If you’re a prospect porn indulging Senators fan who wants to hear the latest rumblings and notes from Senators assistant general Pierre Dorion then I have got the interview transcript for you.
Making an appearance on Sirius XM‘s ‘Hockey Prospects’ show featuring Shane Malloy and Russ Cohen, Dorion was interviewed for half an hour and left no (Mark) Stone unturned. Okay, so he didn’t talk about Stone’s play at the NHL level (or Mike Hoffman’s for matter) and fine, he also neglected to discuss “probably one of the best defenceman playing outside the NHL” in Mikael Wikstrand, but everyone else was fair game.
It was a ridiculously long interview and admittedly, I don’t know enough or have watched enough of these prospects to provide an appropriate level of commentary to go along with Dorion’s transcribed comments. So with that being said, there will be no comments in bold.
For what it’s worth, I found his comments regarding Shane Prince and his own expectation for Prince to get into games with the Senators this season to be of particular interest.
You can read the transcript below or you can listen to the full interview with the embedded audio at the bottom of this post.
On analytics and their application and the challenge in being able to use them to help identify young prospects…
“Well I think the greatest challenge in using analytics to evaluate prospects is that you’re dealing with different types of coaching and different leagues. When you use it for the NHL, it’s one league and one common database. While you’re dealing with prospects, if you’re trying to use analytics for a guy that plays high school compared to a guy that plays major junior, well you’re going to have two different databases and two different kinds of competitions. So it makes it a bit more difficult in using analytics when you’re looking for draftable prospects.”
On adjusting the analytics numbers when you’re dealing with different leagues or whether you just mentally account for the differences between leagues…
“Well I think you do have to mentally adjust when you’re looking at it. I think you have to take, in effect, the competition level, the type… like the major juniors are going to be more structured than watching Boston high school or Minnesota high school. So I think you have to take that into the equation of when you’re looking at the numbers from the analytics.”
On the evolution process of analytics and whether it will help eventually…
“Yes, most likely that’s the type of direction you’re going to have to look at. If you’re just comparing Europe and the CHL, well the European ice, you’re looking at who has zone entries or who makes zone entries or who’s on the ice when making zone entries against. On the European ice, it’s a bigger ice surface so those numbers might be skewed in one direction or another when you’re looking at one prospect, so you’re always going to have to look at adjustments.”
On Andreas Englund…
“We’re very happy. We’re very happy with Andreas’ development so far. Obviously I haven’t had a chance to see him, but our European scouts have had the chance. I’m planning to go over in early December (to see him). As far as playing with the men, we’re happy he’s playing with the men at a high level. He’s playing either top four (minutes) or (as the) fifth defenceman on the team. He’s competing hard. He’s keeping his game simple. He’s playing the way we want him to play as far as being a defensive shutdown guy. Andreas will never be the guy that puts up the most skills, but we’re hoping that he can be a top four match up type of guy for us in the future.”
On the combination of his size and mobility…
“I just think it’s an asset, especially with the way our game is going. Having a big guy who has range, who has a good stick, who can defend, who can match up with other teams’ top two lines is definitely, hopefully an asset we will have in Englund moving forward over the next few years.”
On his puck retrieval and first pass being impressive…
“Well, for sure. For a defensive defenceman, when you manage the puck well and don’t create any turnovers, I think that’s definitely an asset in your game. For him and his ability to go and retrieve the puck, chip it along the wall if he faces pressure and not turning it over, or making the simple outlet pass if he faces pressure or doesn’t face pressure is definitely an asset in his game that we really like. We want it to get better and it should get better as he matures and he plays more with the men.”
On Marcus Hogberg…
“Marcus is having a good year so far playing in the (Swedish) Elite League playing for Linkoping. Him and the other goaltender look like their splitting (their duties) half and half at this point in time of the year. Marcus has had some good games. He’s had a few average games for him, but we think Marcus has the ability to be a good NHL goalie down the road. We like his size. We like how he covers the net, if you like how he moves in the net. He has good reads. He tracks the puck real well. So he’s got a lot of positives, but he has to work on a few things – calming the play down and freezing the puck. But in overall as a goalie, we’re really excited to have Marcus Hogberg in our stable of goalies.”
On the number of Swedes that are in Ottawa’s system…
“Yeah, we’ve had success in drafting players from Sweden. Obviously if we look at our long-time captain Daniel Alfredsson and in our first year under Bryan Murray, we drafted a player by the name of Erik Karlsson who has turned out well. A lot of our Swedish players seem to stick together and we have a good chemistry here. We’re not going to draft all Swedish players, but we try to draft one maybe every year. We always try to draft the best available player, but it’s a good dynamic in the room. (Swedes) mingle and they’re good people. They mingle really well with the other part of the group and the guys that we have in Binghamton also seem to enjoy it there and seem to have a good relationship with the rest of the players. Sweden has really developed a lot of good hockey players over the past ten years and we just want to be a part of that.”
