In a nutshell -- too few prospects left in organization, team is growing really old.
I honestly think most of these 'hockey experts' are not actually looking at the Sharks prospect pool. Compared to other 'perpetual contenders' it's really not that bad.
Promising group of quality forwards:
Nieto
Hertl
Hamilton
Oleksuk
And one of the best group of goaltenders in the league:
Stalock
Setari
Anderson
Heemskerk
Sure we lack 'blue chip' players, but more often than not our 'blue chip' players are late bloomers. If we have an AHL talent blue chip player, they'd be in the NHL. Hertl isn't far off anyway.
We have pretty excellent depth in our organization, especially considering being a playoff team for the last decade straight. Youth does not automatically make a superior team, look at Edmonton. You need the right balance.
If true, they franchise really shot themselves in the foot regarding not only this this situation, but also every future player who may be drafted, signed, traded for, may think again about how/if they want to play in such an organization. Sounds like they may have to pay a whole bunch more to get even modest players to voluntarily come.
I honestly think most of these 'hockey experts' are not actually looking at the Sharks prospect pool. Compared to other 'perpetual contenders' it's really not that bad.
Promising group of quality forwards:
Nieto
Hertl
Hamilton
Oleksuk
And one of the best group of goaltenders in the league:
Stalock
Setari
Anderson
Heemskerk
Sure we lack 'blue chip' players, but more often than not our 'blue chip' players are late bloomers. If we have an AHL talent blue chip player, they'd be in the NHL. Hertl isn't far off anyway.
We have pretty excellent depth in our organization, especially considering being a playoff team for the last decade straight. Youth does not automatically make a superior team, look at Edmonton. You need the right balance.
I think it's "blue chip" prospects that make the grade go up to some extent. Clearly we have no "blue chip" prospects in the system. I agree that the forwards listed look interesting and i can't wait to see how they do in the AHL, none of these are slam dunk NHL players in any way. I don't think any of the defense are top 4 NHL material at this time, several on your list are clearly project players whom are on the cusp of being nowhere. I'll grant you the depth in goal tending at this point. My point is we don't have excellent depth in forwards or defense, i'd call goal tending depth good to very good at this point as none of them are blue chip either. I think the C grade is fair overall at this time.
I honestly think most of these 'hockey experts' are not actually looking at the Sharks prospect pool. Compared to other 'perpetual contenders' it's really not that bad.
Promising group of quality forwards:
Nieto
Hertl
Hamilton
Oleksuk
And one of the best group of goaltenders in the league:
Stalock
Setari
Anderson
Heemskerk
Sure we lack 'blue chip' players, but more often than not our 'blue chip' players are late bloomers. If we have an AHL talent blue chip player, they'd be in the NHL. Hertl isn't far off anyway.
We have pretty excellent depth in our organization, especially considering being a playoff team for the last decade straight. Youth does not automatically make a superior team, look at Edmonton. You need the right balance.
Hm. I think you overrate our prospects a bit. It's pretty sad when you have to include an undrafted 22-year-old linemate of the Hobey Baker winner in your top-4 forward prospects.
Yeah, we have a good amount of depth, but outside of maybe Nieto and Hertl, there is no blue-chipper, which is an issue with only Couture on the rise. Hell, even with those two there isn't a single player who's pretty much guaranteed to be an impact NHLer like a Coyle.
Yeah, we have a good amount of depth, but outside of maybe Nieto and Hertl, there is no blue-chipper, which is an issue with only Couture on the rise. Hell, even with those two there isn't a single player who's pretty much guaranteed to be an impact NHLer like a Coyle.
I disagree. Hertl has been compared to Jamie Benn, while Coyle was compared to Bob Sweeny. IMO, Hertl is as "guaranteed" to be an impact NHLer as Coyle is. Both will probably top out as 2nd liners.
I disagree. Hertl has been compared to Jamie Benn, while Coyle was compared to Bob Sweeny. IMO, Hertl is as "guaranteed" to be an impact NHLer as Coyle is. Both will probably top out as 2nd liners.
Hertl could bust.
I'm not high on Coyle, but he's as much as a safe bet to make the NHL. Even if his scoring doesn't totally translate (interestingly Nieto had more NHL point equivalencies than Coyle even after he left college and went on a crazy scoring spree), he has all the tools to be a great 3rd liner. If Hertl doesn't work on his skating a lot, he could not even make the NHL.
Meh, skating is the easiest attribute to fix. I have no doubt Hertl will be able to become a sufficient enough skater to hold his own in the NHL, and IMO has better offensive abilities. The Sharks have proven it before with Couture, Pavs, and Murray that they can adjust a players skating. IIRC, Coyle had the same knock on him as Hertl does, in respect to skating, when he was drafted.
This will all be moot, considering he's likely going to be traded at the deadline this year, or at the draft next year.
I'm not high on Coyle, but he's as much as a safe bet to make the NHL. Even if his scoring doesn't totally translate (interestingly Nieto had more NHL point equivalencies than Coyle even after he left college and went on a crazy scoring spree), he has all the tools to be a great 3rd liner. If Hertl doesn't work on his skating a lot, he could not even make the NHL.
Skating was also a big question mark for Coyle when he was drafted. Multiple scouts didn't like his stride.
Skating was also a problem with couture and pavelski. But it once ahain goes back to the entire draft day thread, got speed guaranteed crosby, cant skate will never make the ahl.
Speed is nice, but if you do not have the hockey iq to go along with it, you will not make it in the nhl.
If true, they franchise really shot themselves in the foot regarding not only this this situation, but also every future player who may be drafted, signed, traded for, may think again about how/if they want to play in such an organization. Sounds like they may have to pay a whole bunch more to get even modest players to voluntarily come.
The franchise can easily fix the issue by canning Howson. There's really nothing more that they can do about it. Even if it hadn't happened at all, Columbus wasn't a prime destination for free agents. They were already in a position of having to overpay free agents to go there. But I don't think there is any way for the team to take strides in a positive direction with Howson at the helm. There's just no way that that environment can foster anything remotely positive when they can't trust their own manager enough to just worry about playing hockey.
Hertl isn't any more likely to bust than Coyle. Even if he doesn't become a top 6 forward, he'll still probably at least be a very solid 3rd liner who can pot a few goals (think Handzus in his prime).
The only difference between him and Coyle in that regard would be whether or not he's content to continue playing that role in the NHL or if in that case he would go back to the Czech Republic and get a cushy top 6 gig in the Extraliga.
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