Sick goal, but I doubt he will be getting a contract.
I hope he proves me wrong, but I've written him off.
He really hasn't improved much since he was 16 years old. I like spunky players like him, I had hoped he might be another Callahan for us, but it's unlikely. If he has a solid season and improves on what he did last year, he deserves a contract. I mean, who else will play in Hartford next year? We aren't exactly bursting with RW prospects.
Our RW prospects who might play in Hartford next year are: Thomas, Fast (if he comes over) and Kyle Jean. What's the harm in having McColgan there? He'll still be needed as Hartford's 3/4 line RW.
Worst case, he'll be the P.J. Stock of the AHL. Maybe he'll become Hartford's Callahan. And there's always a chance he might make the NHL, I still didn't give up on him. If we are going to give out NHL contracts to Tommy Grant and Sam Klassen, what's the harm in giving one to McColgan, who has better odds of cracking it than they do.
He really hasn't improved much since he was 16 years old. I like spunky players like him, I had hoped he might be another Callahan for us, but it's unlikely. If he has a solid season and improves on what he did last year, he deserves a contract. I mean, who else will play in Hartford next year? We aren't exactly bursting with RW prospects.
Our RW prospects who might play in Hartford next year are: Thomas, Fast (if he comes over) and Kyle Jean. What's the harm in having McColgan there? He'll still be needed as Hartford's 3/4 line RW.
Worst case, he'll be the P.J. Stock of the AHL. Maybe he'll become Hartford's Callahan. And there's always a chance he might make the NHL, I still didn't give up on him. If we are going to give out NHL contracts to Tommy Grant and Sam Klassen, what's the harm in giving one to McColgan, who has better odds of cracking it than they do.
The idea is to learn from mistakes... not repeat them...
The idea is to learn from mistakes... not repeat them...
I think McColgan is a real long-shot. But I atleast wouldn't mind seeing him on a ATA atleast in the pro's. He is obviously not following the route of the very few late round high scoring players of the CHL that just keeps going and ends up scoring alot in the NHL.
But sometimes these kids got kind of a second window of opertunity when they become pro's and face completely diffrent expectations. IE, in the CHL right now he is competing among scores to be the best scorer.
Lets compare that with Christian Thomas for example. In the pro's, both Thomas and McColgan will reasobaly compete with 2nd/3rd lineers to become a 2nd/3rd lineer. Sometime in that equation, you get alot of movement. The competition is still extremely tough, but its not entirely unusual that someone that the "Thomas" who managed to put up the stats in the CHL don't cut it while a McColgan comes very strong from behind and achieve more. They are just asked to do diffrent stuff than they were in the CHL. No matter what, its a huge long shot, and I am not terribly impressed with McColgan or anything. But I do think that the kid is a decent hockey player, and he plays the game with alot of energy and is somewhat shifty.
My point is just, you see so many players like Brodie Dupont, Thomas Zabrosky and co come on your boards through the drafts year after year, and they do not really have anything that is NHL caliber; then you see players like Thomas who got a NHL caliber nose for the net, but not terribly much more besides a great workethic; that when you see someone like say Weise who got a NHL motor or someone like McColgan who also has the intensity that could cut it in the NHL -- you atleast want to see what they can do. On the other side of the scale, you gotta recognize that he is darn small and its of course very questionable if he could make it no matter what. But the kid got something atleast.
Nothing wrong with giving McColgan an AHL deal. I don't think he'll ever become more than a decent AHL player, but you still need guys like that in your system.
Not getting a ton of ice, but his skating is fantastic.
I agree, he has had a few nice rushes but little ice time from what I have seen. He is tall, but he looks lanky still. Needs to add some beef but his leg strength seems pretty good.
Sick goal, but I doubt he will be getting a contract.
I hope he proves me wrong, but I've written him off.
I strongly disagree. I think the Rangers are still high on him and due to the fact that his team is hosting the Memorial Cup, he will be getting a chance to play deep into the playoffs. He is a little ball of energy and he has the hands and skills to be a NHLer.
I agree, he has had a few nice rushes but little ice time from what I have seen. He is tall, but he looks lanky still. Needs to add some beef but his leg strength seems pretty good.
Yeah I was very impressed with his ability to rush the puck. There was one play where he carried the puck end to end, dropped it back to a trailing forward who missed his shot wide, and Skjei circled behind the net and actually caught the play going the other way to disrupt a 2 on 1. Pretty damn impressive.
