Kleinendorst on the U18 tournament in Minsk

I didn't intend to write this article. I intended to get some material to use in a couple features about NTDP guys who are eligible for the draft. But Kleinendorst talked so much about the tournament itself in answering the questions that this review just kind of wrote itself. Besides, the USA won and it was hugely undercovered, even in the prospects media. This team is so accessible and has a history of winning, yet they are largely ignored.

Kleinendorst himself seems destined for greatness. I suspect he'll be an NHL head coach in a year or two. He's already got AHL head coaching experience, and NHL assistant experience. Very professional, says all the right things and means them. I look forward to talking to him next year too.

I'll have a couple features and a ranking article before the draft.


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Comments on Central Scouting's final ranks for 2010

A few comments on the final rankings for the 2010 draft by Central Scouting.

First, it's so important to remember that a lot can happen between now and the draft that will raise and lower someone's stock. The junior leagues are still in their playoffs, and we have the U18 World Championships, a major scouting event. Then there's the Combine, with not just physical testing, but interviews. A player's drive means so much towards whether they will make it. So, with all that said, always remember that the final ranks are the April rankings and if they made another list in June, it would look different.

They have Riley Sheahan down at No. 22, from No. 5. I think this is too low. Yes, he didn't score up a storm this year, but he was on the third line, with Ryan Thang. Now, Thang is an OK player, but he'll max out at a third liner in the NHL because he just doesn't have the offense. Sheahan would send Thang and Ben Ryan beautiful passes, which went unconverted. Put Sheahan on a first line, and he'll shine.

This is a bad year for European goalies, and not a great year for Europe period. There are some Russians, but with question marks, as always.

They have Calvin Pickard over Jack Campbell among North American goalies. For my money, I take Campbell. He's a big-game goalie, a bit cocky and while that can be bad day to day, ultimately that's what you want.

I like that Justin Shugg and Greg McKegg moved up. Shugg had no business being next to Josh Shalla on the mid-terms. They are now more in their proper place.

In general the NTDP guys seem high, except for Forbort who is rightly very high. I would never take Jason Zucker over Shugg, as he doesn't have the scoring ability. Former NTDPer Jake Fallon seems way too high as well for as little as he produces.

Telegin is too high at No. 33. I saw him in February and don't get the hype. Sadikov seems too high at No. 12 among goalies as well.

Luke Moffatt is below Aaron Harstad at 95 and 94, and I would not just flip them, but get them far apart from one another. Moffatt impressed me when I saw him, and Harstad was a healthy scratch.

Missing from the rankings: Brian Billett, Adam Polasek, and Cab Morris. Polasek and Morris were both overlooked in 2009, but Polasek seems likely to be taken, and Morris is certainly better than Jared Coreau. I think a lot of teams will take goalies because they didn't last year, though I'm not certain this draft class is much better in the goalie department. Certainly at the top, but I'm not so sure it has depth.
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Comments on the 2010 NHL Combine list

The list of the 100 invitees to the NHL Combine in Toronto came out a few days ago. A few comments on it.

I've watched OHL, USHL and NCAA games this season, and no one jumped out at me as missing from this list. I was mildly surprised that Philip Grubauer or Nick Mattson weren't on it. Mattson (Indiana) came on strong very late in the year, so he got off a lot of radars. Grubauer's draft potential has a lot to do with how he performs for Windsor in the OHL playoffs. So far so good. Josh Shalla wasn't on the list -- it looks like people are starting to see what I saw in February.

The list was light on USHLers, just four, which doesn't surprise me because I think this is a bad year for the USHL. Even the four who were invited are not exceptional.

Only two guys invited were eligible last year and went unselected - Brandon Davidson of Regina and Jonathan Johansson of Sweden. Johansson is a June birthday and Davidson is an August birthday.

Last year, eight guys who were invited to the Combine were not drafted. The highest drafted guys who didn't attend the Combine went 31st and 35th. The World Championships and the CHL playoffs can really affect someone's draft position, and this list comes out before either of them.
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NTDP at Indiana

A few photos from the USNTDP at Indiana last night. I'll have features on Johns and Moffatt in a few weeks.

