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Zach Benson, the 5'10" 170lb, 18yr old rookie's first season review


LGR4GM

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1 hour ago, Huckleberry said:

Östlund for me is our 2nd best prospect, 2C in 2 years.

I have him up there too, and think quite highly of him, but I think 2C in two years is a pretty lofty timeline. We’ll see. 

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24 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I have him up there too, and think quite highly of him, but I think 2C in two years is a pretty lofty timeline. We’ll see. 

Maybe he needs to bulk up still , but the Swedes compared him with Forsberg once and I can't get that out of my head 😄

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2 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Östlund for me is our 2nd best prospect, 2C in 2 years.

This is doubtful. See my analysis below. First i compare him to Peterka... and he's significantly behind him points wise in SHL vs AHL. Peterka is a legit 2nd liner.

In the 2nd analysis I compared U20 players in the SHL that had similar productions to him. Of the players that succeeded in the NHL, they are all significantly bigger than Östlund. 

On 6/7/2024 at 6:48 PM, JoeSchmoe said:

I base what I think about prospects by comparing them to other recent players.

2 years after his draft, Östlund had 23 points in 38 games in the SHL.

Peterka, who looks to be a bonafide 2nd liner, had 68 points in 70 games. 

That's a pretty big spread. Does the quality of the SHL vs AHL bridge the 0.61 vs 0.97 ppg gap?

Maybe someone with more time on their hands can evaluate where an undersized 0.61ppg SHL forward typically ends up career wise. Guaranteed, there are outliers who have succeeded, but where does the typical player of Ostlunds ilk end up?

 

On 6/7/2024 at 7:49 PM, JoeSchmoe said:

Ok... I've got nothing going on on a Friday night. Here goes.

I'm going back year by year in Elite Prospects to find SHL players that are U20 with points in the range of 0.6ppg. I have to manually filter out the U18s and U19s that are also listed, since their way further back on their improvement curves.

19-20: Filip Hallender 0.52ppg U20 SHL.  

18-19: Emil Bemstrom 0.74ppg U20 SHL. 

18-19: Samuel Fagemo 0.60ppg U20 SHL.

16-17: Joel Eriksen Ek 0.62ppg U20 SHL.

15-16: Oskar Lindblom 0.52ppg U20 SHL.

12-13: William Karlsson 0.58ppg U20 SHL.

11-12: Johan Larsson 0.73ppg U20 SHL.

08-09: Lars Eller 0.60ppg U20 SHL.

There's not a lot of NHL'ers that played SHL as U20s. Of the ones that made it on my list above (Ek, Karlsson, Eller) they're all bigger than Östlund.

 

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16 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Too small imo. He looks small too. Doesn't have the squat frame Benson has or the fortitude. So we shall see, but I have my doubts.

I will equate Fortitude to be F You All Attitude.  He simple just doesn't give an F.  It's beautiful.

16 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Too small imo. He looks small too. Doesn't have the squat frame Benson has or the fortitude. So we shall see, but I have my doubts.

I will equate Fortitude to be F You All Attitude.  He simple just doesn't give an F.  It's beautiful.

16 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Too small imo. He looks small too. Doesn't have the squat frame Benson has or the fortitude. So we shall see, but I have my doubts.

I will equate Fortitude to be F You All Attitude.  He simple just doesn't give an F.  It's beautiful.

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2 hours ago, LTS said:

I will equate Fortitude to be F You All Attitude.  He simple just doesn't give an F.  It's beautiful.

I will equate Fortitude to be F You All Attitude.  He simple just doesn't give an F.  It's beautiful.

I will equate Fortitude to be F You All Attitude.  He simple just doesn't give an F.  It's beautiful.

 

download.jpg

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1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

 

download.jpg

Haha.. freakin board flaked out when I was hitting Submit Reply.. I saw the button momentarily say Saving and then nothing happened.  Then I needed to get to a meeting so I didn't even think it posted.

 

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1 hour ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Please be Briere, but even more annoying to play against 

I hope and think Benson will be better than Briere. The only thing they are similar in is size. I think Benson plays the game stylistically different even though if the effect is similar. 

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2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I hope and think Benson will be better than Briere. The only thing they are similar in is size. I think Benson plays the game stylistically different even though if the effect is similar. 

A small, complete, competitive and fearless winger who outsmarts and outworks the opposition, while getting under their skins. An above-average but not elite talent who wins because he is always working, always on the right side of the puck, always goes and moves pucks to the right spaces, and always plays the game the right way.

I’m actually describing Brad Marchand, but there’s nothing in there that wouldn’t describe peak Benson as well.

A lot of people disagree with me - primarily it seems because they see Marchand first as a dirty player and a villain and that doesn’t fit with Benson.

But I think if you shave off the dark moustache and cape and look at the actual skill set and what each player does well, I think there are a ton of similarities.

We can only hope Zach can reach the same heights.

Edited by dudacek
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On 6/10/2024 at 10:30 PM, Huckleberry said:

Maybe he needs to bulk up still , but the Swedes compared him with Forsberg once and I can't get that out of my head 😄

Wait just a second.

Who said this and when?

If it was his mom when he was 13, we can't go throwing around this kind of assertion.

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I don’t know what happens with trades but a future line of Savoie centring Benson and Quinn would be sweet. Or Benson and Savoie with a tree like Wahlberg. Benson and Savoie had such great chemistry in Winnipeg.

Edited by Flashsabre
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On 6/13/2024 at 3:32 PM, dudacek said:

A small, complete, competitive and fearless winger who outsmarts and outworks the opposition, while getting under their skins. An above-average but not elite talent who wins because he is always working, always on the right side of the puck, always goes and moves pucks to the right spaces, and always plays the game the right way.

I’m actually describing Brad Marchand, but there’s nothing in there that wouldn’t describe peak Benson as well.

A lot of people disagree with me - primarily it seems because they see Marchand first as a dirty player and a villain and that doesn’t fit with Benson.

But I think if you shave off the dark moustache and cape and look at the actual skill set and what each player does well, I think there are a ton of similarities.

We can only hope Zach can reach the same heights.

I’ve said similar things as well; I said Benson could become a slightly less speedy and dirty Marchand

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1 hour ago, sabresparaavida said:

If he’s Ennis without the concussions, that would be a solid addition to the team.

They’re both quick, but Noah Östlund plays a considerably different game to Ennis.

Ennis was a one-on-one player who made plays stickhandling.

Östlund is a give-and-go player who generally moves the puck as quickly as he gets it.

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41 minutes ago, dudacek said:

They’re both quick, but Noah Östlund plays a considerably different game to Ennis.

Ennis was a one-on-one player who made plays stickhandling.

Östlund is a give-and-go player who generally moves the puck as quickly as he gets it.

I'm not making a prediction.  Honestly, I'm about to express a rather uniformed impression that I have of Östlund.  He gives me Asplund vibes (size, background, post-draft production, uncertainty if he can be a centre in the NHL, etc.). 

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18 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

I'm not making a prediction.  Honestly, I'm about to express a rather uniformed impression that I have of Östlund.  He gives me Asplund vibes (size, background, post-draft production, uncertainty if he can be a centre in the NHL, etc.). 

Again, they play very different styles, but I see the similarities; smallish, smart, hard-working Swedish centres.

Asplund played the game the right way in my opinion. He didn’t make it simply because he wasn’t talented enough to carry his strengths over at the NHL level.

Östlund has the same diligent approach, but appears to be more talented than Asplund: better skater, better passer, harder shot.

If he doesn’t make it it will be because he isn’t strong enough to carry his strengths over. Asplund wasn’t tall, but he was solid. Östlund is thicker than he was when we drafted him but he’s still pretty slight.

 

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4 hours ago, dudacek said:

They’re both quick, but Noah Östlund plays a considerably different game to Ennis.

Ennis was a one-on-one player who made plays stickhandling.

Östlund is a give-and-go player who generally moves the puck as quickly as he gets it.

I knew somebody would point out the stylistic differences. The similarity is they are small and fast and I think that will hinder him or keep him from being NHL elite. 

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