Quote:
Originally Posted by jerseydevil
Ok...He had one great playoff year in the Czech leagues...other than that in
Reg season
2002-47 games - 17 points
2003-48 games - 24 points
2004- 49 games - 16 pts
8th round draft pick- 240 th overall - obviously not thought of too highly, and he fell off considerably after his injury this year..and was slightly invisible during the playoffs
Petr Prucha is 24 years old this year..not 18. I think he had a great year, but there is nothing in his past that should lead anyone to believe that he will be able to stay at this level of goal scoring.
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Nothing if you don't scratch the surface, that is. Most of us here on this Rangers board have been following Prucha for years and have been very, very excited about him for a long time.
In those regular seasons you list, he was playing on an energy 'kid' line for Pardubice, but his scoring talent was well noted -- he was the first one to get promoted if one of the senior players got injured. The year he was supposed to become a top-line scoring winger on the team, Pardubice hired a tonne of scoring talent from the NHL, including Milan Hejduk. This really cut back the playing time from what he had expected (and I think was a big reason he bolted for the Rangers).
Nevertheless, he was called up to the Czech national squad for more than one major tournament (one of the few youngsters in the country who was) and even played on the powerplay alongside Jaromir Jagr (part of the reason he and Jagr are friends and roommates in New York is that Jagr already knew him from the Czech team).
I'd say that's plenty of reason to believe that he can stay at this level of scoring -- throughout his career, consistency has been his strongest suit.
As you're not a Rangers fan, there's little reason you would know any of this, of course.
Your argument about Prucha being a low-round draft pick doesn't make sense in this thread, though: Prucha was chosen in the 8th round #240 in 2002, yes, but Svatos was chosen in the 7th round, #227 in 2001.