Frank Simonelli with a high leg kick in warmups. I don't think this is in the textbook.


Luke Moffatt yakking it up on the faceoff. You might think he's just catching up with a former teammate in Mattson, but he seemed to chat up a lot of people on the faceoff. He's just a chatty kind of kid.

Jarred Tinordi vs. Brian Ferlin. Tinordi stood him up hard at the blue line, that's what brought this on. It was just a good defensive play.

Tyler Biggs vs. Chris Martin. I think Biggs grabbed him by the mouth here. He's someone I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. He looks like a great player for 2011 though.


This image cracks me up. Rather than smush into the end of the bench in a chair like most backups, Jack Campbell stood behind the bench with the coaches. Looks quite out of place. He got ice water dumped on him in the shower later and screamed quite loudly. A bunch of jokers these guys.
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Indiana vs. Green Bay (USHL)

I came back to Indianapolis to catch the NTDP, but also caught the game against Green Bay last night. After bad experiences with poor lighting in the building last time, I was spurred to pull the trigger on the new camera purchase, which I'm very happy with. If they would only use all the lights during warmups.

Notes on players:

Mattson (IND) -- I was pleasantly surprised how he's come along. I didn't like him much at last year's U18 WCs, or the USHL All-Star Game. But he looks very good now. I'll put together a feature on him soon.

Morris (IND)-- He looked good during the game, beaten high only on a couple high shots. The shootout was a different story. More broadly, his glove placement looks too low. His coach acknowledged it was an issue.

Fallon (IND) -- I just don't see much here, other than hustle. I think he'll be a big dropper on the spring 2010 rankings.

Crane (Green Bay) -- He was benched after taking a roughing penalty that resulted in a goal. That was the first period, so good thing I was paying attention early. His game isn't pretty, but is effective. Spoke to him afterwards, an interesting guy. Late rounder, but I think he'll get picked. He's committed to OSU, and has been asked to come this fall (now that Dalpe etc are gone), but told me he might report to Windsor depending on what the NHL team who drafts him wants him to do.

Lee (GB) -- Islanders fans seem to think we overlooked Lee on the latest Top 20 list. I've looked at him twice this year, but I still can't get onboard. He has size and skates well, but ultimately is disappointing.

Max Cook (IND) -- He's a 1990, so he probably won't be drafted, but he should be. Late bloomer. Miami University is going to be happy with him.

Harstad (GB) -- Healthy scratch. That won't get you drafted.

Ferlin (IND) -- Poor skater. He's going to have to correct that.

A few photos.

Ref catches some unwanted air.

Coach Jeff Blashill draws on his white board with his back turned.

And now the reveal.

Green Bay won in a shootout. The funny part of this photo is Crane in the upper right corner hugging his teammate like they just won the championship. Note he hadn't been on the ice for 2+ periods at this point.
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Shugg vs. Shalla

On paper, Justin Shugg and Josh Shalla look fairly similar. They're both offensive OHLers who tend a bit more towards goalscoring, both eligible for the 2010 draft, and have similar names. When I was planning my trip to see Windsor and Saginaw, I had some trouble keeping them separate.

Boy did that change. The thing that impressed me the most about Shugg was how hard he worked. Windsor was down by two goals (rare I know, but they had some guys out of the line-up), and Shugg played as if he thought they could quickly get it back. His hard work was rewarded with a goal, though they did still lose. I spoke to him and he's a stand-up guy. Here's the interview.

