Winnipeg Jets bid to accumulate all the USHL players; Draft Mason Appleton at 168th overall

The Jets continue two trends with one pick. With their sixth pick at 168, the Jets get their fourth USHL player of the draft, and also continue their recent trend of selecting re-entry prospects who are looking to go to the NCAA.

Mason Appleton joins Andrew Copp, Tucker Poolman, Matt Ustaski, and C.J. Franklin as players passed in their first (and for some, second) draft eligible season and plan to develop in the NCAA.

The 18-year-old Appleton put up forty points for the Tri-City Storm, good enough for sixth on his team in scoring.

PCS suggests that players of Mason’s age and height who score around his rate in the USHL only make the NHL about 4.29 per cent of the time.

It’s difficult to get excited for the 38th best scorer for USHL players 18-years-of-age or younger.

PCS is tool only, and a blunt one at that, and in the sixth round you are talking about players with very limited numbers anyways. There can always be qualitative reasoning why a player may be lacking in the scoring department like usage, and shooting percentages can swing numbers wildly from “true talent” levels.

Still, even the third-party scouting community did not have much on Appleton.

Things can change and some players will develop late.

At the very least, the Jets will have up to four more years of development in the NCAA before they have to make a decision on signing Appleton to an Entry Level Contract.