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When you draft a player generally it takes at least a couple seasons before you get a good idea on if he'll ever develop into anything or not.
With over half of the 2014-15 CHL season in the bag I decided to take to the numbers to see how development is coming along with the prospects New Jersey drafted from the CHL in June.
Below you'll see the numbers from each prospect's 2013-14 season, and how they compare to what they're doing this season.
Note: Numbers via CHLStats.com. PPG is points per game. eP/60 is estimated points/60 minutes, and GF% Rel is goals for relative to the team when a player isn't on the ice. Example: Team X scores 50% of the goals when player Y is on the ice, but only 40% when he's not on. His GF% Rel would be +10%.
2014 1st rounder John Quenneville's points per game rate is down a little bit, but he's playing on a very good team that's added some high-end talent so he's not relied upon as much offensively. His estimated points/60 is up, which is encouraging. Though his GF% Rel is down, again, the Brandon Wheat Kings are a very good team and have some older talent, so it's not surprising his numbers are a little worse in that regard. It's better to be positive, obviously, but his GF% is 53% so it's not as if he's getting his teeth kicked in.
Connor Chatham's development is in line with what you'd hope to see, and is 63GF% (+19% Rel) is very encouraging. A highly mediocre team in Plymouth is outscoring their opponents by a pretty significant margin when he's on the ice, which is good to see. His sample size isn't overly large (24 games) due to some injury problems, so hopefully those numbers hold up over time.
Brandon Baddock's offensive numbers are up a little bit, but he's a 19-year-old and those numbers aren't very good for a player of his age. Best case scenario he's an NHL depth player.
As for Rehill, I was somewhat puzzled by that pick at the draft and I'm still not a big fan. His skating is OK, but you'd call it average at best, and he possesses zero offensive upside. His point production isn't up at all, and his GF% numbers are down now that he's being relied upon heavily. He compared himself to Douglas Murray, who, with all due respect doesn't have much place in today's NHL, so I wouldn't get your hopes up about his future. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I'm not optimistic.
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