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Friday Prospects — Ready for the run

Hey all. Taking a break from the interview scene this week. The good news is we’ve hardly tapped the well dry — in fact, we’re trying to cook up some new stuff to make this feature even better. We’ve got a few potential awesome candidates coming up, so make sure you keep reading. If you missed any, here’s Nick Jensen, Willie Coetzee, Landon Ferraro, and Tomas Tatar.

The news goes on, however. Today’s been an interesting day, following a few teams shuffling players before the Olympic trade deadline. We’re getting down to the stretch run. For leagues outside of the NHL, that time is even closer. Every other league will be in the playoffs when the NHL’s regular season concludes. Generally in this feature, we focus on the individual prospect, but everything’s relative.

A player flourishing on a bad team is a little more impressive than a player being carried along by a ton of top scorers on a good team… so it’s interesting to keep in mind. But sometimes, a team can be bad enough to where they’re only scoring points because nobody else can, so just because a players stats are good on a bad team doesn’t necessarily mean anything, if you see what I’m saying.

Among the more interesting notes:

  • Grand Rapids has absolutely fallen apart, currently sitting in the conference cellar, 3rd worst in the league. They were in a playoff position until they got Michael Nylander, and then offense, defense, and goaltending simultaneously fell apart. They’ve shown life recently, but might be too little too late to make a playoff run. The good news is there’s penalty for trying, because it’s not like they’re fighting for a draft pick.
  • Toledo (ECHL) is last in their division, but they’d be second in the other division in the conference. They’re well over .500, at 25-19-1-3.
  • Looking at the junior ranks, Detroit has a couple prospects poised for potential Memorial Cup runs. If you don’t know what that is, they take the champion out of the Western, Quebec, and Ontario leagues and pit them against a host team (determined years in advance) in a week long tournament.
  • One prospect guaranteed to be there is Brent Raedeke, as the Brandon team he is now on will host the tournament.
  • The top team in the OHL is Windsor, represented by Stephen Johnston. Johnston was a deadline acquisition for Windsor, and now that he’s healthy, is earning rave reviews for the impact he’s made.
  • Detroit’s top candidate from the QMJHL is Andrej Nestrasil, on a 3rd place Victoriaville team that were definite buyers at the deadline.
  • In the college ranks, both Brendan Smith (Wisconsin) and Gustav Nyquist (Maine) should be locks for Hobey Baker nominations (best collegiate player), but their teams are also sitting nicely as solid best for invites to the NCAA tournament.
  • However, it’s Nick Oslund (St. Cloud State) who’s team boasts the best collegiate record among Detroit prospects. St. Cloud is tied for 1st in the WCHA, the same conference Smith plays in.
  • Attending St. Cloud next year is Nick Jensen, who knows all about winning: His Green Bay Gamblers are 1st in the USHL.
  • Adam Almqvist has been forced into the SEL mainly due to injuries; his HV-71 club has had each of it’s top four blueliners out for considerable lengths of time. It comes as a surprise that they still sit in 1st place.

Statistical report is after the jump. In the spirit of the postseason, the “notes” section contains the team’s current position in the league standing

Statistical Report:

American Hockey League

# Name Team GP G A P +/- PIM Last week Notes
3 Logan Pyett Grand Rapids 52 7
13 20 +4 23
1A, +1 in 3GP
4 Travis Ehrhardt Grand Rapids 30 0 4 4 -9 28 +1 in 1GP
5 Jakub Kindl Grand Rapids 45 3 17 20 -10 34 1A, -2, 2PIM in 3GP
7 Sebastien Piche Grand Rapids 9 0 0 0 -1 4 Playing in Toledo (ECHL)
8 Cory Emmerton Grand Rapids 49 8 16 24
+2 14 1G, 1A, +3 in 3GP
9 Evan McGrath Grand Rapids 48 8
10 18 -13 23 2A in 3GP

12 Dick Axelsson Grand Rapids 17 2 3 5 +1 6 Playing in Farjestad (SEL)
13 Jan Mursak Grand Rapids 51 18 10 28 +9 19 1A, -1 in 3GP

17 Francis Pare Grand Rapids 50 11 15 26
+18 12
2G, +1 in 3GP

18 Mattias Ritola Grand Rapids 45 11 10 21 -9 40 1G, 1A, -2, 4PIM in 3GP

25 Jamie Tardif Grand Rapids 50 10 8 18 -10 65 1A, -1, 7PIM in 3GP

27 Tomas Tatar Grand Rapids 36
10 12 22 +8 6 1A in 3GP
28 Sergei Kolosov Grand Rapids 45
1 3 4 -6 17 2GP Representing Belarus in Olympics
31 Daniel Larsson Grand Rapids 33
15 15 1 2.92
.901 2-0, GAA down, sv% up
35 Thomas McCollum Grand Rapids 22 7 11
0 3.50 .878 0-1, GAA down, sv% up
36 Jordan Pearce Grand Rapids 5 1 2 0 3.82 .875
Playing in Toledo (ECHL)


