The Edmonton Oilers have a lot of talent bubbling under in the minor leagues, college and Europe. Most of it (save 2, maybe three) appears to be a complimentary group. I'll have the Desjardins Europe numbers this weekend and then the minor league numbers on Monday (ECHL will be on the outside, I have no idea how to equate that league with the show), but it's pretty obvious to me that we're talking about role players and marginal talents throughout the system (save a Fernando Pisani hiding somewhere).The poster boy for Edmonton would be Rob Schremp. We're still learning about nicking the junior and minor league numbers, and Desjardin's marvellous toy can't account for TOI because junior leagues and the AHL won't supply it. We're in the dark ages folks, a time when a Jesus Alou walks among us because we cannot identify him.
Anyway, by the Desjardins' NHLE Schremp's career has progressed as follows:
Age 17 NHLE: 82gp, 11-17-28
Age 18 NHLE: 82gp, 16-20-36
Age 19 NHLE: 82gp, 25-38-63
Age 20 NHLE: 82gp, 10-21-31
We can help Desjardins' by paying attention to the one season that sticks out like a sore thumb: many of us paid close attention to Schremp in his 19-year old season and can testify as to his ridiculous time on ice totals and powerplay time. The other three seasons look like nice comps for each other. Let's compare these numbers to Mike Comrie at the same age:
Age 17 St Albert Saints AJHL 58gp, 60-78-138
Age 18 NHLE: 82gp, 12-16-28
Age 19 NHLE: 82gp, 16-24-40
Age 20 NHLE: 82gp, 21-27-48
The age-20 Comrie numbers are a combination of his WHL stats (junior at 20) and his NHL numbers and are probably inflated a little. Still, he followed that up with a 33-goal effort in the big leagues the following year.
I think Schremp shares Comrie's shortcomings when not possessing the puck. I also think you can make a strong case that although Schremp has tremendous ability with the puck, the little Brick kid is a better player all down the line (understanding the silly minutes for Schremp at age 19). We'll see. Either way, Schremp appears to be an example of all Oilers prospects outside Trukhno, Cogliano and possibly Chorney: Secondary modern.
Its funny LT, you look at the Oilers and they've come a long way in the player procurement department but then you look at the Sharks and the Preds and you have Radulov, Suter, Weber, your msn Hamhuis on one side and Bernier, Carle, Vlasic, Michalek, Clowe and Pavelski on the other.
ReplyDeleteOr look at les sabres - the list is endless.
Still a ways to go yet.
I guess you're not counting Pouliot as a prospect any more LT? To me he looks like he's really going to be a very good player.
ReplyDeleteHe was several lengths behind in this horse race with Bernier, Parise and Getzlaf. I didn't have much hope in the fall. But right now I wouldn't bet against him when they hit the finish line of this race as 25-year-olds.
On Schremp: I you use Desjardin's little graph that projects CHL performance to 24 year old NHL performance ... then Schremp's big year get's discounted big time. In fact it pulls down almost exactly in line with his draft year numbers.
Vic: Yeah, MAP has graduated imo. If he can't make the team this fall then there must be an injury or he's been traded. I like him a lot as a player, haven't done the Stoll/MAP 21-year old comp yet but they marched along pretty well 17-20.
ReplyDeleteAs for Schremp, he'll need to catch some breaks to have a career imo. And then it's a drive from there to be a player who can actually help a team win.
He sure can do a lot of impressive things that don't help you win, though.
I think MP's a player as well. Late in the season I had some worries about how he'd score goals but I remember him playing some games with 34 and those guys jelled and going forward he's gonna have some real players to play with and I wouldn't bet against him putting up some decent numbers to build upon. He was great in that game in TO and he showed up in the second last BOA but by the end even when he wasn't scoring, he still showed some zest for iniating physical play and he's not gonna back down when someone brings it to him either
ReplyDeleteLT - yeah nice to see MAP come along - you and I have taken a lot of crap over the years when it comes to supporting this kid - so it's nice to see him panning out. We'll see about our other project Dubnyk next year....
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