It seems to be a common misconception on this board.
Many Hawk fans reffer to Beach's final Junior season as an overage year, when it was his 19-year-old campaign.
An overager is not someone in their last OHL season prior to being eligible to turn Pro. An overager is a player playing in the OHL, despite meeting the age requirements of a Pro league (AHL).
the poster said Saad was an overager...that was incorrect, he was not an overager by any terms.
I have my own view of what an overager is, it isnt a misconception, it is what I define as an overager. A player that is under 20 years old is not an overager, usually those players that stay in the CHL for their 4th or 5th year will "likely" be above 20 due to them starting out at 17 in many cases.
the poster said Saad was an overager...that was incorrect, he was not an overager by any terms.
I have my own view of what an overager is, it isnt a misconception, it is what I define as an overager. A player that is under 20 years old is not an overager, usually those players that stay in the CHL for their 4th or 5th year will "likely" be above 20 due to them starting out at 17 in many cases.
I wasn't referring to you having any kind of misconception you may have.. just that, I've noticed on this board many people referring to an NHL prospects final Junior season as their overage year.. when it's inaccurate.
First, Saad plays a complete game, and is a lot bigger than Kadri.
Secondly, Kadri had a lot more talent surrounding him than Saad does in Saginaw.
That's inaccurate. Kadri was playing with Daneil Erlich (5'6") and Jared Knight during his final OHL season. Neither player was a PpG player in that season.
Brandon Saad spent the majority of the season with Josh Shalla and Michael Fine, both players scoring at a PpG pace.. with Shalla scoring at a 1.43 PpG pace. Not to mention, excluding Saad, Saginaw had 2 other players scoring at better than a Point-per-Game (Trocheck 85 in 65, Shalla 76 in 53).. London had only Kadri scoring better than a PpG, the next closest player was Steven Tarasuk, a Dman, who had 67 points in 67 games. (Kadri had 93 in 56)
Nazem Kadri is a better offensive player than Saad.. but Saad's a much better all-round player at simular stages of developement and Saad has a size advantage which will work to his advantage once he makes the Hawks.
EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW that a 'late" birthdate in the calendar year (turning 18 only after Sept 14th) BELONGS to the next year's cohort of first time-draft eligibles...HENCE SAAD is in the '93 draft class cohort of first-time eligibles--that is his "comparable" peer age group --NOT the '92's (which include the "late" 91's..
THEREFORE we are getting WRONG comparables in the above posts.
IT is true that a September '93 born before Sept. 15th MIGHT be behind an October'92 in growth and development cure simply on age ---but in averaging out the '93's who were first time eligibles last draft (2011) -you sTILL have to credit SAAD in the season folowing his draft as certainly one if not THE Cream of the CROP...
AS to everyone being fooled by a groin imjury "lingering" whether the effects were real or just psychological in making him not play "all out" to protect it after getting back in the lineup and so "fooling" all the GM's into mistaking it for lack of effort---hence his "FALL" to #43 when he clearly SHOULD have been at LEAST an 8 to mid-first pick (as everyone sees NOW) --well all i can say is I TOO WAS FOOLED ---the player of last spring is so far removed from the player of this spring -it really is amazing to think they could be the same person... BUT fool everyone he did....
SO I say MEA CULPA--29 GM's say "WE GOOFED" and STAN says "Thank my lucky stars I picked 1 correct in my first 4 picks,and THANKS to all the GM's that passed on him"...
BUT then ---1/4 = 25% coorect in the first 2 rounds of picking (with 4 picks) -you would expect to get that "lucky" -I mean you just can't "miss" 100% of the time (Well maybe if you are Columbus-but otherwise the laws of hit and miss ought to give you at least a paltry 25% for every 4 picks you take over the first 2 rounds..Throwing darts at the wall willprobably hit the bull's-eye at least 1 in 4 times...SO STAN just got lucky but also lucky he had 4 chances to get something special..
