He's not been a part of these 2010 updates yet because he missed the first twenty eight games of Acadie-Bathurst Titan's QMJHL season with a foot injury. It was difficult to find information on the injury because the Telegraph Journal referred to it as a "foot injury" and nothing more when Blain was included in the periodic updates. Though Blain was a late-round draft choice, injuries to any prospect are worrisome because they can sideline even the brightest prospect in the organization.
However, since regaining his health, Jeremie Blain has played some excellent offensive hockey from the blueline. He returned to a team desperate for defensive help in front of Olivier Roy and his backup Robert Steeves. Steeves, in fact, has outplayed Roy during the time Roy has been away from the team for the World Juniors, though Roy has yet to play behind a defense anchored by Blain. Since his December return, Blain has scored a goal and chipped in with eight assists in ten games. Like Brandon Davidson, he's producing like a player worthy of a much higher draft pick -- Stu MacGregor is some kind of seer.
To get a sense of how Blain's numbers would translate to the NHL, we can use Gabriel Desjardins' NHL Equivalency. Gabe's methodologies are described on his translations page:
One way to evaluate the difficulty of one league relative to another is to examine the relative performance of players who have played in both leagues. Players rarely play significant time in two leagues in the same year, but they often play in one league in one year and in another the next. As long as a player’s skill level is approximately constant over this two year period, the ratio of his performance in each league can be used to estimate the relative difficulty of the two leagues.
If you're interested in the numbers behind some of the players that may be drafted in this year's lottery, check out SumOil's CHL update posts every other Monday.
After the jump is the full list of skating prospects with their NHL Equivalency and full season projections.
Player - League | DOB | Drafted | NHL PPG | NHL82 G | NHL82 A | NHL82 P | Change |
Linus Omark - AHL | 2/5/87 | 97 | 0.440 | 19 | 17 | 36 | 0 |
Robby Dee - NCAA | 4/9/87 | 86 | 0.433 | 15 | 21 | 36 | +5 |
Ryan Martindale - OHL | 10/27/91 | 61 | 0.423 | 14 | 20 | 34 | -1 |
Curtis Hamilton - WHL | 12/4/91 | 48 | 0.393 | 12 | 21 | 33 | -1 |
Liam Reddox - AHL | 1/27/86 | 112 | 0.379 | 16 | 15 | 31 | -2 |
Anton Lander - SEL | 4/24/91 | 40 | 0.364 | 15 | 15 | 30 | -2 |
Alexei Mikhnov - KHL | 8/31/82 | 17 | 0.323 | 4 | 23 | 27 | +8 |
Alexander Bumagin - KHL | 3/1/87 | 170 | 0.315 | 14 | 12 | 26 | +2 |
Tyler Pitlick - WHL | 11/1/91 | 31 | 0.316 | 10 | 15 | 25 | -2 |
Toni Rajala - SM-Liiga | 3/29/91 | 101 | 0.295 | 12 | 12 | 24 | +1 |
Ryan O'Marra - AHL | 3/29/91 | 15 | 0.280 | 2 | 21 | 23 | 0 |
Colin McDonald - AHL | 9/30/84 | 51 | 0.281 | 18 | 5 | 23 | +3 |
Teemu Hartikainen - AHL | 5/3/90 | 163 | 0.232 | 10 | 9 | 19 | +2 |
Kellen Jones - NCAA | 8/16/90 | 202 | 0.226 | 7 | 12 | 19 | +1 |
Drew Czerwonka - WHL | 7/1/92 | 166 | 0.207 | 7 | 10 | 17 | +5 |
Kristians Pelss - WHL | 9/9/92 | 181 | 0.126 | 3 | 7 | 10 | +3 |
Chris Vande Velde - AHL | 3/15/87 | 97 | 0.113 | 5 | 4 | 9 | +2 |
Milan Kytnar - AHL | 5/19/89 | 127 | 0.101 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0 |
Philippe Cornet - AHL | 3/28/90 | 133 | 0.073 | 0 | 6 | 6 | +1 |
Cameron Abney - WHL | 5/23/91 | 82 | 0.045 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Player - League | DOB | Drafted | NHL PPG | NHL82 G | NHL82 A | NHL82 P | Change |
Martin Marincin - WHL | 2/18/92 | 46 | 0.308 | 7 | 18 | 25 | -2 |
Jeff Petry - AHL | 12/9/87 | 45 | 0.289 | 8 | 16 | 24 | +2 |
Jeremie Blain - QMJHL | 3/19/92 | 91 | 0.261 | 2 | 19 | 21 | +9 |
Brandon Davidson - WHL | 8/21/91 | 162 | 0.229 | 3 | 16 | 19 | -3 |
Taylor Chorney - AHL | 4/27/87 | 36 | 0.147 | 2 | 10 | 12 | +1 |
Kyle Bigos - NCAA | 5/12/89 | 99 | 0.103 | 0 | 8 | 8 | -2 |
Alexandre Plante - AHL | 5/9/89 | 15 | 0.078 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -4 |
Johan Motin - AHL | 10/10/89 | 103 | 0.059 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 |
Troy Hesketh - USHL | 7/5/91 | 71 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
- For the second consecutive month, Teemu Hartikainen has accelerated his NHL82, but it's no surprise because his learning curve means he's a second-half player.
- Lowetide talks about players being lost in the wilderness at times during their development, and Troy Hesketh is looking more and more like he needs a compass and a map. Guy Flaming at Coming Down The Pipe has more on Hesketh who was traded for a third time this season, this time from the Chicago Steel to the Sioux City Musketeers. Hesketh has yet to register a point in the USHL, and didn't even expect to play in the USHL, but Wisconsin preferred he play in the 'U'.
- Robby Dee continues to score more than a point per game for Maine, though it's his power play skill carrying his numbers so far.
- We've got a Drew Czerwonka sighting. Czerwonka, drafted 166th overall for his size and sandpaper, now has 25 points in 35 WHL games.
- Tyler Pitlick talked about feeling better now that he's permanently on the right wing in Medicine Hat, but the Tigers offensive production fell apart in mid-December after Emerson Etem left for World Junior Camp. Before his departure, the Tigers averaged 3.83 goals per game. Since Etem left, Medicine Hat has averaged 2.6 goals per game. Pitlick has picked up points in his absence, but not been able to take up all of the slack.
- Finally, a word about Kristians Pelss. Bruce wrote about his recent results and "rapid progress" for the Edmonton Oil Kings. For Pelss, a kid coming from a fourth tier junior league, the offense has to be a huge relief. He had to adjust to a new country, new language and new game and a higher level of play in a very short amount of time. Pelss won't likely leave for the AHL any time soon, so if he's able to figure this whole thing out - he might be one of the best prospect stories an Oiler fan could follow.