Posting daily prospect updates yields a tendency to overlook the statistics of each and every one of the players taking part in games–especially given that there are as many as 26 teams that have one or more Red Wings prospects on them–but DUB Network’s Brandon Rivers took note of a significant milestone hit by Dennis Cholowski during last night’s Portland Winterhawks win over Prince George:
Dennis Cholowski suited up for 37 games for the Prince George Cougars earlier this season. Then he was dealt in a big deal along with the WHL rights to goalie Ty Taylor to the Portland Winterhawks for Ilijah Colina, Connor Bowie and some draft picks.
Tuesday marked Cholowski’s return to Prince George for the first time since being dealt and he marked the occasion by assisting on two of Portland’s first three goals to his the 50-assist mark for the year in their 4-3 road win in Prince George.
Cholowski has posted 14 goals and 50 assists for 64 points registered over the course of 63 games played. That’s pretty damn good.
I don’t want people to take this the wrong way. So I’ll start with the positives. I like Cholowski. I really, really hope he can help our franchise. He seems to have a well-rounded game. I hope he keeps improving.
But some perspective could be valuable too. There is a long list of d-men that have put up big numbers in the CHL. Often these stats are padded by PP points (ie more than half of Cholowski’s assists have been on the PP). These numbers are usually not replicated in the NHL.
So just as examples…
-Kindl had junior seasons with 44 and 46 assists, in fewer games. Didn’t translate to the NHL
-Sproul had 46 assists in much fewer games.
-Almquist had 49 assists, in the AHL. That went nowhere.
-even in the WHL this season, there are 5 other d-men that already have 50+ assists. And 6 others that are close and on pace for 50+ assists. So it’s a great achievement, but certainly Cholowski is not in some exclusive territory here.
Again, I’m not trying to just be a jerk here. I’m trying to provide a balanced, objective view. He has great tools. He’s having a good season. We all hope this translates to the NHL. But the truth is many have been in this exact position and never panned out.
You’re correct, we will have to see what Cholowski can do at the professional level before anointing him the next great offensive defenseman in the Wings’ system. It’s just good to see him succeeding at the WHL level. Agreed, agreed.
Georgie,
I would disagree about the correctness. Stats alone do not qualify how well a player will translate from Jrs to the NHL.
Cholly has a lot of promise. He has clearly worked hard even though he hasn’t spent more than one year on one team over the past three seasons. I would suggest that points to some positive character and the ability to adjust to adversity and still work hard. That speaks to me more than how many assists a guy has in the Jrs.
I always think of Mike Green (Saskatoon Blades) when D Men prospects are mentioned. He was fun to watch, fast but had more points at the pro level than CHL level.
Not a lot of those but a bit of a head scratcher
Mike Green had 52 assists in his final year in Saskatoon. And yes he did have a couple of NHL seasons when he exceeded that. I would attribute that to running an incredible PP featuring Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin who was scoring 40 goals. Aside from those two crazy years in Washington, Green has basically been a 35-40 point d-man the rest of his career. I think most who watched him in Saskatoon figured that’s what he would amount to…an offensive d-man that could put up some points, run a PP, but play questionable defense.
Fatty,
What’s interesting about Green’s stats compared to Ovi’s stats are that they are inversely related. Ovi’s goal total goes down and Green’s assists go up.
Semin scored over 80 goals in those two seasons. Teams focussed on Ovechkin and Green kept feeding Semin for PP goals. Backstrom was a stud. Brooks Laich was scoring 20+. Knuble was a PP stud. In both those years, Caps led the NHL with like a 25% success rate. Wasn’t just Green and Ovechkin.
Fatty,
I guess Backstrom is just riding the coattails of Ovi and others too. Or, maybe those guys were just really good at getting Ovi the puck…….
How long do you want to play this tit-for-tat game?
I’m not playing some game. I’m making conversation. You seem to be trying to win a game, and I’m not even sure what you are arguing about anymore. I’ll say this real simple…
-Mike Green had 2 extraordinary seasons. The rest of his career seems to fall into a 35-45 point range.
-those 2 seasons just happened to be when he quarterbacked one of the most lethal PP’s in modern history. Caps were running at 25%. Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Green were all studs on that PP.
-have I said anything controversial yet?
-I never said anything about Backstrom by the way, but since you brought him up, I’ll share my opinion that he is one of the most talented and underrated players of the last decade. At the same time, I think everyone, himself included would admit that playing much of this time with Ovechkin has certainly helped his offensive totals. No different than how so many of our guys benefitted from Datsyuk or Zetterberg.
Anyway, I’m done conversing with you today, and maybe going forward as well. You’ve personally insulted my children, made racist comments about Givani Smith, and seem to enjoy picking fights with me when there is none. Buh bye.
Appreciate you keeping an eye on the prospects, George. It’s tedious work I am sure.
Cant wait to see some real analysis instead of the same ‘reality check’ nonsense that always pops up in the comments…time after time. Speaking of, is it still your hope that you can “crowd fund” a trip to training camp?
It’s good to see guys like him succeed. You have to root for the guy considering how down on him most fans have been. He’s obviously taken instruction very well from his limited time in the organization. Fingers crossed this one turns out well.