Herman_NYRBlog

Wonder why St. Croix was with the ECHL squad...I thought he was a dude some people had pretty high hopes for.

Numbers game. Surplus of skilled forwards in Hartford above him made it tough for him. Kreider, Miller, Lindberg, Kristo, Hrivik, etc. As a result, he was competing for a lesser, more defensive role. St. Croix is not a defensive forward by any means and I guess ultimately management decided he would be better off getting top line & PP minutes in the ECHL than on the 4th line in Hartford.

Now Kreider, Miller, and Mashinter are up. Thats a lot of offense (by AHL standards). St. Croix was killing it with Greenville (granted, only two games) and now there's an opening for him in Hartford to get some legitimate minutes. Obviously the AHL roster hinges on so many factors; send downs, injuries at the NHL and AHL level, NHL players getting healthy, etc. But if St. Croix impresses with Hartford then they'll find a way to keep him there, I would think.

But my point is that Kristo is 23.

Miller is 20.

 

That's a HUGE age difference during those years in regards to development.

Example: If Miller and Kristo look similar now, i'm guessing Miller looks MUCH better at 23 then Kristo does now.

Make sense?

Not necessarily. Every player has different developmental curves. A guy like Petr Prucha peaked around 23 and then slowly lost it. Meanwhile, PA Parenteau and Alex Burrows didn't reach their potential until their late 20s. Paul Stastny was a much better player at 20-21 than Ryan Kesler was at 21-23. Over the years, though, Kesler has surpassed him. This is why the NHL draft, and further evaluating prospects, is such a crapshoot. It's not very difficult to judge the ability of a 16-19 year old. What IS difficult is figuring out what kind of player that guy might grow into as a 25 year old. There's a lot of biology, coaching, and just inherent randomness with no rhyme or reason that can't be quantified or predicted.

If both players hit their utmost peak, then I think Danny Kristo is a first line winger who consistently puts up 35-40 goals and JT Miller is a two-way, second line center who hits 55 points and plays top PK minutes. However, I think Miller is more likely to reach close to that peak level than Kristo is his. We'll see how it plays out in the future.

Big age and experience difference between Krisot and Miller though.

I would assume Kristo is the more complete player now, but i'm guessing Miller blows by him in a year or so.

As someone who has watched most of the Wolfpack games this season, I disagree. Kristo is older, but it's also his first professional season of any kind. Meanwhile, Miller has an entire pro season under his belt, including 20+ games at the NHL level. Kristo is definitely the more talented player and more matured offensively, but Miller is very clearly the more NHL-ready player in terms of the total package. Kristo still lacks the understanding of what he needs to do in the neutral and defensive zones. Kristo is the superior powerplay guy, but right now Miller is definitely better at even strength. If the Rangers were forced to call up one of the two tomorrow it would be a fairly easy decision to pick Miller. I do like Kristo's long-term potential, however.