Yeah I was very impressed with his ability to rush the puck. There was one play where he carried the puck end to end, dropped it back to a trailing forward who missed his shot wide, and Skjei circled behind the net and actually caught the play going the other way to disrupt a 2 on 1. Pretty damn impressive.
Yep, his skating and his "rover" style reminds me of when McDonagh rushes the puck and then catches the play coming coming on the back-check before it gets to the red-line. His skating is world-class.
McDonagh, Hagelin, Fast, Skjei, Nieves, Kreider, Nash, Gaborik, Staal, Callahan. I think it is obvious what direction they want to go in as an organization.
I've seen a lot of McColgan and he definitely has his pro's and con's, but I wouldn't be shocked at all if he was given a contract. He might still be considered a bit of a longshot to be a solid NHLer, but he strikes me as the kind of guy that will be a better pro than junior player.
Klefbom(shoulder injury, might be gone all season), Lindström (concussion and neck problems), Grundel (facial injury, just back from it). In other words 2 D's gone atm.
Klefbom(shoulder injury, might be gone all season), Lindström (concussion and neck problems), Grundel (facial injury, just back from it). In other words 2 D's gone atm.
Bad break for those prospects but great opportunity for Calle. Best of luck to him and hopefully one day being a solid offensive DMan for the Rangers.
What's your take on Andersson, Ola? Does he have potential?
I've only really seen him in the prospect tourney. I could only see a couple of shifts of him last night (it took forever to put the kids to sleep), and when I've seen Färjestad earlier in the season he hasn't played.
But he is interesting. He is a thick built kid (6'2 212 lbs at the age of 18), but he doesn't at all seem to be that physically mature. He ought to firm up alot during the coming years. And that's probably what is most intriguing about him. A kid this good already, who still seem to be bound to take several steps physically in the near future.
The flaw he has right now obviously is that he isn't very explosive. He moves alright and its nothing wrong with his skating, but its of course obvious that he weighs in at 212 lbs without being trimmed physically. I of course need to see alot more of him, but he seems to be a very calm and poised player, who gets it done offensively. He is involved alot offensively which is great to see. Looking at the composure of our blueline depth charts, its great that he is a right shooting D too. Given that he is so raw, it seems to be very hard too to pin down what type of potential player he could become (let alone how good). Like from the little I've seen I can't tell if he is a potential Dustin Byfuglien or a potential Robyn Regehr.
I always really liked his father, Peter Andersson (also a NYR draft pick), so my starting valuation of him is pretty high. Back during his fathers prime, there were only like 10-15 Swedes in the NHL, now its like 40. I don't think that's because our players are all that much better now then back in the early 90's, its just that back then the incentives to play in the NHL wasn't as high and players who wouldn't become stars in the NHL often didn't stick around that long. If a player today has a option to choose between being a big star in Sweden or a top 3-5 D in the NHL, everyone opts with the later. But go back 20 years and that was just not the case. His father if playing today, would probably have been a very respected NHLer. Good size, not soft, strong defensively and very good offensively. Or maybe more then anything, the no-nonsense type. Very steady and someone you never had to worry about. Which is kind of rare these days (for some reason there just isn't that many D's who has good size and are decently physical, is good on the point, is smart with the puck and skates well). His father played in Sweden till he was 40 y/o, and made a short comeback when he was 44 y/o (just 3 years ago).
I'll come back soon when I've been able to see Calle more.
I've only really seen him in the prospect tourney. I could only see a couple of shifts of him last night (it took forever to put the kids to sleep), and when I've seen Färjestad earlier in the season he hasn't played.
But he is interesting. He is a thick built kid (6'2 212 lbs at the age of 18), but he doesn't at all seem to be that physically mature. He ought to firm up alot during the coming years. And that's probably what is most intriguing about him. A kid this good already, who still seem to be bound to take several steps physically in the near future.
The flaw he has right now obviously is that he isn't very explosive. He moves alright and its nothing wrong with his skating, but its of course obvious that he weighs in at 212 lbs without being trimmed physically. I of course need to see alot more of him, but he seems to be a very calm and poised player, who gets it done offensively. He is involved alot offensively which is great to see. Looking at the composure of our blueline depth charts, its great that he is a right shooting D too. Given that he is so raw, it seems to be very hard too to pin down what type of potential player he could become (let alone how good). Like from the little I've seen I can't tell if he is a potential Dustin Byfuglien or a potential Robyn Regehr.
