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Hobey Oshie?


PCM

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In today's Grand Forks Herald, Virg Foss has a column comparing T.J. Oshie to Tony Hrkac. Scott Koberinski, who played with Hrkac and coaches Oshie, is one of the few people who can make that comparison.

When UND recruited Oshie, head coach Dave Hakstol told me he hadn't seen anyone as strong on the puck as Oshie since Hrkac.

"I totally agree," Koberinski said. "From trying to take the puck away in practice from Tony and T.J., they are both so strong on the puck. With T.J., when he goes around a guy or drags the puck through his legs, the puck always stays on his stick. I'd say 50 percent of the guys lose the puck. Those guys (Hrkac and Oshie) have some kind of natural ability to do that. The last guy I've seen with puck skills that T.J. has is Hrkac."

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Lets hope that T.J. sticks around long enough to top Hrkac's records here at UND!!

http://hrkac.com/

Hrkac finished his two-year career with the University of North Dakota with 179 points (64 goals, 115 assists) and 64 penalty minutes in 84 games in 1984-85 and 1986-87...Set records that still stand for career points-per-game (2.02) and points-per-game in one season (2.42 in 1986-87) at North Dakota...Set a North Dakota record for most assists in a season with 70 in 1986-87...His 116 points that season still stands as an NCAA record...Helped North Dakota capture the 1987 NCAA Championship, and was voted the tournament's Most Outstanding Player...
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Oshie is a tenacious player, with an intense attitude and love for the game that is far superior then others in the game. He loves to play hard and gritty, will dig in the corners for the puck, battles through checks and will hit people too. He's not afraid to play the game and make mistakes, and he's a goal scorer with great hands and positioning. If he sticks around for a couple more years, he'll definitely have a shot at winning the Hobey.

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My signature line on USCHO:

" ... and many false prophets will follow." -- Hrkac 46-70-116

Kober skated with what I had the honor of watching.

If Kober speaks of Oshie (and probably Toews too, if folks asked) in the same breath as the Hrkac could we have a true prophet, or unthinkably two, in our midst?

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I hope Oshie sticks it out a couple more years. He can really up his stock with a couple more seasons like 05-06.

his stock is as high as it will be as he jumped more than 20 spots to the #1 prospect in the st louis blues organization..not to bad for 1 year of great play!!

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Reading more carefully, his grade is an 8.0 D, where the 8 means:

8 - First line forward / No. 2 defenseman / No. 1 goaltender -- players with definite skill that might be just a cut below elite status, but still possessing All-Star potential. Think Patrik Elias, Keith Tkachuk, Mattias Ohlund, Adam Foote, Sean Burke, Olaf Kolzig.

I'd say if Oshie developed into any one of those forwards, his career will be long and successful.

The D stands for the realistic probability of that player reaches his potential:

D - Unlikely to reach potential, could drop 3 ratings - a player who has a chance to reach his potential but is unlikely to do so. The potential rating is multiplied by 70 percent for depth chart purposes, indicating that the player

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The HF profile hasn't been updated since Feb. 21. Some of the text reads as if it were written before the 05-06 college hockey season began.

I think that what Cary Eades said about Oshie before the season started remains true:

"Nobody knows what his top end is right now."
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Think Patrik Elias, Keith Tkachuk, Mattias Ohlund, Adam Foote, Sean Burke, Olaf Kolzig.

I'd say if Oshie developed into any one of those forwards, his career will be long and successful.

(Emphasis mine) -- I believe in Oshie and all, but I'd be truly shocked if he could post that kind of SV% or win a Vezina :sad:

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I looked around the other player rankings for awhile and it looks like the players with more pedigree have higher letter ratings...(Parise, Suter...) I'm not upset, just think that it is a pretty silly category which would be nearly impossible to measure.

I agree that Oshie may have a tough transition to the net. I remember hearing that Belfour was a solid forward in practice, so I guess Oshie could be a two way player. They could rotate the players in and out of the net. Might be interesting.

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his stock is as high as it will be as he jumped more than 20 spots to the #1 prospect in the st louis blues organization..not to bad for 1 year of great play!!

I'm not questioning what you say, but I don't understand why a first round draft pick had 20 prospects ranked ahead of him in the first place. How could a first round pick ever be rated behind that many players in one organization?

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I'm not questioning what you say, but I don't understand why a first round draft pick had 20 prospects ranked ahead of him in the first place. How could a first round pick ever be rated behind that many players in one organization?

How could someone who was a "lock" for the #1 overall pick just a few shorts months ago, fall to a top 3 or maybe even top 5 pick ? Maybe in both cases those in the know in the world of hockey have discovered the truth. :sad:

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I'm not questioning what you say, but I don't understand why a first round draft pick had 20 prospects ranked ahead of him in the first place. How could a first round pick ever be rated behind that many players in one organization?

Those rankings are for one point in time. So when the Blues drafted Oshie, the ranking of their prospects also includes members of their AHL teams, etc, so those players will obviously be ranked above a player that just graduated HS. Now, with Oshie's great frosh season at UND, his ranking has skyrocketed above players that are currently playing for their AHL affiliate.

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Those rankings are for one point in time. So when the Blues drafted Oshie, the ranking of their prospects also includes members of their AHL teams, etc, so those players will obviously be ranked above a player that just graduated HS. Now, with Oshie's great frosh season at UND, his ranking has skyrocketed above players that are currently playing for their AHL affiliate.

adding to the above statement.....all of these rankings and grades and whatever else they use to grade these players is 100% speculation. They are taking this players stats, performance, hockey IQ and making a guess at how good they COULD be.

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