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JaysCyYoung said:
I'm honestly not sure what to make of Colborne, but I certainly think that Leblanc is a much surer bet to become a decent NHLer in some respect between the two of them: he can skate and has a high IQ.
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Yeah, but by the same token Colborne is 6'5 with a bit of puck skills. Both of NHL traits that should get them a chance to be 4th liners. Whether either can be more than that remains to be seen.
 
leafman101 said:
Yeah, but by the same token Colborne is 6'5 with a bit of puck skills. Both of NHL traits that should get them a chance to be 4th liners. Whether either can be more than that remains to be seen.
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To be honest though, I'd rather have a guy who might profile like a Chris Kelly rather than a guy who is increasingly looking like a David Steckel clone minus the God-like face-off ability.
 
JaysCyYoung said:
The problem is that Colborne is soft and doesn't utilize his physical gifts in a meaningful way that would contribute to his defensive skills. He's soft, slow, and not really that interested in playing on the other side of the puck.

He's a liability in a lot of ways, even at the AHL level. I know that many of us were hopeful that his poor offensive production in Providence was the result of an injury or playing on a team with limited scoring options, but I'm starting to suspect more and more that the Bruins brass was aware of what they had on their hands: a physically talented but flawed prospect who might not have the offence to stick around in the NHL, and who certainly doesn't have the defensive skills at this moment to play a bottom six role either.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of Colborne, but I certainly think that Leblanc is a much surer bet to become a decent NHLer in some respect between the two of them: he can skate and has a high IQ.
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i actually never thought as highly of colborne when we vot him as many lafs fans an prospect evaluators did. Thought he was overrated in much the same way a guy like kreider is, and thought it was silly when people thought him a similar or better prospect than guys like gardiner or kadri.

but he's still a huge man with soft hands, with decent but not great offensive production so far. at 22, a kid like that still has upside.

but ptbnl, this is his 3rd ahl season, not 5th.
 
zeke said:
i actually never thought as highly of colborne when we vot him as many lafs fans an prospect evaluators did. Thought he was overrated in much the same way a guy like kreider is, and thought it was silly when people thought him a similar or better prospect than guys like gardiner or kadri.

but he's still a huge man with soft hands, with decent but not great offensive production so far. at 22, a kid like that still has upside.

but ptbnl, this is his 3rd ahl season, not 5th.
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I'll agree with you that Colborne absolutely does possess untapped upside, and the benefit to him is that talent evaluators are always much more willing to be patient with big men due to their longer development curve. However, he's also beginning to reach the point in time when his levels of production should be trending upwards, and not declining. He was at a PPG in the AHL at one point last season before reverting to his Providence-levels of offence in the second-half, a trend that has continued into this calendar year.

It's simply extremely disappointing for a player who should be progressing and also learning how to develop a more well-rounded game. Even at 6'6 a forty point scoring pace in the AHL with limited defensive improvement and soft play isn't going to earn him a regular spot on the big club. He should be looking at improving the other areas of his game in addition to re-discovering his offensive touch from the first half of 2011-12.

And the biggest difference between Kreider and Colborne is that Kreider can flat out fly and is a brilliant skater, whereas Colborne is slow and plodding.
 
JaysCyYoung said:
To be honest though, I'd rather have a guy who might profile like a Chris Kelly rather than a guy who is increasingly looking like a David Steckel clone minus the God-like face-off ability.
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He's a much better skater than steckel, with way more skill.
 
We forget that joe had some serious wrist issues....they may have damaged him permanently, or they may just have slowed down his offense for the first couple months temporarily.
 
Steckel has poor acceleration but on a half-rink dash for the puck he's pretty good.



I wonder how Antropov's early years would have compared to Colborne's if he were to have played in the AHL? I see some similarities there.
 
At 21 Antropov was a ppg guy in the AHL.

At Colborne's age Antropov was better in the NHL than Colborne has been in the AHL (50 point pace to 40).
 
Antropov was a near 70 point player while playing on reconstructed knees* and having his development severely ****ed with as a teenager by the surgery and shuttling back and forth between the bottom lines of the Leafs and St. John's.

If he had ever managed to have stayed healthy for a consistent stretch and was brought along more slowly I think that the Leafs could have conceivably had a Malkin-lite type player on their hands.

Edit: *knees, not needs.
 
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The guy should've been great. The fact that he has been able to put together a solid career as a 30* goal first liner despite having his career completely derailed every step of the way is pretty incredible.
 
Antropov had butter hands off the bat.

I've mentioned it here a few times over the years but it's worth repeating... Soco and I were at a pre season game during his first camp with the Leafs and he had a ridiculous, ridiculous game game. He wore #66, was all over the ice, and -- I'll never forget this -- the guy is ambidextrous and took shifts both right handed and left handed. Both assists were left handed, the goal was scored after beating the d-man one-on-one and going backhand-forehand to slide it in with the d-man draped to his back.

If Antropov's first 4-5 years weren't spent constantly on the IR (both shoulders, both knees) imo he would have been a ppg forward.

He was a 4.5 tool prospect (lacking a bit in footspeed, although as his career progresesd it turned out to not be much of a problem).
 
Preston_Mizzi said:
Steckel was a better AHL player than Colborne will ever be.
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I dunno... that big 30 g 60 pt season he posted looks pretty good, but first, i'm not sure that is outside of colborne's capabilities. over steckel's first two ahl seasons, during which he was already older than colborne is today, he had just ~50 points in ~140 games. so colborne is a bit ahead of the curve to this point.

but second, i think that the 30 g 60 pt year was entirely a function of playing on a stacked team. it was undoubtedly an impressive season and given his size and faceoff abilities proved that he is capable of holding down a job in the big leagues.

but he was only 7th amongst bears forwards in ppg average. that was a stacked team.
 
JaysCyYoung said:
The problem is that Colborne is soft and doesn't utilize his physical gifts in a meaningful way that would contribute to his defensive skills. He's soft, slow, and not really that interested in playing on the other side of the puck.

He's a liability in a lot of ways, even at the AHL level. I know that many of us were hopeful that his poor offensive production in Providence was the result of an injury or playing on a team with limited scoring options, but I'm starting to suspect more and more that the Bruins brass was aware of what they had on their hands: a physically talented but flawed prospect who might not have the offence to stick around in the NHL, and who certainly doesn't have the defensive skills at this moment to play a bottom six role either.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of Colborne, but I certainly think that Leblanc is a much surer bet to become a decent NHLer in some respect between the two of them: he can skate and has a high IQ.
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Love reading your posts on young talent Jays..Most times it's spot on!
 
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