The Red Wings prospect pool is deeper today than it ever has been thus allowing a blog like this to exist. Nice. Today we are going to look at Riley Sheahan. His career path interests me more than any other prospect the Wings have. His incredibly high floor makes him almost a little anti-climactic, but looking at him that way is extremely simplistic and it would be a mistake to view someone of his skills like that. We are going to take an alternative view of Riley Sheahan today. Click the jump to see what we think here at Winged Pride.
Sheahan is a big guy. He stands 6'2" and is 212 pounds. His strength grants him the ability to go where he wants when he wants. In simpler terms, he can control the front of the net both offensively and defensively due to his size and strength. Sheahan is a really unique prospect because of where his skills lie. Most prospects come to the AHL with extremely developed offensive games and hope to develop the defense and transitional game among other things. Sheahan however is an absolute shutdown center. His defensive prowess is extremely developed and advanced for someone in his position. In Grand Rapids he plays against the other team's best players and shuts them down.
Sheahan is a good penalty killer and good hockey sense which allows him to anticipate plays to stop the opposition from sustained puck possession. Sheahan can be described as a strong puck possession player due to his high defensive ability.
That being said, Riley needs to develop offense at a higher clip than he is currently. He's a poor finisher, letting way too many chances go to waste due to an inability to put the puck in the back of the net. The reason his development interests me so much is because a forward with defensive ability is a skill that translates to the NHL. A lot of times a prospect will make us nervous because we aren't sure whether or not their highlight reel goals will transfer when they play for the Wings. Sheahan is absolutely an NHL Center. On draft day Jim Nill compared him to current Wing Johan Franzen. They do have some similarities but they are rather different as they stand today. Despite both players being power forwards who share a strong net front presence, their strengths are much different. Franzen's strengths are his deceptive hands and his offensive instincts, Sheahan's strengths are in his puck possession and strong and safe defensive play. Both players are streaky, however Sheahan's cold and hot streaks aren't nearly as polar as Franzen's are.
The two most common knocks on Sheahan are his inability to produce offensively and questions of his character. Let's address both of those, starting with the questions of his character, he was charged with public intoxication in 2009 and a DUI in 2012. Neither of these really concern me all that much. The first one happened when he was in college, a lot of people drink in college and he just happened to be either unlucky enough or stupid enough to get caught, him doing what well over 50% of college kids do doesn't scare me. The DUI I am almost completely disregarding due to it being a singular occurrence and that I just have a feeling that Sheahan's dreams of being in the NHL are more important to him than drinking or partying, he's a college educated guy who will be smart enough to prioritize his need to drink against his passion for hockey and dream of playing in the NHL. Now the other knock, his lack of offensive production, is legitimate, but I believe that it is being overstated. I don't think that his inability to score will be a huge issue. Sheahan can be categorized as a somewhat dynamic playmaker(emphasis on somewhat) which is owed exclusively by his passing and skating ability. He is a good player who sees the ice well and has good instincts. He knows where to put the puck and he knows when to put it there.
Sheahan would be a great asset on the second line because he is a great possession player who can thrive with offensively talented wingers. Painting him in the future places him at center with either Pulkkinen or Jurco on one wing, and Nyquist or Mantha on the other. All four of these players would compliment Riley's play style and allow them to be much more aggressive offensively and, as a result, will lead to more goals with more dynamic and aggressive playmaking defenseman.
Winged Pride thinks highly of Riley, and so should you, his most recent stint with the wings was a great look at the kinds of things he will be able to do when playing full time. He was driving possession on both ends of the rink and he was dynamic; creating opportunities for his teammates. But most telling of all these things was that he was playing extremely meaningful minutes for Babcock. He was playing specialty minutes as well as crunch time minutes, the end of regulation and in some cases overtime. He impressed me quite a bit and Winged Pride is very interested in his development seeing as he is out of waiver options next year.
Sheahan is a good penalty killer and good hockey sense which allows him to anticipate plays to stop the opposition from sustained puck possession. Sheahan can be described as a strong puck possession player due to his high defensive ability.
That being said, Riley needs to develop offense at a higher clip than he is currently. He's a poor finisher, letting way too many chances go to waste due to an inability to put the puck in the back of the net. The reason his development interests me so much is because a forward with defensive ability is a skill that translates to the NHL. A lot of times a prospect will make us nervous because we aren't sure whether or not their highlight reel goals will transfer when they play for the Wings. Sheahan is absolutely an NHL Center. On draft day Jim Nill compared him to current Wing Johan Franzen. They do have some similarities but they are rather different as they stand today. Despite both players being power forwards who share a strong net front presence, their strengths are much different. Franzen's strengths are his deceptive hands and his offensive instincts, Sheahan's strengths are in his puck possession and strong and safe defensive play. Both players are streaky, however Sheahan's cold and hot streaks aren't nearly as polar as Franzen's are.
The two most common knocks on Sheahan are his inability to produce offensively and questions of his character. Let's address both of those, starting with the questions of his character, he was charged with public intoxication in 2009 and a DUI in 2012. Neither of these really concern me all that much. The first one happened when he was in college, a lot of people drink in college and he just happened to be either unlucky enough or stupid enough to get caught, him doing what well over 50% of college kids do doesn't scare me. The DUI I am almost completely disregarding due to it being a singular occurrence and that I just have a feeling that Sheahan's dreams of being in the NHL are more important to him than drinking or partying, he's a college educated guy who will be smart enough to prioritize his need to drink against his passion for hockey and dream of playing in the NHL. Now the other knock, his lack of offensive production, is legitimate, but I believe that it is being overstated. I don't think that his inability to score will be a huge issue. Sheahan can be categorized as a somewhat dynamic playmaker(emphasis on somewhat) which is owed exclusively by his passing and skating ability. He is a good player who sees the ice well and has good instincts. He knows where to put the puck and he knows when to put it there.
Sheahan would be a great asset on the second line because he is a great possession player who can thrive with offensively talented wingers. Painting him in the future places him at center with either Pulkkinen or Jurco on one wing, and Nyquist or Mantha on the other. All four of these players would compliment Riley's play style and allow them to be much more aggressive offensively and, as a result, will lead to more goals with more dynamic and aggressive playmaking defenseman.
Winged Pride thinks highly of Riley, and so should you, his most recent stint with the wings was a great look at the kinds of things he will be able to do when playing full time. He was driving possession on both ends of the rink and he was dynamic; creating opportunities for his teammates. But most telling of all these things was that he was playing extremely meaningful minutes for Babcock. He was playing specialty minutes as well as crunch time minutes, the end of regulation and in some cases overtime. He impressed me quite a bit and Winged Pride is very interested in his development seeing as he is out of waiver options next year.