Flames 2012-13 Prospects NHLE - January 23 Update
Kent Wilson
January 23 2013 11:09AM
NHL hockey is back and all but the kids just keep rolling along in their various leagues. Roman Horak, Sven Baertschi and TJ Brodie are recent graduates, but the rest remaiin scattered across the CHL, college hockey and Europe.
The last time we took a look at NHL equivalencies, Gaudreau was out on an island by himself amongst the forwards while TJ Brodie led things to a non-trivial degree on the back-end. To be honest, not too much has changed in a month.
Forwards
| Forwards | League | PPG | Translation | NHLE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Gaudreau | NCAA | 1.72 | 0.41 | 58 |
| Sven Baertschi | AHL | 0.86 | 0.55 | 39 |
| Bill Arnold | NCAA | 0.90 | 0.41 | 30 |
| Markus Granlund | SM-liiga | 0.58 | 0.54 | 26 |
| Roman Horak | AHL | 0.54 | 0.55 | 24 |
| Coda Gordon | CHL | 0.92 | 0.30 | 23 |
| Matt Deblouw | CCHA | 0.67 | 0.41 | 22 |
| Paul Byron | AHL | 0.46 | 0.55 | 21 |
| Turner Elson | WHL | 0.81 | 0.30 | 20 |
| Mark Jankowski | NCAA | 0.56 | 0.41 | 19 |
| Max Reinhart | AHL | 0.21 | 0.55 | 9 |
| Greg Nemisz | AHL | 0.04 | 0.55 | 2 |
Incredibly, Gaudreau's scoring pace has actually improved post-WJC and he now boasts 31 points in just 18 games played. For the sake of comparision, at this PPG rate last year he would have scored about 76 points in 44 games rather than the 44 he managed (which was tied for the team lead).
Johnny's NHLE is the best I've seen from a Flames prospect since I started looking at the numbers. Even Sven Baertschi settled in at 49 during his 19-year old season in the WHL last year (and his NHLE was one of the best in the 2011 draft class at the time). In addition, top-10 picks from 2011 like Jonathan Huberdeau (35) and Ryan Strome (47) can't touch Gaudreau this year.
Eighteen games is obviously still a pretty small sample, but even if Gaudreau falls to a PPG player for the rest of the year he'll finish the season with 54 points in 41 games - a still well above average NHLE of about 44. An outstanding number, particularly for a teenaged college sophomore.
Other than Johnny G, there isn't too much else to talk about. Markus Granlund has made the biggest jump since last month, improving his NHLE from 19 to 26 and moving into 4th on the Flames prospect rank by this metric. Bill Arnold continues to have a pretty steady season as well while everyone else has steadily remained mediocre or worse.
At this point I think we can safely say Paul Byron and Greg Nemisz aren't prospects of interest given their ages (24 and 23 years old this year, respectively). Guys approaching their mid-20's who sport NHLE's in the 20's or lower better be able to grind and fight like a tough guy to make it to the show. That's true of neither of these gentlemen.
Nemisz's awful NHLE of 2 is in part a symptom of rust after returning from injury no doubt, but the former first rounder has found himself skating on 3rd and 4th lines for Troy Ward this year. He didn't get an invite to the Flames training camp as a result and I'd be surprised if the team bothered to re-sign him this summer. As some of you know, I attended the rookie camp during the summer and Nemisz visibly struggled against the other kids, despite being one of the oldest and most experienced guys there. For whatever reason, he seems to have a hit a wall in his development.
Defense
| Defensemen | League | PPG | Translation | NHLE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TJ Brodie | AHL | 0.57 | 0.55 | 26 |
| Tyler Wotherspoon | CHL | 0.78 | 0.30 | 19 |
| Ryan Culkin | CHL | 0.66 | 0.29 | 16 |
| Brett Kulak | CHL | 0.60 | 0.30 | 15 |
| John Ramage | NCAA | 0.27 | 0.41 | 9 |
| Patrick Sieloff | CHL | 0.25 | 0.30 | 6 |
| Brady Lamb | AHL | 0.10 | 0.55 | 4 |
Nothing much has changed in the defender standings all year. Culkin has recently fallen off the pace and Kulak has begun to catch-up, but pretty much nobody in this group shows notable offensive acumen outside of Brodie right now. Wotherspoon has matched his career high in points already this year as 20-year old, but that just goes to show how little he scored previously.
Scoring isn't the full measure of any player, less so for rearguards, but nevertheless it's clear the Flames have a dearth of truly dangerous or dominant blueliners in the pipeline.
AHL Bonus
Ironically, the Abbotsford Heat have won their last four games, despite the graduations of key players Horak, Brodie and Baertschi. The offense hasn't quite come back to life (they scored more than 2 goals in exactly one of those wins) butt he defense/goaltending remains the club's primary strength. Both Brust and Danny Taylor have sub 2.00 GAA's and are first and third in the league in terms of SV% respectively.
