It’s also had to say “who gets the credit and who doesn’t”. I mean at the end of the day I’d like to believe that Wes Clark has final say, even over the GM 🤷‍♂️

But with Moldenhauer, hard not to give credit to Olegs Koreskovs (He’s been a scout for the Chicago Steel in the USHL for the last few years. We should likely imagine that Koreskovs will pick up the slack on the US scouting end left when John Lilley was promoted) and possibly the Knies pick too.

And Grebyonkin to Grigori Shafigulin (Shafigulin seems to be totally new to the scouting game, since Elite Prospects doesn’t have a staff page for him yet. Generally, the scouts get named as amateur scouts by NHL teams even if they’re in Europe scouting both the junior and professional leagues. I think we can assume Shafigulin will be working the KHL and related leagues.

He’s barely hung up the skates after a career as a centre in the KHL that stretches back to the older Russian leagues that predate the KHL. He is 33 and is from Chelyabinsk, Russia, and he began his career on the local club, Traktor. Chelyabinsk is an industrial city in the east, and it’s nothing like the bright lights and big city of Moscow.)

Credit to


The Minten and Cowan picks scream Wes Clark trying to out smart people. Lol I’m probably dead wrong I just hate that we reached on them cause I actually like both. Just more as 3-4 round guys not high picks

Sandin >>>>>>>>

Yeah, the whole who gets credit thing is just a game not worth playing for me. I'm sure every scout within the org has their guys and anyone that they consider taking at any stage of the draft I'm sure is talked about as a group. At the end of the day the responsibility comes down to the director if the GM lets them do their job.

Minten had good and bad stretches but has not looked like a bad pick so far. As who knows could go through a big jump like we saw out of other prospects. Remember Holmberg was a nobody till his SHL playoff run

Hayley Wickenheiser likes him and his work ethic so lets see if he can turn into a solid 2-way 3C who can occasionally play 2C no complaints. As thats really what we need at this point

As for Cowen every report especially after his playoffs was kids gonna rise and is underrated when people look at the Knights. And when looking deep at his numbers start to finish man if that kid could have played like he did in the second half for the entire season probs would be a top 20 pick

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KL6Y0jK1FCQ

To me Cowan will be fine

I’ll be curious to see how much he can improve this year while being the top line center for Kamloops with all their departures and IF he can score without those guys.

“And it's worth noting something that the Leafs talked about with Minten in the off-season. He is relatively new to hockey, as a top prospect. I believe they said he started playing high level hockey as a 14 year old. The Leafs thought that meant he may be a bit later in his developmental leaps. He did show some improvement in this area this year, the problem is that it was inconsistent.”

It’s going to be a big year for him to make Team Canada, like he is projected too, and have a big year offensively.

I hope he does it

To me if Minten can be a 2-way 3c like Paul or Laughton would be very happy

But man future kid line of

Knies-Minten-Cowen gonna be spicy whenever it happens (no rush)

Either way just need patience. As we saw with guys like Liligren benefits can be endless and while there is still room to improve its paid off pretty well.

Guys like Minten don’t project very well


Guess we will find out in a few years

His second half was really nothing special statistically. Hovered around a P/G.

If you compare his numbers and listen to scouts and reports who watched him first and second half everyone says if he played like he did the second half he would be a first round selection. His first half was awful thats mainly what did the dmg to him.

Steve Dangle talked about it when he was drafted. Kid basically was 2 different players at different points of the season. And when we saw his playoffs that just added to the notion kid was gonna rise.

While I would have preferred trading to a high 2nd and getting at the same time if he works out who cares when he was drafted.

Who, exactly, is everyone?

Literally all Dangle did was break his season down into quarters, and he was above a P/G in exactly one of those segments...

https://twitter.com/Steve_Dangle/status/1674947379034824709

I just wanna say bros attractive

There was a tweet from a scout where he discussed the fact thanks to Cowans strong second half of the season and playoff performance he would not be surprised if Cowan gets selected higher than everyone expected.

And it happened as he said top 40 selection and he was selected 28th OA

https://twitter.com/BrockOtten/status/1674072025495658499

And lets be real he plays like he did in the second half for the whole season and has that kind of playoff performance may have gone higher than 28OA.

Also it was on Dangles podcast where he goes deeper with it. Either way to soon to tell how the pick will be its a gamble but lets see scouts like him and he looks like a nice pick so im holding judgement as if someone was willing to bet he would be a top 40 pick confidence is high

L
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So "everyone says he would be a 1st round selection if he played like that the whole season" and you can find one guy who said he believes there's a chance he goes top 40...

Seems like you're living in fantasy land.

How can you not like an ELC?

Yes, he was taken a bit too high. And yes, most can see that the Leafs have a pretty pathetic prospect pool, with quite a few picks missing the next 3 years, and all this before any moves are made this year or at TDL.

Guys like Minten, Voit are pretty long shots to be NHLers, especially top 9 impact guys. Right now besides Knies, theres Niemala and Hirvonen (and Hirvonen is a pretty much a hit or miss guy, very much like a robertson, hes either a top 6 scoring winger or nothing).

The rest are pretty questionable in NHL futures.

The Leafs have been pretty good at finding stop gap guys who are older, but then lose them in UFA, so theyre short term (mikheyev, engvall, bunting), but alot of their shots in the dark (Ovichnikov, SDA) have gone nowhere, and the team itself has been overly reliant on limited, bottom 6 league minimum-ish veterans like clifford, simmonds, ZAR, and lack much offensive flair (kampf is a good speedy defensive pivot, but 30 pts in 3red line time seems his max)