Shalla, who I saw the next night, did not impress at all. He was even benched in the second period. He seemed to just have one speed, and no intensity. I had questions prepared for him, but instead decided to head to the Erie locker room and talk to Robbie Ftorek about Greg McKegg. McKegg deserved the time, Shalla did not. After I was done with that though, I swung by the Saginaw locker room, wanting to speak to a coach about why Shalla was benched. I wanted to know how different this was than his normal play, so we know where to rank and rate him. I was treated so rudely by associate coach John Kisil, that I just had to laugh. Someone doesn't take losing well, and takes it out on everyone else. In any case, it will make me remember Shalla for sure. And not in a good way.
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Consensus and the NHL draft

Fans of the NHL draft often speak as if there is a lot of consensus about who is likely to go where in the draft. They might follow the ISS lists that come out every month, not see a lot of movement, and think that this means consensus is building. That notion needs to be dispelled.

First, we only see the lists of scouting services, not of the teams. So we only see a small portion of the qualified lists out there. Second, it's only the very top guys which scouts can agree on, and here we're only talking say top three. Beyond that, as you move away from the top, there is more and more variance, to the point where someone who is very high on one NHL team's list may not even appear on another's. Teams vary in their draft philosophy and tastes. There are 30 NHL teams, and that means 30 very different-looking lists. Teams usually only rank 125 guys per year. They did this even when there were nine rounds of the draft (290 taken) because no one likes the same guys and all 125 would never be taken.

First rounders regularly bust and guys who went undrafted regularly make the NHL. Thus it shouldn't be surprising that at age 17, opinions about these players should vary. But leading into the draft, when someone voices an opinion about a player that is seen to go against a perceived consensus, they are too often thought a fool. The Phoenix Coyotes took Blake Wheeler at fifth overall in 2004 and it raised a lot of eyebrows. It shouldn't have. The only thing they did wrong there was fail to take advantage of how little other teams valued Wheeler by trading down.

Back to the lists. There is usually a lot of change over the course of the season as well. Players who were good at age 15 and 16 often will plateau (Angelo Esposito), while the late-developers start to shine (Calvin de Haan). Seventeen-year-olds are only halfway developed. And at 17, players will develop just from the beginning of their draft year to the end. Late risers get taken high in every draft -- guys who are thought to have a lot of upside because they are still developing rapidly.

The Combine is a big factor in teams' rankings, with the battery of tests and interviews that it has. Peter Holland fell in the eyes of many, with the exception of Anaheim, after last year's. The playoffs are key too. And the playoffs for the junior leagues are still in the thick of things when the Central final list comes out. There's still lots more to go. Plus the U-18s, don't forget those. They can make or break someone.

All of this variance means that trying to do a mock draft before about April is pretty much ludicrous. You're much better served simply learning the players early in the year rather than trying to match them up with teams. NHL teams don't make their final list until early June just after the Combine. This is when mock drafts should be done.

Some people find scouting service Red Line Report to be "out there" -- believing they have far-out opinions. I don't think they are any farther out than an NHL team is. Some things they get right, some things they get wrong.

Personally I find my opinions closest to those of Central Scouting. I think they overvalue size a bit, but if I know that going in I can mentally correct for it. Their goalie rankings are decent. They had A. J. Thelen lower in 2004 than some others did, and turned out to be correct.

In sum, scouts are paid to have strong opinions about players. And they do. And they vary -- widely.

If we knew which 40 or so guys from each draft were going to make the NHL, we could stop at two rounds. But it goes seven rounds, because no one is sure where the next player will come from.
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Why Greg McKegg is an underdog

In my feature on Greg McKegg for Hockey's Future, I called him an underdog in the teaser. A reader asked why I used that term. He has good stats, how could he be an underdog?

Let me tell you how. Erie is one of three OHL teams that are on the American side of the border. Most NHL scouts live on the Canadian side. Right off the bat these teams gets scouted less. Are there still scouts at their home games? Yes, but only a few.

Second, Erie had some ownership, management and coaching issues in the recent past that soured a lot of people on the franchise. Former NHL coach Robbie Ftorek has been there for two and a half years now, and seems to really be whipping the team into shape. But the poor reputation is hard to shake.

These things lead to Erie's players being underrated. Happened last year with Ryan O'Reilly. You could also possibly include Jaroslav Janus in there, as he is now doing quite well as a 20-year-old in the AHL.

