"The Dean's List" Series

[Dean Youngblood]

As Dobber mentioned earlier, I have been asked to join the Dobber Hockey writing team and I am extremely excited about the opportunity.

I want to thank Dobber for the opportunity and recognition as it means a lot.

Now, I didn't know exactly where to post this thread but the Prospect section seems as good a fit as any (for now), especially given that I will be focusing my writings on topics specific to prospects.

You can expect my first (as an official DH Writer) article to be out shortly but I wanted to give the Forum audience to give suggestions for future topics as well. Just a few weeks ago, I posted the same opportunity on twitter and received some great ideas.

Feel free to ask questions and throw out suggestions on topics (prospect related) that you would like to see covered in the newest DobberHockey Series - The Dean's List

Thanks,
Brendan

[dyzfunctioned]

Looking forward to it! Awesome name too.

[JHM]

You better be careful, or you'll get famous!

Congrats!

[Pengwin7]

Dig it!!!!!

[Dean Youngblood]

Looking forward to it! Awesome name too.

Thanks. I was quite proud of it myself

I can only go down from here I guess hahaa

[bondon]

Haha love the name as well. Congrats again man, can't wait to see it.


LOL horrorfan, that's good stuff man.

[horrorfan]

Another relevant title could have been "Young Blood". Or if you're frustrated, the "Bloody Young'ns!"

[GMGates]

Make us proud!

"See you on the otherside, brotha!"

[mister_mcgoo]

[SeaDawg]

congrats, DY. Your opportunity is well deserved. I always respect your opinion on prospects. If there is one area of weakness on this site, in my opinion it is prospect analysis. I know the main purpose of this site is Fantasy hockey related to current NHLers, and that is where Angus and Dobber are great. But apart from the Prospect Guide, Dobber and Angus don't write/talk much about prospect hockey. Bugg's articles are great, but too few to satisfy me. Others have come and gone, throwing up the odd article, but again I am constantly left wanting to know more about prospects. I suspect you will focus mostly on the CHL, and possibly even the OHL, which seems to be your real expertise.

If you are looking for a suggestion on a future article, I'd like to see you take a crack at the emerging trend of young prospect dmen who seem to be joining the NHL sooner than in past generations, and contributing to their NHL teams (and in turn our fantasy teams) sooner than later. Most recently we have seen players like Doughty and Myers make the NHL right away and do quite well. Others like Subban, Shattenkirk, and Pietrangelo didn't make it straight out of the draft, but have been very impressive once they got a full-time roster spot. This coming year we are going to see players like Rundblad, Elliott, B. Smith, Gragnani, Larsson and others possibly playing full-time in the NHL, and in future years we are going to see players like R. Murphy, R. Murray, Ebert, Reinhart, Jones, Ekblad, Maata, Trouba, etc. I'd like your thoughts on this emerging trend. Is this a result of the salary cap era or the more wide-open NHL?

Anyway, congrats on the "promotion" and best of luck.

[ross10019]

Congrats, look forward to your take on prospects!

I would love to see you focus in one of your articles on scoring Dmen prospects, given the long Rundblad thread and the discussion surrounding other very young Dmen like OEL.

[kevinsrangers]

thanks in advance of you always great prospect advice.

[Richard]

Way to go Dean!!!

[Sleemans]

Congrats DY!
Looking forward to reading The Dean's List

[Fast Tony DeNiro]

Congratulations Dean I always look forward to your take on prospects.

One thing I've always been interested in but have never taken the time to do it myself.....to see if there's any difference in breakout timelines for goal scorers versus playmakers. It could be hard to quantify a player as one or the other, but I think it might be feasible. Just a thought.