On goalies recognizing the number of finite jobs and how hard it is just to make it…
“Oh, exactly. Just making it is hard enough and in our current case and situation here in Ottawa, we feel we have two goalies that can go out and win us a game every night in Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner. You never know if you have an injury, you always want another goalie so having good depth at that position is always something that’s valuable for any organization in the NHL.”
On Miles Gendron…
“Well with Miles, we took a bit of a gamble taking him that early in the draft. Obviously a lot of people didn’t have him ranked that high, but with his skating ability, we knew that we had someone who could be a transitional defenceman down the road. Like this isn’t a player that’s going to just step into any league. He’s raw. He was raw last year. He’s only been playing two years as a defenceman. But with his puck skills and skating ability, we felt that he was someone down the road who could be a good prospect. As far as his adjustment to the BC junior hockey league — which to me, is one of the best Tier II leagues around – we knew it wouldn’t be easy. We knew he wouldn’t come in and have four points every game like he was doing in Boston high school. But, so far so good. He’s not putting up high numbers, but he’s learning how to play defence. He’s learning how to play a complete game and still use his skills to the best of his knowledge so we’re really happy with that. But we know he’s not going to step into the lineup and play for us next game.”
On moving from forward to defence at his age and that difficult transition…
“Oh for sure that’s something (we like). As a forward, sometimes you handle the puck a bit more than as a defenceman. A player like Miles, now he’s getting to handle the puck as a defenceman and at the Boston high school level, he basically had the puck the whole game and he played a lot of minutes. And now it’s just to learn away from the puck, but having those assets – being able to handle the puck as he was previously a forward – I think can only help his game down the road. But as I’ve mentioned a few times before, it’s going to be a few years of development (before he’s ready) and getting stronger. He wasn’t a very thick kid when we drafted him, so it’s going to be an ongoing process. But, we’re happy that he’s got all of these abilities that’s part of the package.”
On the biggest adjustment for Miles Gendron being that he has to play with the puck less as he goes on to play at higher levels…
“Definitely. That is definitely one of the biggest adjustments that he’s going to have to make, especially when you’re going from and I don’t want to say this disrespectfully, but when you’re playing against guys that probably aren’t going to play after high school hockey to some of the guys playing Tier II that a lot of them are going to go on to play college hockey or move onto major junior after their Tier II careers. And you’re just going to have to… the games are much faster. The players are much stronger because you’re facing 20-year olds, as you mentioned. So you’re going to have to improve just your execution and not hold onto the puck as much and do things at a higher pace. But those things I’m not too worried about for Miles because he has got the skillset and the hockey sense to do them. Where I’m more concerned is his play away from the puck. Facing a guy with a beard who is 20-years old who’s a good Tier II player and trying to defend him one-on-one might be a tougher task for Miles than executing with the puck.”
On Matt Puempel and how happy the organization is with his development in the past year and a half…
“We’re very happy with Matt. Matt had an excellent camp. His play maybe tailed off a bit at the end of camp, but we’re very happy with his progress. Matt has taken his game to another level for us and how we played last year. Matt had nine goals, I think at Christmas time, and ended the year with 30 goals. He’s become a guy who was just maybe a skilled goal scorer into a complete power forward. Now he drives to the net. He gets dirty goals. He gets goal scorer goals. He shoots the puck with a quick release. He battles for pucks along the offensive and defensive walls and he’s really improved his play away from the puck. I think Matt has taken it upon himself to say, ‘I was a first rounder and I’m not going to rest on my laurels. Every game I’m going to try to have an impact.’ Most of the time it will be by goal scoring but also by playing a more complete, not that he’s going to be a power forward, but a harder game than he played in junior.”
On having a NHL wrist shot but adding other attributes that will make him a better pro…
“Yes, that’s exactly what we’re counting on from Matt. People will think sometimes first rounders they should pretty much step into the NHL when we draft them or once their junior careers are done, but Matt was taken later on in the first round and he had an injury in his draft year. Even after his draft year, (he had) just an okay year. He started to get better once he got to Kitchener and then last year really was, I think, eye-opening for him in the first half but he stepped it up and every day I think he gets closer to the NHL. I know whether it’s this year or next year, Matt’s going to be a top two or top three line guy that finishes.”