With the trade of Henrik Karlsson, the Flames currently don't have another goalie with an NHL deal in North America. If Kipper or Irving goes down to injury, they may be forced to sign at least one of the farm stand-outs to fill in.
NATIONDRAFTS
All week long the Alberta Nation Network will be pumping our first ever NationDrafts online draft. With over $10,000 in prizes to win and a portion of the proceeds going to local charities - it is the most fun you can legally have on the internet. Only $20 per team - Click here to enter.
@loudogYYC
He seems to be getting more and more ice time. Haven't watch the Heat in awhile though.
I really liked your comment. You make some great points. It might be worth trying to pick him up in a deal but I don't see any reason to dump a load over it. At this point any deal should be clearly in our favor for an unproven prospect who didn't even get an invite to his NHL teams camp. If he had already proven he could produce at the NHL level then maybe we get excited and pay a little more for him. It's a novel idea to get him and Sven together but only if it makes sense for us to do it without taking too much risk.
Martin St. Louis is what 5' 8" and 180 lbs. Gaudreau is well worth keeping. See what you got.
If you want to start looking at a Neiderreitter trade start with what it would cost for somebody to acquire Baertschi. Regardless of whether or not the player wants to be traded, or is struggling as a 19-20 year old, the Islanders or any other team are not going to give him away for a package of garbage. Players over 24 in the Flames system, and draft picks higher than the second round are not going to cut it regardless of quality that you lump together.
I am of the opinion that the Flames are a mediocre and average team at best and that we are in need of some form of rebuild. So I would not be looking to trade Baertschi, Gaudreau, Brodie, Reinhart, Horak, or Backlund.
I think that based on the projections of the Flames team for this year I think that the Islanders would want our first round pick. And I think that our first round pick would be enough to get Neiderreitter considering where that pick could be, the troubles the player and team are having in NY, and the fact that the potential of picks has more luster than a struggling prospect. The Islanders would probably want a conditional second pick added in case the Flames over achieve and fall out of the bottom ten teams. But a top 10 pick this year for a previous 5 pick is reasonable value.
Yeah but this the Isles & Wang is the cheapest SOB you could imagine. So Feaster needs to get Murray to buy a quick rebuild on the fly. You throw in a kid like Reinhart who is the brother of their current 1st rounder that is not that far off being NHL ready, then you give them Stajan & hell agree to pay 3.0mill on the 5 mill lefton the contract in actual $$$ & a 2014 2nd rounder. That just may work to the appetite of who you are trading with. Money talks with Wang & NN has really done nothing at the pro level. I agree, a team like the Oilers, it would have to be a hockey trade & you are absolutely right. With Wang, I dont know about that.
Last 5 games of Markus Granlund in SM-Liiga:
Lukko Rauma-IFK Helsinky 1-2 (0+1) IFK Helsinky-Jyvaskyla 4-1 (1+1) Hameenlinna-IFK Helsinki 4-2 (0+1) IFK Helsinki-Hameenlinna 2-3pen (1+1) Tappara-IFK Helsinki 3-2 (1+0) ---------------------------------------------------- 5 games - (3+4)
He is currently 48th in SM-Liiga in points (in a weak team) What is more impressive is that he is 3rd in team scoring with 22 points behind just Swedish Joakim Eriksson (26 pts) and future IIHF Hall of fame member Ville Peltonen (23 pts).
p.s.: IFK is just playing with SaiPa and in the middle of the match, in which IFK leads 1:0 Granlund has already an assist on Peltonens goal. That means points in last 6 games!
Couple things: Just because someone was a 5th overall pick doesn't mean that's still his value two years later. If the price is a top 10 in 2013, I can't believe anyone would touch that. Not a fair return. Look at who they left when they picked him - Granlund, Tarasenko, Fowler... He probably should have been a mid to late pick - that's how his value should be assessed now. If you've mishandled and alienated him so that he wants a trade, you're going to pay for that. I don't think we'd be able to get a 1st for Jankowski right now either.
"I am of the opinion that the Flames are a mediocre and average team at best and that we are in need of some form of rebuild. So I would not be looking to trade Baertschi, Gaudreau, Brodie, Reinhart, Horak, or Backlund"
Second, you can't just hang on to everybody you draft because you're rebuilding. The whole point of the BPA draft strategy is that you collect assets without regard to your own needs, because you use their value to get what you're actually looking for. I don't have any interest in Nino, but I'd definitely trade some of our current good value assets to get a guy like O'Reilly, or some other true organizational need. We're overloaded on 2nd/3rd line centers and LW. And our D is behind in the development curve. We're going to have to trade some of that depth at some point to take a step forward.
Oh yeah, IMHO.
We've got no young NHL defensemen, we've got about 20 left wingers. Not only an overpay, but it just makes no sense.