What about Andrew Yogan, you might ask. He's rated fairly high for the 2010 draft. Yes, he is, but he has been on scouts' radars for the 2010 draft for several years, long before he went to Erie in a trade last season. Yogan was the best player in the State of Florida and was going to go play in the USHL, when scouts intervened and steered him to the OHL. He ended up in Windsor, one of the rich teams, which wasn't a coincidence. But he disappointed there. He's got an NHL body and skates pretty well, so he'll probably go in the first three rounds just due to having the tools, but in my opinion he's a long shot to make it. He doesn't seem to have the desire. He seems to play like the game should just come to him.

McKegg on the other hand, hasn't had it easy. He sure is the apple of Ftorek's eye though. I went to Ftorek's post-game "press conference" (all three of us), and was a little nervous about asking him questions, knowing his penchant for yelling at people. But as soon as I said McKegg's name, his emotions changed, almost like a dad talking about his son. It's a high compliment when Ftorek likes you, so that speaks very well of McKegg. He seemed like a nice kid to me too, though he talks a little too fast for my taste. Makes it hard to transcribe.


Next year, for the 2011 draft, Erie will have David Broll. To me, he looks like he should be at least top 100. But I haven't seen anyone talking about him yet. What a surprise, given the team he plays on.
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Some USHL features

Last week I went to Indianapolis for the USHL All-Star Game. It was very enlightening as far as the 2010-eligible pool goes. I'm probably making one more trip to see more games later in the year and then will write one big ranking article. So I'll hold comments until then.



Indianapolis is very easy to get around with good public transportation. I was able to take a city bus to the arena, which made me happy. Three-quarters of the bus/shuttle drivers I had were women, interestingly.

So far I've written features on Nate Condon, Jaden Schwartz and Cab Morris from that trip. I've got a few more to go, but they may have to wait until I get back from seeing some OHL games this weekend.

I enjoyed talking to Morris as he's an interesting guy, and Nate Condon was one of the few interviews when I wish I had my video camera going instead of a recorder. He has comic delivery that print just doesn't capture. He'll be a telecast favorite as he moves up. Schwartz I didn't get the feeling is a big talker.
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Notes on Notre Dame

I recently saw Notre Dame at the Shillelagh Tournament. Here are some notes on the prospects.

Kyle Lawson (CAR) -- I was surprised to see him listed at 5'11, because he doesn't look small on the ice. Defense is pretty good, he gets offensive chances. Usually plays D but was moved up due to shortage. Made a terrible giveaway trying to send the puck up the middle.

Riley Sheahan (2010) -- He's kind of boring to watch, actually. Not flashy, and in fact, doesn't look like he's doing much. But he really is, it's just so effortless for him that it fools you. Very good offensively and defensively. Spoke to him -- nice kid, but he's still really a kid. Not confident in himself yet. His game will probably take off even more when he is finally confident. The funniest part of the conversation was him saying it was a coincidence that he's Irish and ended up playing for the Irish. Said his family really liked the school. Yes, he said he is Catholic. Let's see, and Irish Catholic going to Notre Dame, gee I don't think it's a "coincidence."

Teddy Ruth (WAS) -- Very good defensively, smooth skater. It's surprising that he doesn't score more, given how well he skates and is in good position. He may just be cast in a role. But I think he's capable of more.

Ryan Thang (NAS) -- Typical third liner, effort but not slick. He's on a line with Sheahan so I asked Thang about him. He had some interesting things to say. We agreed that Sheahan reminds us of Rick Nash, but we each had different reasons for it.

Ben Ryan (NAS) -- Has good skill, shifty through traffic and protects the puck well, but has some real size issues that may hold him back.

Sean Lorenz (MIN) -- I cringed when he got near the puck. The Wild don't have great prospects and this is one more example.

Ian Cole (STL) -- Probably the best player on the ice, though Sheahan will rival him soon. Cole's strengths are well documented so I won't list them all. Nice kid too.
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Comments on Steel prospects for 2010

I caught a USHL game when I was in Chicago for a college tournament last weekend. I can tell the league has improve just from a few years ago when I saw it the last time. Here are some observations on some 2010-eligible prospects from the Steel and one from Lincoln.

