Claimed: Prospect Watch: Jake Scheel Season Recap

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Prospect Watch: Jake Scheel Season Recap

 

 

With the playoffs in full swing, players are now focused solely on pushing their way towards a championship -- and rightfully so. But for longtime fans of the VHL, the long-term outlook is also an interesting thing to follow, even as the greatest hockey of the year is being played. Calgary Wrangler's prospect Jake Scheel has both positive and negative news attached to him, and both are worth discussing. For the sake of starting strong, we'll look at the good news first: after some concerns raised earlier in the year about his potential to play at a high level deeper into his career, Scheel ended the season strong, finishing with 99 points (including an impressive 71 assists). He also ended at a +36 rating, along with an impressive 61.65% faceoff percentage. Overall, he finished 10th in goals, 5th in assists, 7th in overall points, along with the 3rd best faceoff percentage. He also finished 2nd in points among centres: a statistic that would be much more impressive had the first place centre, Mattias Forsberg, not finished with 56 points more than him.

 

So, what does all this say? Mostly that despite some early disappointment, Scheel can relax in knowing that he was a very good juniors player, at least during the regular season. He recorded a high number of points despite his two-way focus, and was extremely reliable on the draw. The Wild got a fairly good return on their initial risk in signing him, given he's not represented by a particularly well-known or reputable angency.

 

What's the bad news, then?

 

Last week, Jake Scheel reportedly missed every single practice with the Wild with a vicious flu. Although he appears to be doing better now, the incident raised a number of concerns among scouts. Firstly, some criticized Scheel for not practicing through the pain, given that the playoffs were coming right around the corner. Others argued that taking the time to recover was more responsible, to ensure he wouldn't put himself further out of the playoffs. More to the point however, even a week of missed training can put a dent on a player's reputation, and perhaps his development. Scheel had previously been remarkably consistent with attending practices and training, often being the first one to arrive at the rink in the morning.

 

With Scheel wanting to crack the line-up of the Calgary Wranglers this coming season, he well and truly can't afford to miss any training opportunities. Although the VHL is not a team with much depth to speak of, it is a league with some extremely talented players at the top. Talent that, needless to say, Scheel wishes to both contend with, and perhaps one day rise above to make his own mark on the league. With that in mind, he needs to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen again -- or at least not often. There's no doubting now that the potential is there for him to be a solid roster player, but he still needs a lot of work before the noticeable kinks in his game can be sorted out.

 

The current playoffs will prove to be something of a proving grounds, to be slightly redundant, for Scheel -- as well as for his teammates on the Saskatoon Wild. Just as last season an article was published questioning Scheel's character due to his poor performances early in the season, a good showing in the playoffs this year could show not just development as a player, but development as a person, and as an athlete. Either way, Calgary Wranglers fans will be watching closely to ensure that last week's anomaly hasn't had an impact on his game, or his development.