ECHL

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
20 Travis Ehrhardt Toledo 3 1 1 2 +4 0 Playing in Grand Rapids
25 Sebastien Piche Toledo 25 4 12 16 +4 30 2A, 2PIM in 3GP 8th of 12 in conference
30 Thomas McCollum Toledo 4 2 1 0 4.48 .864
Playing in Grand Rapids
35 Jordan Pearce Toledo 23 9 11 1 3.82 .885 0-2, GAA up, sv% up
8th of 12 in conference


NCAA

# Name Team GP G A PTS PIM Last Week Notes
7 Brendan Smith Wisconsin 26 12 21 33 36
2G in 1GP
4 of 10 in WCHA
7 Max Nicastro Boston U. 26 2 8 10 24 2PIM in 2GP 5 of 10 in HE
16 Nick Oslund St. Cloud St. 30 4 4 8 20
2GP T-1 of 10 in WCHA
81 Julien Cayer Clarkson 22
2 3 5 16
DNP
12 of 12 in ECAC
89 Bryan Rufenach Clarkson 25 5 11 16 41 DNP
12 of 12 in ECAC
89 Gustav Nyquist Maine 26 14 26 40 12 4A in 2GP
T-2 of 10 in HE

Swedish Eliteserien

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
31 Dick Axelsson Farjestad 9 4 4 8 +2
8 -2, 2PIM in 1GP
5th of 12 in league
16 Anton Axelsson Timra 44
5 6 11 -16 6 1G, -4, 2PIM in 4GP
10th of 12 in league
18 Joakim Andersson Frolunda 48 5 12 17 +8 40 1A, 6PIM in 4GP 7th of 12 in league
24 Jesper Samuelsson Timra 23 0 1 1 +0 8
Playing in SWE-2
28 Adam Almqvist HV71 24 2 6 8 +11 10
DNP, DTD (knee)
1st of 12 in league


Swedish Allsvenskan

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
3 Jesper Samuelsson Sundsvall 29 2 12 14
-12 4 1G, 3A, -3, 2PIM in 5GP
13th of 14 in league
16 Johan Ryno AIK 39 6 9 15 +5 28 -4 in 2GP 3rd of 14 in league
Adam Almqvist Troja/Ljungby 0 0 0 0 0 0 Playing with HV71 (SEL)


Swedish J20 League

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
4 Adam Almqvist HV71 15 5 29 34 +14 14 Playing with HV71 (SEL)


Kontinental Hockey League

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
21 Gennady Stolyarov HC MVD 0 0 0 0 0 0 5th of 24 in league
26 Jiri Hudler Moscow Dynamo 48
17 31 48 16
4th of 24 in league


Ontario Hockey League

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
10 Stephen Johnston Windsor 6 2 3 5 +0 6 1A, 4PIM in 2GP 1st of 20 in league
11 Stephen Johnston Belleville 18
6
4
10
-3
16

Traded to Windsor
18 Brian Lashoff Kingston 44 6 13 19 -9 55 2PIM in 1GP
4th of 10 in conference


Western Hockey League

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
9 Brent Raedeke Edmonton 39 17 14 31 +4 60 Traded to Brandon
9 Brent Raedeke Brandon 19 4 13
17 +6 16
1A, +4, 6PIM in 3GP
3rd of 12 in conference
13 Landon Ferraro Red Deer 37
12
23 35 -8 40 2A, -3, 2PIM in 3GP
6th of 12 in conference
19 Willie Coetzee Red Deer 56 25 47 72 +5 24 1A, -2, 2PIM in 3GP
6th of 12 in conference
24 Mitchell Callahan Kelowna 58
17 24 41 -2 134 -3, 4PIM in 3GP
6th of 10 in conference

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
11 Andrej Nestrasil Victoriaville 39 14 27 40 -2 32 1A, -1, 2PIM in 1GP
3rd of 18 in league
14 Gleason Fournier Rimouski 46 10 29 39 +5 68 +1, 2PIM in 3GP
10th of 18 in league


United States Hockey League

# Name Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM Last Week Notes
6 Nick Jensen Green Bay 33 1 14 15 +23 12 17 PIM in 2GP 1st of 14 in league

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