Quoting: palhal
I know it's great to look at point totals at the junior, NCAA, AHL and European league and imagine how it translates into the NHL. But the reality is, it's more than stats than makes NHL players.
Gee, KHL all star Dman Lehtonen came to the NHL and really can't secure a full time NHL job. Look at the offensive leaders in Europe and AHL, often failed NHLers.
I'm not so optimistic about the Leafs prospects. Lots of smaller players. Might be able to twirl around in Europe but the NHL on the smaller ice surface and all players are strong and quick....I doubt if there are NHL any game changers and few NHLers. Hope I'm wrong.
Nah
No question a balance to extents but
NHLe alone outperforms regular drafting hugely
I studied every draft from 1967-2015 and yeah
Not failed NHLers tho they just don't fit the "mold"
The boom or bust mentality with euro guys is absurd key example Gusev almost leading an NHL team in scoring then being shuffled out hastily after low sh%
Lehtonen (as most elite euro leaguers) rely a lot on the PP for their pts and he got a grand total of 17 PP minutes in the NHL which is the fault of mgmt, obv
I've also studied the euro thing and in 80% of cases the player is still a solid NHLer they just get cast off because of rigid mindsets on player style here
Nigel Dawes and Brandon Bochenski were superb
The shipachyov thing was insane also wow McPhee
So it even swings around and teams lose out huge