Tyler Steenbergen - will REP

[Justinsane87]

hey guys, hope you're having a great fantasy year to date!

I was looking at the stats ranking from the WHL and noticed the guy on top Steenbergen is on total fire with 21G in 11 games (33 pts total). He's on the same pace as Mario Lemieux's junior record of 133G back in 83-84. Obviously I dont think he can come close to that but still that insane goal scoring is at least something to take note of.

His teammate Aleksi Heponiemi is also on a great pace with 30 pts in 11 games.

The only thing I know about them is that Steenbergen (love is name lol) was draft in in 2017 in the 5th round, 128th overall by Arizona and Heponiemi was also draft in 2017 in the 2nd round, 40th overall.

If I go with the pedegree (draft rank), Heponiemi might be the better prospect, but if I go with this year's stats Steenbergen is more interesting for his abilty to score big time.

Both these guys are avaible in my deep Dynasty league where we have a farm team of 12 players. I was contempling of maybe taking one (Steenbergen) and stash him on my farm. To do so, I'd have to drop one of my farm eligible player.

So I wonder if it could be worth it to drop any of these player for him ; Spencer Foo, Oscar Lindblom or Henrik Haapala (got all these guys as FA signing this summer) *My other prospects are, I think, to good to try some wild bet on them.

What do you guys know about them, and would you take a chance with any of em for a potential steal down the line??

Any insight would be apreciated !

thanks,

J.

[Sulla]

Always good to have these guys on your radar the one caveat I would have is what they do for the next month now that NHL camps have finished and that the guys at camp are returned - there is always an inflataion in some performances at this time of the year for those very reasons

[lucafen4]

from what I've read he's not the fleetest of foot. Which had a lot to do with his draft position. He seems to be a bit like Taylor Raddish in that, regardless of his skating ability he has a knack for finding the open spots and getting into grade A scoring areas. He's a good one to watch, but based on foot speed and draft position it'll be a few years before he cracks the Yotes line up, if he can.

RE: Heponiemi, He's only 140lbs at 5'11" and a year younger than Steenbergen. no question on his skill level though, but bean-poll would be a good description of him at present. He needs to seriously add weight and strength before he will be considered close to the nhl.

You might as well look right below those two and peek at Matthew Phillips in Victoria who's got 29 in 14 games and was taken 6th round by Calgary. 5'6" 140lbs... and lighting it up again this year.

Hepo is the best of the three by far IMO... none are within 3yrs of the NHL IMO.

if you add any of the 3... make it Hepo. elite skill set, only thing that prevented him from 1st round selection was weight.

[Justinsane87]

Hepo is the best of the three by far IMO... none are within 3yrs of the NHL IMO.

if you add any of the 3... make it Hepo. elite skill set, only thing that prevented him from 1st round selection was weight.

and does it make sense you'd think to drop Foo, Lindlom or Hapaala for him? Maybe I should wait a bit and see if they are that far away from playing in the league compared to my 3 guys..? I was thinking Foo more than the other 2

[lucafen4]

and does it make sense you'd think to drop Foo, Lindlom or Hapaala for him? Maybe I should wait a bit and see if they are that far away from playing in the league compared to my 3 guys..? I was thinking Foo more than the other 2

That's tough, I'm watching Hepo closely in one pool and added him in another (25 prospect roster) The three you mention are so much closer to the NHL that it's really difficult to drop one of those - soon to be point producers - for a long term hold. Unless you have little to no faith any of those three will make an NHL impact. Then I don't drop them.

With a shallow prospect roster, you really only want the blue-chippers holding up valuable real estate for 3+yrs. (Kaprizov, newly anointed Tolvanen, Gusev... etc) There will always be 2nd round breakouts - Dvorak - post draft year. that appear and can be added. I'd watch him closely & see what is written about him as we approach WJC, he's likely to sit for a bit longer, unless you've got prospect hungry owners always looking for the next hot ticket.

[Justinsane87]

Sound advice Lucafen, I'll wait and see a bit more from them before pulling the trigger. Thx again

[Jouko-Pouko]

Steenbergen went undrafted in 2016 and even in 2017 he had to wait until 5th round before he got picked despite strong numbers last season. I doubt Steenbergen continues scoring 3 points per game, and 19-year-olds playing their final junior season are expected to score at least 2 points per game, so if he drops a little bit closer to that level, then that's nothing special and more what was expected from him. Heponiemi's point-scoring pace as an 18-year-old is actually much more impressive than Steenbergen's.

For these reasons, I would take Heponiemi over him in fantasy hockey. But as lucafen said, he needs to spend a few years adding weight before he can handle the NHL. And even then, he'll be a purely playmaking center who doesn't offer anything in peripheral stats, so in multi-cat leagues he won't be a great option either.

[chuckcouples]

From what I have heard from an NHL scout is that Steenbergen, Heponiemi and Matt Phillips should all be very good offensive AHL players. He would rank them in the way they are listed. These types of players can end up with long and productive NHL careers if they get a chance and make it work or they can end up sticking around the AHL for a few years before heading overseas. Think Seth Griffith vs Johnathan Marchessault vs Cory Conacher vs Mike Hoffman.