compare at the NHL level. 6.5 basically means that he's on the higher end of the average and that I couldn't decide between above average and average 😆.
Overall the skating is a bit inconsistent. There's a clip that I put in the video where he slows down then explodes to side step the defenseman and get to the net. It looked great. But I also saw times where he couldn't do it against defenders skating backward who had to pivot.
If he gets speed through the neutral zone, he has decent speed but considering that he doesn't win an overwhelming amount of short races or long races in the Q, I had a hard time giving it an above average grade.
Mechanically speaking he also seems a bit limited. He's a bit heavy on his skates and doesn't really have a full extension when trying to gain speed. As he gets stronger in his legs, it will improve but how much is the question.
Imo, the ceiling for his skating is similar to the guy in your handle. Suzuki gets by efficiently in the NHL, he can get up to speed if he has space to do it and he's a fluid skater. But by no means he's an explosive or a high end skater. Maybe slightly above average.
Honestly, I find it very hard to find 8 players to place above him. There's a top 4 and maybe a top 5 if McQueen comes back someday 😆 but outside of those, I can't say that I necessarily prefer Frondell, Eklund, Lakovic and company over him.
@bluechipprospect Ty for the breakdown. In that one clip you mentioned where he bursts around the defender, I feel like in that example it's more about that little fake he does. It reminded me a lot of Lane Hutson actually. But yea personally I love seeing stuff like that from prospects. Guys like that will do anything to get an edge. If Habs are picking outside the top 5 and he's there I think there's a fairly good chance they'll take him.
When solid Quebecois players are available and make sense for where we're picking, I'm absolutely for it. Because I think he has high odds of being a solid player in the NHL. If he's there for the Habs I won't complain.
Nick Suzuki may be a very good comparison. A lot of teams can use a player like that.
I can already hear Martin Lapointe and Bobrov talking about him in the post draft interview. " He's a good kid who plays hockey the right way. Competes hard, plays on 200 foot. Has leadership qualities and character...." 😆
Suzuki according to the NHL edge data is significantly faster than the average forward.
I know that according to NHL edge he has a lot of speed bursts. But that doesn't make him a high end skater overall. Skating is a lot more than the speed you can get to from D zone to O zone.
I didn't check but I'd put a 2 that most of those bursts come from the PP when they drop pass the puck to him after circling back on every single entry cause no one else outside of Hutson can get the puck cleanly into the zone 😆
He's not a bad skater by any means and so is Desnoyers. They seem to have very similar strength. But I wouldn't call them high end skater or anything like that. But that's just my opinion.
Merci pour l'excellente analyse! Great job as usual.
Do you think when he gains muscle mass (quite thin at 6'2", 172lb), this could help improve his top speed, explosiveness and perhaps his offensive performance as a whole?
Yeah, I think the skating will get better by adding some power to those legs. He seems to have a frame to play around 190, 195 in the NHL which is a significant jump. But I'm not sure the 172 lbs is accurate though. He looks bigger and stronger than a typical 170 pound player.
It's like when the KHL said Michkov was 163 pounds or something but the guy looked like a cube on the ice and was out muscling players in the KHL. Until we get measurements from the combine or at the minimum manually done measurements by central scouting, you can't really count on those to be accurate.
Great analysis! Is he in your Top-10?
Thanks ! Yes I do ! I had him 10th in my preliminary and he's only moved up from there. I have him 6th right now 🤫
I saw on X that you're not as big a fan of him as I am 👀 Didn't have the time to catch the new Pod yet but i'm excited to see what you have to say about him.
@@bluechipprospect I love Caleb. It's just that I'm way too high on Spence, Lakovic, O'Brien and Bear, so this makes Desnoyers, Eklund, Smith, Frondell and Hensler slide 😅. I also have Cootes above him, but the scores are so close. One good viewing and he can move up a few spots and vice-versa.
SCORES:
11. Smith : 264.4
12. Cootes : 263.9
13. Desnoyers : 263.0
Desnoyers has a better floor than most of these guys (O'Brien, Cootes), I just don't know if the upside is as high though. I think his best chair would be as a 2nd line center / 1st PP / 1st PK.
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