Taro Hirose

[hockeyrobot]

Big Ten player of the year. Hobey Baker finalist. Couple assists so far in his first two games with the Wings.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/n...en/3204465002/

[Jouko-Pouko]

Here's our profile of him at DobberProspects: https://dobberprospects.com/player/taro-hirose/

[CrackedAces]

Was able to grab him in a few of my leagues. What is his upside, 50-60 points+ along with PP time within a few years or not that high?

[hockeyrobot]

Was able to grab him in a few of my leagues. What is his upside, 50-60 points+ along with PP time within a few years or not that high?

Nowhere near an expert but that is was what I read on him. Not overly fast but has a knack for being in the right place and creating plays. It's only 4 games but to have 4 assists is pretty good for someone playing mid line minutes.

[Eskimo Brother]

Was able to grab him in a few of my leagues. What is his upside, 50-60 points+ along with PP time within a few years or not that high?

I would temper those a little. Zach Aston Reese was one of the top guys out of college two years ago I think it was. I would expect similar scoring numbers to him (32 point pace his first two seasons - without the pp time, add that in and maybe it's 40-45), and without the big hits upside.

[lucafen4]

heard an interview with his coach a few weeks back talking about Hirose. He compared his IQ & Hockey smarts to Eichel, Keller, Matthews (he has coached all with the USDT) His footspeed, explosiiveness, hands are obviously a tier or two below, but there's a player with a drive to do whatever it takes... Question becomes... does he turn into a Baertchi, Bozak? or Mullen, St. Louis?

It would seem NHL teams have become more adept at recognizing talent heading NCAA routes at earlier stages as there are less MSL's coming out as UFA's.... seems more likely Hirose is at best a 55ish pt player.

For real deep dynasties, grabbing someone like that off the wire is a nice find. for shallower leagues, 10-14 teams... he'll have limited value, especially MC leagues.. Likely he'll become borderline waiver fodder for most of those. Unless I'm wrong and he's a diamond in the deep rough.

[ericdaoust]

There's upside here because the new trend is to spread the scoring around which can push a guy like Hirose higher in the lineup. The problem comes when the inevitable line shuffling happens and he starts moving around the lineup.