Being a big Sharks fan preparing my next keeper draft, I hear a lot of good things right now about Devin Setoguchi. Stangely enough, though, he does not appear in Hockey\'s Future or The Hockey News Top 50 Prospects rankings. Is it a gross mistake, are they missing the boat ?

What upside do you see for him ?

Long term I don\'t know much about him, but short term: he got traded in jrs. this season and did not respond well and had a bad early season and as a result a lot of people lost faith in him. He picked it up big time near the end of the year. Obviously the Sharks lineup will be real tough to crack for the forseeable future too.

Setoguchi\'s got a great right-handed shot, good enough defensive sense to play the point on the powerplay for the Cougars (who just took out Mueller\'s Silvertips in six), and 10-8-18 in 10 games to lead the WHL playoffs so far. Not that this was a great season for him - 36-29-65 in 55 games, which placed him 32nd in the league. But he\'s got a terrific shot - better than Mueller\'s - and is (as his coach put it) \"a straight-forward guy with speed and power.\" I\'d put his upside at 80-85 points in four or five years, once he fills out and outgrows his streaky inconsistency. He\'s got the skills, no question there. Now he just needs to show up to play every night.

Post edited by: Thieving Giraffe, at: 2007/04/17 14:09

__________________
T.G.

His biggest problem this year was the pain of being traded. He was homesick and didn\'t play very well. But as was said, the playoffs have seen that turned around. Sharks fans have been quick to compare him to Cheechoo, which I\'d say is apt minus the heart and grit aspect. But Setoguchi could easily change that if he wants to.

It\'s hard for a player to rebound from an injury, a trade and having 3 coaches in a season. It\'s just really hard to do, and anyone under these circumstances would be having an off year.
Setoguchi should play in the A next year and if someone falters in the lineup, I could see him stealing a spot.

That said, with Clowe emerging from mediocrity to be a half-decent player, the roster is kind of full. Heck, when Mark Smith is scratched, you\'re going to have to be incredible to break into the SJ roster. Unless you\'re a defenseman(believing one of Hannan and Rivet are gone, giving Murray/Davison back a roster spot *shudder*).

Setoguchi in 2009. Sharks won\'t be able to keep everyone and he\'ll fit into their plan nicely. He just needs to iron out consistency issues and whatnot and I think he\'ll be a solid player. Not a Michalek or Cheechoo, but not far from them.

__________________
ZFHL
------------
Ovechkin-Couture-Kovalchuk
Benn-Ott-Eriksson
Halischuk-Berglund-S.Thornton
Bowman-Legwand-Mitchell
Faulk-Orlov
Martin-Y.Weber
Wilson-Smid
Niemi

Butler,Horak,Nodl,Omark,Bartulis, Carson,Demers,Staios,Garon,Schneider

PROSPECTS
Nyquist,Bennett,Guptill,Haula,Knight, Kristo,Ranford,Rieder,Sundher,Barberio
Dumoulin,Deslauriers,Janosik,Klefbom
Ness,Sproul,Vatanen,Poulin