On the evolution of his game and passing to make less predictable…
“Oh without a doubt that’s something that we’ve noticed. We’ve noticed his ability to manage the puck, especially getting it off the defensive wall is tremendously improved. Getting the puck to center and getting to an open area where he can get the puck back to release it or make a play – whether it’s transitioning into the offensive zone or into scoring areas into the offensive one – so that’s something that we’ve definitely seen improvements on.”
On Shane Prince and his progress into more of a complete player…
“Well obviously Shane is someone who always seems to be taking steps every year. He’s done that so far this year. With Shane, it’s just about being more consistent. Obviously it’s no secret that probably out of all of our prospects in junior or in the American (Hockey) League, Shane is definitely the most skilled prospect we have. His puck skills and shooting ability are second to none. For Shane it’s just about being consistent night in to night out. He’s got the quickness. He’s one of our fittest guys. He’s one of the strongest guys that we have, especially for his size. It’s just taking his game to that level where it will be NHL ready. With Shane, we hope, I think he will be called up this year and play some games this year if he continues on this path. And once he gets to do that, he can show that he can be a regular NHL player.”
On him rounding into the player and developing into the player they imagined…
“Yeah exactly. I always tell people, ‘Developing prospects and having players play for you, it’s not a 100-metre race. It’s a marathon. There’s a few players like Crosby or Stamkos that just step in the league, but I think with Shane, the process is going and I think it’s going in the right direction. With Shane, we know we have someone down the road who will be able to contribute offensively and he’s just got to keep on that path. When I talk to either Luke Richardson or Steve Stirling they say, ‘Every player enjoys scoring goals, but no one enjoys scoring goals more than Shane Prince,’ and that’s what we want him to do at the NHL level.”
On Curtis Lazar’s energy level and enthusiasm for playing the 200’ game and understanding the value of it…
“No, he’s not intimidated at all. I don’t think Curtis wakes up and ever has any bad days. He always has a smile on his face and is always ready to go work. Obviously you talked about the 200’ game and I’ve always told Bryan (Murray) and Paul (MacLean) that Curtis, I think, might be a winger at the NHL level but he’s come in here and played some games as a centerman where he’s probably our most defensively responsible centerman on our big team in some games that he’s played. He’s shown that, obviously as you mentioned before, he plays the 200’ game. He never cheats down low. He never leaves the zone early. He’s always working. With Curtis, it’s not the second and third effort, but at times it’s the fourth effort. Bringing in a guy with that much character, even though at 19-years old, always polite, always thanking everybody, playing the game the right way, always driving, working… we were lucky to draft a player like Curtis.”
On his shooting ability…
“Yeah, his shooting ability is probably one of his best offensive assets, but his ability to also drive with the puck is pretty special. He’s just a good, wholesome kid. I give a lot of credit to both of our western scouts in Bob Lowes and George Fargher. They were on him quite early and they always liked him as a kid. We had him, we didn’t hide it when we drafted him, we had him in our top 10 and we felt very fortunate at that pick and that point in time, if I remember correctly it was 17th, to draft a player like Curtis.”
On Lazar’s versatility giving the coaching staff that benefits Curtis now and down the road…
“Oh for sure. I think his versatility is something that can benefit our team and our coaching staff. He doesn’t complain about playing whatever position. I remember after one game, I said, ‘How was it on the wing?’ and he goes, ‘It was good for me.’ We’re very happy with his progress.”
On Ben Harpur’s development and improvement in his offensive numbers…
“No, we’re very pleased with Ben’s development so far. If he can get points, that’s a bonus. We told him after rookie camp and he spent part of the main camp with us is, ‘Focus on being that defensive defenceman – that guy who can play against the other team’s best players and take pride in making sure that you’re not on the ice for any goals against. Try to have as big a physical presence as you can have.’ When that type of player gets points, you know that he’s been good with the puck and he’s probably managing the puck well and getting it up to the forwards and being able to contribute in that way. We’re very happy with is progress so far. Ben still has some things to work on. Obviously if we get the chance to sign him, which we’d like to sign him, he’s not going to step into our lineup next year. He’s going to need time, but we feel that he’s a good prospect moving forward.”
On him having to balance using his reach while providing a physical presence…
“Yes, exactly. Play to your strengths. Play to your size. Make it tough for the opposition that they don’t want to go down your size. We don’t want Ben to fight and challenge every tough guy in the OHL. We just want him to be a harder player and to have that presence where people know ‘Oh, I’ve got to go down his side. He’s going to poke-check the puck away from me then finish the hit.’ That’s what we want Ben to improve.”
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NHL14/hpr10dorion.mp3
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