Kevin Lind (2010) -- I liked him quite a bit, more than expected given his rankings. Very good defense and skating. Physical. Adequate puckhandling and offense. He needs to mature on the ice, but he's 17 so that's normal. Spoke to him for 15 minutes afterward and was very impressed by him personally. Should be a mid-round pick.

Andrei Kuchin (2010) -- Very good playmaker, and fast. I don't see how he slips through the draft again. He's getting PK time, so that will help his defense. Coach was bullish on him.

Brendan Woods (2010) -- It was his first game of the year due to a broken leg. I thought he looked good given the situation, can dangle and stays with the play til the end. Would be a late rounder if he gets taken.

Safir Gill (2010) -- Went home for a family situation, coach does not expect him back this year. This won't help his slim draft chances.

Jared Coreau (2010) Lincoln Stars -- Tall goalie with decent lateral movement, but poor glove and blocker. He has his glove OK in his stance, but as soon as the shot is coming, he drops it with open part down, and you're never going to catch pucks like that. He would need a complete makeover to have a future.

Mark Adams (Buffalo draft pick) -- Good size and skating, but very poor positioning.

Here's a photo of the action with Lind (7) and Kuchin (91) included in white.

Reflections on the 2009 draft

Going into this draft, I knew more about the prospects than ever before, having covered both the U18 championships, seen a couple 2009-dense OHL games, plus asking any player I talked to about guys they knew who were eligible. In all, I had seen maybe a third of those likely to be taken and written features on a dozen.

The night before the draft, I added about 5-6 profiles to HF of guys who were late risers, sleepers, etc. I added Ben Sexton, for example. I seem to do this every year, out of paranoia that critical guys won't be there. I thought about adding goalie Jaroslav Janus, but I had seen him play in Erie and did not like him at all so even though I thought someone would take a chance on him due to his WJC performance, I just couldn't bring myself to add him. He was eventually taken by Tampa.

After the first round, the draft seemed like chaos. There were a lot of teams who made reaches for guys who weren't really on the radar for the major scouting services. And there didn't seem to be a lot of justice in the picks. Fighters were taken above skill guys. Bloodlines had guys going above where their skill level warranted too, like Philip Samuelsson.

Of the 12 draft-eligibles I had written features on, 10 were drafted, seven of them in the first two rounds. It was satisfying to see them valued highly, but they didn't seem to go to the teams that would be the best fit for them, except perhaps with Ryan O'Reilly going to Colorado, who will need young leadership and that's something he can bring. Simon Bertilsson to Philly seems like a good fit as long as they don't expect him to talk much. The others led to a lot of head scratching.

Now we get to know the players better, and the second most important year begins for them. We will learn more about who had a good 2009 draft and a bad 2009 draft in the next season than over the next four combined, since players change the most at younger ages.
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Combine invitations no guarantee of selection

106 prospects were invited to the NHL combine this year, ahead of a 210-player draft. Eight of the players invited to the combine were not selected:

Anton Burdasov
Burke Gallimore
Gabriel Lemieux
Cassidy Mappin
Danny Mattson
David Valek
Alex Vazzano
Brennan Yadlowski

I saw just one of them play this year, David Valek (USNTDP), and I wasn't impressed by him, so the fact that he wasn't drafted seemed justified. Mappin is widely thought to be talented but not very hard-working.

There were a few guys who went very high and didn't go to the combine:
31 Mikko Koskinen
35 Kyle Clifford
56 Kevin Lynch
62 Anders Nilsson
64 Reilly Smith
76 Igor Bobkov

When the combine list came out, I wrote on it "No Lynch!" so obviously that one was surprising at the time. A couple others are explainable: Koskinen is an overager and I believe came to the combine last year or the year before. Bobkov was drafted largely on the strength of his performance in the U18 tournament, which was going on at the same time the invite list came out. Clifford I guess teams were trying to keep quiet on him.

The takeaway is that the combine list is a generally good predictor of who the top prospects are, but isn't foolproof.
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2009s who may be overrated due to birthdate

The cutoff date for each draft class is Sept. 15 -- you must be 18 by this date in a given draft year to be eligible. Players born in late September and October have an advantage of being almost a full year older than some of their cohort. They are naturally further ahead in development and are often unintentionally overrated.

Here's a list of early birthdates for 2009, the potentially overrated in the 2009 draft class:
John Tavares 9/20/1990. Yes, that John Tavares.
Stepan Novotny 9/21/1990
Gabriel Bourque 9/23/1990
Dan DeLisle 9/24/1990
Jordan Schroeder 9/29/1990
Alex Chiasson 10/1/1990
Mike Lee 10/5/1990
Nazem Kadri 10/6/1990
David Rundblad 10/8/1990
Seth Helgeson 10/8/1990
Jakob Silfvrberg 10/13/1990
Matt Clark 10/17/1990
Ben Hanowski 10/18/1990
Dmitri Kulikov 10/29/1990
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2009s who may be underrated due to birthdate

The cutoff date for each draft class is Sept. 15 -- you must be 18 by this date in a given draft year to be eligible. Since the draft is held in June though, there are several players taken who are still 17 when taken. They will turn 18 in July, August or early September. These players are almost a full year behind some of their cohort. They are naturally further behind in development and are often unintentionally underrated.

Here's a list of late birthdates for 2009, the potentially underrated in the 2009 draft class:
Charles-Olivier Roussel 9/13/1991
Bryan Dumoulin 9/6/1991
Marek Hrivik 8/28/1991
Brayden Schenn 8/22/1991
Marcus Foligno 8/10/1991
Landon Ferraro 8/8/1991
Evander Kane 8/2/1991
Chris McCarthy 7/30/1991
Simon Despres 7/27/1991
Tyson Barrie 7/26/1991
Dmitri Orlov 7/23/1991
Oliver Ekman-Larsson 7/17/1991
Linden Vey 7/17/1991
Nate Schmidt 7/16/1991
Rasmus Rissanen 7/13/1991
Adam Polasek 7/12/1991 (a personal favorite)
Oliver Bellavance-Roy 7/12/1991
Kenny Ryan 7/10/1991
Ryan Howse 7/6/1991
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Who will be Mr. Irrelevant in the 2009 NHL draft?

"Mr. Irrelevant" is not a tag dreamed up just for the NHL draft. It comes from some other sport, baseball probably. A sport whose draft is more predictable. Hockey drafts are not predictable though. The guy taken 210th can turn out to be a regular player - very relevant. Nevertheless, a fun little game among draftniks is to try to guess who will be the last player taken without going over (into the untaken).

Last year I won among the HF Staff with a pick of Mark Olver, 140th to Colorado out of NMU. That's not terribly close to the end of the draft, but it won because most of the guesses were so obscure that they weren't taken at all.

This year I'm going with Roman Horak out of the Czech Junior league. Talented but lazy, he's good enough that someone will take a flyer, but not put too much on the line. I personally don't like this player much, but I'm trying to win here, not pick favorites. I think a European is generally a better strategy in this game since they tend to go later in the draft.

Here are some other staff guesses. Most of them picked from leagues they know well.
Oleg Yashin from Atlant-2 Mystichi (Rus) - Mike Farkas
Benjamin Casavant, PEI Rocket, QMJHL - Kevin Forbes
Chase Schaber - Calgary, WHL - Glen Erickson
Casey Cizikas - Mississauga OHL - Leslie Treff
Beau Schmitz - Plymouth, OHL - Kyle Kujawa

By all means, add your own guess in the comments.
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Wading through entry draft preparations

I'm knee-deep in draft-related stuff now. The HF servers got moved today, far enough in advance of the draft that I hope this means that we'll be able to handle the enormous spike in traffic on draft weekend. I think so.

I'm getting much closer to finishing the features I'm writing on draft-eligibles. I have only Rajala and Bertilsson left. I'm very close to finishing Rajala and then Bertilsson will be tough because of his lack of English. It will probably be mostly his coach talking.

A few years ago when I had covered the draft, but no players leading up to it, I came away with the impression that 18-year-olds have much less to say than other players because they just haven't has as many experiences to put things in perspective. But I found working on them this year more interesting than I had anticipated. The biggest drawback was having to deal with parents. That's not fun. Luckily it's not often.

I found out that it's a myth that all Swedes speak English. They understand English, but they can't all respond.

Another thing I came away with was that there's much less consensus about where someone should or will be taken than fans like to think. Opinions vary widely on guys. Who's to say who's right at this point. We won't know for a few years.

Oh and the combine is critical. It's not until then that teams really decide who they are going to take with their picks. So to me it's pretty worthless to do a mock draft until after the combine, after some scuttlebutt actually comes out. Looking forward to that happening next week!
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Ekman-Larsson story done

Whew. This one was a tad difficult, because I didn't get much out of the player himself. When I introduced myself, OEL said his English wasn't very good, and almost got a translator to help. I wish now that he would have. Thank god for Kevin Doell, who I contacted later. He helped out a ton. Doeller went above and beyond what was asked of him, as is his usual.

Here's a link to the finished OEL story. And here are the ones on Robin Lehner, Adam Polasek, Erik Haula, and John Henrion as well. I still have a few more coming.
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Bobkov likes the Blue Jackets, or just a hat?

I was going through some photos from the U18s and came across one of Russian goalie Igor Bobkov in a Columbus Blue Jackets hat. This was the game against Norway where he backed up.

So the question is, does he like the team, or just the logo? And does his affection for the Blue Jackets make it more likely that they would draft him this June? Is he hinting to scouts that he would like to go to the team, or just a Filatov fan? Often the big question for Russians isn't their skill but their desire to play in the NHL. This couldn't be a bad sign.

Notebook cleanout from the U18s

Most of the information I gathered at the U18s went straight into prospects' profiles and feature stories at HF. That process is still going on. But here's a few leftovers.

• I think Nashville will try to take Ryan O'Reilly. They already have his brother Cal and I was chatting with a scout in the stands and when I said I was originally from Erie, he brought up O'Reilly and said how much he liked him. I later found out he worked for Nashville.
• Jerry D'Amigo put up a lot of points. But I kept thinking "all he can do is score goals." While that sounds great, being one-dimensional doesn't get you to the NHL.
  
• Adam Murray made some big motions in net for the USA, like a windmill and a couple statues of liberty. Good goalies make the hard saves look easy by being in position for them to hit in the stomach. But what he was doing was making normal saves look hard. I see why he is ranked so low.
• Team USA captain William Wrenn had the misfortune of being paired with Nick Mattson, who was not impressive. I wanted to see Wrenn separately.
• David Valek (USA) was invisible. I looked for him a few times, just to fill something in for him, and still had nothing to say.
  
• Simon Bertilsson looks a lot like Jimmy Slater in the face. And they are both poor interviews, but for different reasons. Bertilsson only speaks Swedish. Slater only speaks cliche.

• Russian warmups was pure chaos. There didn't seem to be much of a plan, and by the end it deteriorated into individuals roaming on their own, doing trick shots. You can see a lot of a people's culture in their warmup I think.
  
• Tarasenko, 2010-eligible, really likes attention. Really really likes attention. Not only does he talk when the questions aren't posed to him, he saw me with a camera and was posing. Much like Angelo Esposito has done in the past.
  
• Czech Roman Horak has talent, but he's a hot dog who only skates hard when he has the puck. He stood around most of the warmup. I got a photo of him scratching his backside in warmup and that kind of epitomized things.

• If Sweden had had a little better goaltending, things might have been different. It was the weakest position on a top-notch squad. Using their skill instead of their force would have played more to their advantage as well.