What you need to know about Maple Leafs’ John Prokop, Islanders’ Gleb Veremyev
It’s that time of year where undrafted college free agents begin to find NHL homes.
That continued this week as the Toronto Maple Leafs landed Union College defenseman John Prokop, while the New York Islanders are also close to a deal with Colorado College forward Gleb Veremyev.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk chatted with prospect analyst Steven Ellis about what fans of the Maple Leafs and Islanders can expect from their new additions.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s start with a little bit of prospect news from this week. There were a couple of college free agent signings over the last few days. Are either the Leafs or Islanders getting a diamond in the rough?
Steven Ellis: Prokop out of Union is an interesting guy. This is someone who, I remember watching him play in the USHL. He couldn’t score to save his life. He had like four goals in his entire USHL [career]. But he immediately scores four goals in his first college season and continued to add and add until this most recent season where he was actually one of Union’s top scorers. He had a bit of a point reduction this year but it wasn’t a big deal because he just wasn’t scoring a lot to begin with. I don’t think we’re talking about a full-time NHLer there. I think we’re talking about a guy who is going to be a really good AHLer and your seventh or eighth defenseman who you call up from time to time. I would like to see him make quicker decisions. He was more offensive and playmaking at Union but in the NHL, if he makes it there, it’s going to be more of a shutdown role. Then you look at Veremyev out of Colorado College. He is a 6-foot-4 center, really big, and tough to play against. I don’t know if he has the overall hockey sense to take his game to the next level but you can always use big centerman, and he has a bit of experience on the wing and he can play the penalty kill, so I like that for the Islanders.
Frank Seravalli: When I made my list of undrafted college free agents to look for in the NHL, you had a couple different guys on yours. Not to say that we differed in opinion, just that there are only so many you can list. Who are some other guys we should be keeping an eye on over the next couple of weeks as the college season winds down?
Steven Ellis: I’ll start with Karsen Dorwart out of Michigan State. This guy is probably the best two-way center of any of the college free agents. He really controls the puck well. I’ve seen him a couple of times in person this year and it felt like he was just involved at both ends of the ice. He is not going to be a high-end producer at pretty much any level but I think he has the hockey sense and the defensive responsibility that you can plug and play him in different spots and he’s going to perform.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: