LeafGm
Well-known member
Still surreal that this kid is a Leaf instead of Chase Reid or Carson Carels being a Bruin thanks to our pick.
Leafs' Prospect/Marlies Discussion Thread!
- Thread starter hockeylover
- Start date
Still surreal that this kid is a Leaf instead of Chase Reid or Carson Carels being a Bruin thanks to our pick.
LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
Cowan is 70th.
zeke
Well-known member
If Cowan is considered a prospect...
1. Mckenna
2. Cowan
3. Koblar
4. Bilecki
5. Danford
6. MacKenzie
7. Chadwick
8. Johansson
9. Holinka
10. Akhtyamov
LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
Except that our #3 doesn’t make the top 100, which seems wrong given recent performances.
Some guys on that list were drafted 5 years ago though so it seems a bit off anyway.
Some guys on that list were drafted 5 years ago though so it seems a bit off anyway.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Was inevitable after he had no choice but to rank Gavin 1st. The list is littered with players 1-3 tiers higher than Cowan who are older and worse, the same age without his pedigree or younger but worse at the same age/level.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Danford is always going to be in tough on lists like these because of the lack of offensive output at all levels. It's almost impossible to project his value to a NHL team until we see him handling the toughs in the NHL. If he can do that, he's massively valuable. If he can't, well, he's capped out as a bottom pairing/PK guy.
Bilecki will be a riser if the production bump we're expecting from moar usage comes, and Koblar is hard to put a value to right now because he's so young for his draft class (still 18 for another week ffs), his D+1 SHL production looks pedestrian (see point #1, he's basically an entire dev year behind) and his small sample performance at the worlds would be doing the vast majority of the heavy lifting on any top 100 ranking.
Our system is at least interesting this year, with the potential for a handful of real risers.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
After taking a look at the list, there's a pretty obvious spot to slot Cowan into the 30's that didn't happen for what I'm sure are very serious reasons.
35) Brady Martin - Was 1.0 PPG in his D+1 OHL season, but Wheeler jerks off to his competitiveness while admitting that his skill is limited and he's a #3-4C prospect.
36) Calum Ritchie - Selected just before Cowan in the 2023 draft, with a similar but lesser OHL career than Cowan, and then a similar (but worse when you include the nerdies) 20 yr old rookie season. 34 spots higher, for reasons.
37) Dalibor Dvorsky - #10 pick in the same draft, went to the OHL for his D+1 season and was outproduced by Cowan in his. Both had their NHL rookie seasons this past season and Cowan's was better in both the counting stats and the nerdies.
39) Justin Carbonneau - QMJHL D+1 season was fine, but nothing remotely like what Cowan did in a better junior league.
All of this without mentioning Cowan's championship pedigree, where he's now been the best player on two straight OHL titles, and one of the best players as a 20-21 yr old rookie on a AHL championship team. When that gets mentioned by Wheeler, it gets explained away instead of celebrated:
35) Brady Martin - Was 1.0 PPG in his D+1 OHL season, but Wheeler jerks off to his competitiveness while admitting that his skill is limited and he's a #3-4C prospect.
36) Calum Ritchie - Selected just before Cowan in the 2023 draft, with a similar but lesser OHL career than Cowan, and then a similar (but worse when you include the nerdies) 20 yr old rookie season. 34 spots higher, for reasons.
37) Dalibor Dvorsky - #10 pick in the same draft, went to the OHL for his D+1 season and was outproduced by Cowan in his. Both had their NHL rookie seasons this past season and Cowan's was better in both the counting stats and the nerdies.
39) Justin Carbonneau - QMJHL D+1 season was fine, but nothing remotely like what Cowan did in a better junior league.
All of this without mentioning Cowan's championship pedigree, where he's now been the best player on two straight OHL titles, and one of the best players as a 20-21 yr old rookie on a AHL championship team. When that gets mentioned by Wheeler, it gets explained away instead of celebrated:
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leafman101
Well-known member
Cowan at 70 is crazy. He was already a 35-40 point guy in the NHL at 20, then led the Marlies to a calder cup.
Tiny's world championships would have in in the top 100 with any other team.
Tiny's world championships would have in in the top 100 with any other team.
Volcanologist
Well-known member
you guys never cared about these lists before, why start now?
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Fits the anti leaf bias bias
And serious Hab fans (all other fans) are no different…
The one thing I’ll give Wheeler (over Pronman) is his self awareness and his reader replies
Preston
MBow30 alt account
Lists are fun and create engagement. That's why sports publications are obsessed with them! You don't have to agree with them or take them as gospel to discuss them!
But yeah Wheeler has always hated Cowan. I think it's an ego thing since he had him ranked pretty low when he was drafted. For example, just looking at MEs list, he had Ritchie ranked 19 in 2023 and Dvorsky ranked 8th. He had Cowan at 97. So even though Cowan has been every bit as good as those guys, he's always gonna have him far lower because he got the evaluation wrong on that particular player. And he's the type of guy that loves bringing up the guys he was right about while ignoring his misses.
But yeah Wheeler has always hated Cowan. I think it's an ego thing since he had him ranked pretty low when he was drafted. For example, just looking at MEs list, he had Ritchie ranked 19 in 2023 and Dvorsky ranked 8th. He had Cowan at 97. So even though Cowan has been every bit as good as those guys, he's always gonna have him far lower because he got the evaluation wrong on that particular player. And he's the type of guy that loves bringing up the guys he was right about while ignoring his misses.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
You must have me mistaken for someone else bro. I get offended every year and point out the weirdo inconsistencies in these, every year.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Exactly. These dudes get attached to their favourites — they’ve been watching these dudes for years. One of these guys was never high on Lane Hutson, and even after his Calder season, trashed him for his skating
Volcanologist
Well-known member
I would never question your ability to get angry and offended. it's the fuel that drives you!
or zeke's reflexive making of lists for that matter
LeafGm
Well-known member
Wheeler does fall in love a bit too much with his guys. I remember back around the start of the Matthews era in Toronto, he did a series he called “The Gifted”, which was a bunch of deep-dive profiles on a select group of prospects (mostly Euro skill midgets picked in the middle rounds) that he deemed to have extraordinary talents and greater potential than was generally acknowledged in hockey circles.
I’m pretty confident that every single one of the guys he profiled busted. Like, didn’t even come close to being legit NHLers.