Prospect Scouting; Silly Done?

I had an opportunity to see some college games this weekend. I watched the DU Cup and the final was between Denver and BU. Here's what I saw:

Corey Trivino: I would never judge a player on just one game, but he only handled the puck a couple times. He's a freshman on a team with 13 NHL draft picks, so he's not one of the go to guys right now. I believe this is a transition year for him. But, the couple times he did handle the puck he showed some good puckhandling and he's got good size.

Rhett Rakhshani: This kid is going to be an Islander in 2 years (maybe see some part time duty the year after next). I was very impressed. He's as good as any Islanders college recruit that has graduated to the NHL. He scored a nifty goal in the semifinal on the shootout and in the final he stole a clearing pass off the boards, rushed in for a shot and then put in the rebound. Looked good.

Matt Gilroy: I watched him and yes, he's NHL calibre. Can do everything well. Scored a goal on the power play. He's BU's captain. I say sign him. He's another good mobile puck moving d-man.

Aaron Ness: I watched his 2 games over the weekend in the Dodge Holiday Classic. He was awesome against Brown & Northeastern. Named the tournament MVP. Scored his first collegiate goal. Again, a good mobile puck mover. Good defensively but very offensive minded. I know he was upset about not getting named to the U.S. Team. He should be there next year.

WJC's:

David Ullstrom: The Swede had the best WJC's of the four Islanders playing in the tournament. He is described as the Swedish version of Kirill Petrov. He had a great game against Slovakia, rushed to the net and put in a rebound to spark their win.

Kirill Petrov: Was nonexistent. Hardly got any ice time. He's possibly been nursing injuries. Most alarming was he was the only Russian forward on the team not to record at least one point.

Blake Kessel: Ron Rolston played Kessel like an extra defenseman. Most of his ice time came in a 12-0 rout of Kazakhstan. Unfortunately for Blake, he took the penalty against Canada that sparked a comeback by John Tavares and the team in red.

Jyri Niemi: Did not get the opportunity to see him play but Finland had a really poor showing this year. He did score 2 goals and had 3 points. One thing I did find out is that Niemi has three younger brothers: Pyry, Jimi & Pete. Pyry is a small forward currently playing for Finland's under-17 team.

Other Possible Islanders

My views have still not changed about how much the Islanders need John Tavares. But I did get my first look at Victor Hedman and yes he does make the decision a little tougher. I once heard him described as Frankenstein on skates. He's also been described as a Chris Pronger type. His size is amazing but he doesn't like the rough style game so he's not like Pronger in that sense. But that isn't a bad thing. He's still a dominating d-man and possibly without the tendency for dumb penalties. Basically, and I am not making direct comparisons here, but drafting one or two this year is either going to get you your Bryan Trottier or Denis Potvin calibre player. Building blocks....franchise players.

Players who also impressed me: Sweden's Magnus Svensson-Paajarvi is a top five pick, Canada's Ryan Ellis is going to be a 5-15 pick and is a puck moving wizard, Jordan Schroeder could be top 5, definitely top 10. And...Garth Snow should look into the availability of Slovakian forward Tomas Tatar because this guy, along with superman human puck stopper Jaroslav Janus, was the star of that nations win over the U.S. and good fight against Sweden.

More Scouting....

I had the opportunity to watch some Minnesota High School Hockey this past week. Yes, I said High School. The level of HS hockey in Minnesota is very high. The best senior every year is named Mr. Hockey, an award won last year by Ness and the previous year by Ryan McDonagh.

There are three division: Bronze, Silver and Gold. I just have to mention this one kid I saw playing defense for a school called Mahtomedi named Ben Marshall. What's amazing about him is he's only 15, so he's probably not eligible for the draft until at least 2011, but he's already committed to the Minnesota Gophers for 2011-12 as a sophomore. He's smallish, but he's super fast. He can skate end to end and get back quickly. He's like a new age d-man, small but extremely mobile in the mold of Ness, Gilroy or even Canada's Ryan Ellis. If you are interested, read this article.

Now to some Islanders hockey....

It's a shame Richard Park was not named one of the three stars last week after recording 6 points in the two game set over the weekend. I guess Rick Nash (9 points), Brian Rafalski (6 points) and Cam Ward (3-0-0) were just a little bit better.

Rumors are swirling that Mike Sillinger's career may be over after attempting to come back from his hip surgery. That is too bad and would be a significant loss for the Islanders. Hopefully, the Islanders will be smart here and if Sillinger does in fact decide to retire he will be offered an assistant coaching job with the team. He's a very smart hockey guy and his knowledge about faceoffs is one of the best ever in the NHL. If he can stick around and teach Josh Bailey & the other young guys how to take some faceoffs that would be excellent.

Congrats to Doug Weight for reaching 1,000 points. Unfortunately for the betterment of the Islanders future he will have to go for picks. Sorry Doug. Hopefully you will change your mind about possibly coming back next year. Though if Tavares is in the lineup will we need Weight??