Thursday ramblings time, does anyone actually pay attention to the intro I write every Thursday purple monkey dishwasher

For today I shall discuss why not to get THAT excited about Eeli Tolvanen in the Nashville line up this season, FLA prospect wanting out, and the CHL regular season is over, so who finished with what

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Tolvanen’s team Jokerit is down 3-1 to CSKA and it looks likely that they will be eliminated pretty quickly. Besides the fact they have to deal with Ilya Sorokin who isn’t letting anything in (See KHL Report from yesterday), they also have to deal with this:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KHL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KHL</a>, Jokerit are forced to play their playoff game against CSKA today with just 4 defensemen because of injuries and suspensions. They really need a farm team, you can't win like that. It really sucks that there's no co-operation between them and Liiga teams.</p>&mdash; Jokke Nevalainen (@JokkeNevalainen) <a href="https://twitter.com/JokkeNevalainen/status/976127479143215105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2018</a></blockquote>{/source}

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So yes safe to say it does not look good. I have noticed a TON of hype for Tolvanen, and he has deserved it but looking at the Predators current roster can he really help your fantasy hockey team? I keep remembering last years’ playoffs and Nashville ONLY using a skilled rookie in Pontus Aberg in a scoring role when they had lost Fiala and Johansen, with Fischer and Neal banged up. What I am trying to say is let someone else reach for him, will he be good, eventually yes but I do not see Laviolette giving Tolvanen ice time unless he starts hot. But even then, can he crack this top six:

I cannot see that grouping being broken up. Even the third line when healthy / when Jarnkrok is back as they have “grit” and two-way play:

There can be sneaky value if he is on the fourth line as Colton Sissons does have skill, but will the minutes be there for him to produce?

Then you think “well he should get powerplay time,” but who do you take off this list:

Big ticket Bonino isn’t even on any powerplay, I figure they will take off Sissons from the #2PP for more EV ice time and SH ice time and give Tolvanen those minutes. By the way, do you use the new and improved FROZEN POOLS, damn is it sweet!

Anyway, all this writing could be for not as he could come in and score a hattrick game one and replace Smith on line two, I just think people need to realize he may not produce much when he comes over. However I have been massively wrong before and you can tweet at me with my #BadTake later.

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OH! There was another tidbit of big prospect news that dropped today.

Adam Mascherin won't be signing with the Florida Panthers; the 38^th overall pick in 2016 who has 86 points (40 of them goals) in 67 Kitchener Rangers games, apparently does not want to be part of that organization.

From a “making the NHL as a young forward on the Panthers” standpoint I get it. He will have to compete with Henrik Borgstrom, Owen Tippett, Aleksi Heponiemi, Henrik Haapala, Maxim Mamin, Frank Vatrano, and Denis Malgin for three top nine winger spots next season. I mean there is one guaranteed top-nine wing spot open, as the Panthers can justify using McGinn as a fourth liner with a slew of talented kids on their ELCs, but honestly Mascherin is the third best shooter of that bunch and probably the worst skater so his chances were slim.

This is a smart move as if he moves to (for example) the Buffalo Sabres, who really have two to three great-good prospects to compete with and then it is a wasteland. He has a much better shot at becoming an NHLer on a team with less young talent knocking on the NHL door (like Los Angeles).

Mascherin needs to improve his skating (as I said) and his conditioning as he can look slugging to end games, but that can also coincide with just being a fourth year player and finding the OHL too easy. It’ll be interesting to see where he ends up but I doubt his NHL future.

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So how did the final week of CHL action turn out for those top five scorers, let us take a look!

Final OHL top five scorers:

1. Aaron Luchuk (FA) – 115; up five points
2. Morgan Frost (PHI) – 112; up two pints
3. Jordan Kyrou (STL) – 109; up one point
4. Nick Suzuki (VGK)– 100; up six points
5. Dmitry Sokolov (MIN, also I was right) – 96; up six points

Of Note:

• Andrei Svechnikov finished with 40 goals in 44 games. I believe in Craig Button’s last NHL 2018 draft update he said Zadina is the best goal scorer in this draft. I respectfully disagree 1000000000000000000%. Also Brady Tkachuk second overall……ok

• Super random stat time both Sokolov and Luchuk finished tied for the most goals with 50, al while Kyrou and Frost finished tied for the most assists with 70. NEAT!

Final top five WHL scorers are:

1. Jayden Halbgewachs (FA) – 126; up four points
2. Glenn Gawdin (STL) – 124; up one point
3. Aleksi Heponiemi (FLA) – 118; no points BUST!
4. Brayden Burke (ARI) – 113; No points, also a bust
5. Matthew Phillips (CGY) – 111; up one point

Of Note (besides all staying locked in the their same top five positions):

• Halbgewachs finished with 70 goals in 72 games. What. Only a 24.1 shooting percentage.

• Garrett Pilon, a player who used to be so reluctant to shoot led the WHL in shots with 343 in 69 games, but did see his shots per game fall from 5.25 with Kamloops (where he played centre) to 4.6 with Everett (where he played wing). Not as crazy of a drop as I thought, impressive nonetheless.

• 90 assists for Heponiemi (who I always call Hemponinen for some reason) is incredibly impressive for such a young player. Burke finished with 82 assists in four more games than Heponiemi, which is also impressive but not AS impressive.

Final top five QMJHL scorers are:

1. Alex Barré-Boulet (TBL) – 116; up three points
2. Vitalii Abramov (CBJ) – 104; up two points
3. Alexandre Alain (FA) – 87; up two points
4. Kevin Klima (FA) – 86; up one point
5. Maxime Comtois (OTT) – 85; up two points

Of Note:

• Abramov has 301 points in his career in the QMJHL a fantastic final total for a player that should have been in the AHL this year developing. How was he a third round pick again? Oh yeah #Size. I was then going to look where he sat all time in points and yeah, never mind. But hey did you know Pat Lafontaine had 234 points in 70 games, which is the best points per game in that leagues history. Also…. Did goalies play back then? Haha

• Also of interest Barre-Boulet and Abramov finished one and two in points, goals, and assists. Barre-Boulet also have nine extra gameshttps://dobberprospects.com/filip-zadina/

• Filip Zadina finished tied for third with 44 goals in 57 games

• A player who has surprised a ton of people this year Maxime Comtois also had 44 goals but in 54 games

Ok that is all for me. Hope it was worth it. Follow my twitter @FHPQuinn