Which is to say that McNeill,Danault and Clendening do not look to be any kind of special --but why can't SAAD be just as good as a Jaimie Benn,or a James Neal,or a Corey Perry ---ok not a STAMKOS --but why not a very significant top six forward on the Hawks? I see no reason to doubt that he willnot be a 30+ goal 40-45+ assist guy (if he plays 82 games) ...whether he does that in year 1 of the NHL --maybe not--but by year 2 or 3 -- he probably willbe that kind of "CORE" guy...
My apologies, I misused the term 'overager'. I know it has connotations to older players that CHL teams are only allowed to have a couple of (aka: 2 or 3 over 20?).
When I applied it to Saad, I meant that he was a drafted OHL player. It is to be expected he would light it up, and light it up he has. But don't get overly excited, lots of examples of it not transferring to the NHL.
I see Saad play quite a bit and overall I am not the biggest fan. Yes he dominates but he is just bigger and older than most CHL players. I think he doesn't have the mind for the game at the NHL level, at least to be a star. Should be a good 2-3 line player.
this is his second year in the OHL...an overager is in their 4th to 5th season of CHL hockey.
Kadri didnt put up stats like this until his 4th SEASON...and his ppg isnt near Saad's.
Overager in the CHL has nothing to do with what year it is because we get many euros coming to the CHL at a later age then Canadian kids.
Overage players refers to 20 year olds in the CHL. For the guy who you replied to over agers are not elligible to play in the U20 world juniors and Saad did play in them this year.
Wow. I'm surprised at some of the nasty posts in this thread. It's as though some of you want him to fail.
I think he had a great year in the OHL and performed admirably in the playoffs, given the way he was just thrown in there.
He's definitely the best prospect the Hawks have and it's just lucky for us he fell like he did. I think if the draft was done again today he would go top 15 for sure, maybe top 10.
I can definitely see him being one of the high achievers for that draft.
haha i used to play against this kid in high school. now i see him playing with kane and toews on the hawks pp. i hope he turns out to be a gem. he's got all the talent in the world.
Wow. I'm surprised at some of the nasty posts in this thread. It's as though some of you want him to fail.
I think he had a great year in the OHL and performed admirably in the playoffs, given the way he was just thrown in there.
He's definitely the best prospect the Hawks have and it's just lucky for us he fell like he did. I think if the draft was done again today he would go top 15 for sure, maybe top 10.
I can definitely see him being one of the high achievers for that draft.
alot of those post come from him being 19 years old playing in the ohl with is funny because when Charlie Coyle left BU to play for the sea dogs and has dominated the Q so far he didn't get this much Criticism but another reason was inconsistency and his play in the second half of the season of he's draft year but that was do to injury
Rockford coaches got hands on him and as expected his development is dying
I wanted him to avoid Rockford for this very reason
That's definitely a shame. Do you think he has a shot at cracking the Blackhawks' roster this year? I really want to see him developed properly. I'm pulling for him.
EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see ampersand5's question above. He asked the same thing.
He looked great when I went to the game on Wednesday. His stats aren't impressive but you can just see his talent if you watch the games... he is going to be a really good player in my estimation. The thing that I like best is that he is a good two way player, which I didn't know upon drafting him. He plays on the PK as well.
I've watched most Icehogs games this year and Saad is the one that has the most potential to me. He may have worse stats than guys like Jeremy Morin, Ben Smith, Brandon Pirri, Marcus Kruger, ect but they don't have the tools that he does either. I predict by the end of the year he will be racking up the points on Rockford...especially now that the forward depth isn't so crowded. No need to rush him on the NHL roster this season. I'd like to wait until next year and I'll bet he makes the team out of camp.
I've seen alot of Saad over the past 2 years and I personally believe he can contribute in the NHL, regardless of what his stats in the AHL are. I don't think he'll rip apart the NHL in a shortened season.. but in 48 games, in the top-6, I could see him being a contributer.