I always really liked his father, Peter Andersson (also a NYR draft pick), so my starting valuation of him is pretty high. Back during his fathers prime, there were only like 10-15 Swedes in the NHL, now its like 40. I don't think that's because our players are all that much better now then back in the early 90's, its just that back then the incentives to play in the NHL wasn't as high and players who wouldn't become stars in the NHL often didn't stick around that long. If a player today has a option to choose between being a big star in Sweden or a top 3-5 D in the NHL, everyone opts with the later. But go back 20 years and that was just not the case. His father if playing today, would probably have been a very respected NHLer. Good size, not soft, strong defensively and very good offensively. Or maybe more then anything, the no-nonsense type. Very steady and someone you never had to worry about. Which is kind of rare these days (for some reason there just isn't that many D's who has good size and are decently physical, is good on the point, is smart with the puck and skates well). His father played in Sweden till he was 40 y/o, and made a short comeback when he was 44 y/o (just 3 years ago).
I'll come back soon when I've been able to see Calle more.
Nice report Ola.
I will try to get more info on Mr Andersson. As I mentioned before, I spent a year in the Swedish Army together with Peter Andersson. We were on the 5th company (recon plutoon) at I2 in Karlstad. I was radio operator/telegraphist as well as squad leader. There were several athletes there including Ulf Bjällvinger (Boltic) and Leif Karlsson (Färjestad) as well, and we had some drills and operations together with the Falun regiment where Tomas Sandström and Ulf Samuelsson both were stationed. Btw - for a short while Bengt Skött (Radiosporten) was in our group too.
Anyways - once we had an operation where 4 of us were on a raft and we had to "take over" another raft with 4 other guys in it. I remember being the last guy left in our raft - while they were still all 4 left in the other boat. Two of the guys in the opposing raft were like something out of The Gladiators, the other two were Karlsson & Andersson. The "gladiators" wound up in the water first, but so did I eventually before the two defensemen got wet at all. They were certainly some strong agile guys. Hope that the young Andersson got a chip off the old mans block - as his dad was both big, mobile and athletic. His provided frame seems promising.
So as for Calle tearing it up in the Junior league - that is very good but quite a ways from becoming more than a fringe prospect. Nice to see him scoring on FBK SEL team though. I gather he might be a late bloomer. Being a righty is also quite the advantage as few Swedes are natural righthanded. I will start asking around to see more and report in depth stuff about this young fella, as I have previously been focusing on Lindberg & Fast.
On a different note - lots of players from Europe (Hagelin, McD, Murray... recently) seem to be heading back to NA now. Is this a sign of an undisclosed thaw in negotiations that nobody is talking about? Gotta wonder...
Since I've seen so little of him, this is more of a "hunch" right now, but one thing that I sense in Andersson and that I like alot is the he seems to be the active/involved type of D, and that is also illustrated by his huge numbers in juniors (numbers from the elite junior league in Sweden is otherwise very hard to draw any conclusions from).
Many D's that we have seen in NY lately, good and bad, is more about letting the game come to them so to speak. From a great D like Staal to guys who still are unproven like Erixon or players who has been here in the past, like say Tyutin. I hardly think its a understatement to believe that words like get more involved often has been told to D's in NY (its something Staal always talk about for example). Both MDZ and McD trys to expend their register and will probably keep developing alot for a long time thanks to it.
And especially with Erixon, I think that was like the only thing that was missed in his game (he has everything else to become great D in this league). But Andersson seem to have somewhat of that attitude that results in like hey I am a good player at this level, why not score 1.5 point per game and get everything done myself? Which probably is necessary for him. Marc Staal (who I love and in every sense was ahead of Andersson at the same age, to avoid a misunderstanding) in juniors was more like, hey I am a great defensive minded D, I am better then everyone else, so I can play great defensive hockey for 40 minutes per night... And he could become that D too in the NHL and everything worked out. But Andersson probably needs to become a other type of D than that. He isn't in the McD/Staal mold (hey we are just darn good at playing hockey) or MDZ mold (hey I am just got a ton of offensive tools (how many times can I use the word hey and italics in one post without it being too much?)), but more like a D in say the McCabe/Byfuglien mold if you get what I mean (with great variations of course). Someone who can do more than what his raw talent indicate.
can't find the video online...but his goal during the 93-94 season when he spins and points to the black aces is absolutely classic. love him just for that lol
