2024 T25U25: Nicholas Moldenhauer is #19

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Nicholas Moldenhauer needs a better PR team because I think I even shocked myself on how much lower he ended up in the 2024 Top 25 Under 25 compared to last year.

Nicholas Moldenhauer	Vitals
Age as of July 1	20.1
Position	RW/C
Height	5'10"
Weight (lbs)	170
Shoots	R
Draft Year	2022
Draft Number	95

The Player

Moldenhauer was 13th last year, with the quotes from the voters establishing him as a jack-of-all-trades, useful, Alex Steeves in the making player. I actually forgot that I wrote the article for him last year. It was good to get that reminder and not forget what a dominant USHL season at the age of 19 he had; 75 points in 55 games, behind only Macklin Celebrini and a couple other top prospects in that league

I'd like to explore in this article the two possibilities why he's fallen all the way to 19th.

1. Not as many points as a freshman in the NCAA. Simply put, 21 points in 41 games doesn't look as good as 75 in 55. But in the context of this player on the team he's on, it's a very strong first step in the NCAA. He was on the first power play unit for the University of Michigan; a team stacked with talent. He played with great players and his wide skillset lent him to being very useful. But as a freshman, there's a big learning curve and some time needed to gain the coach's trust.

2. Getting Moldenhauer mixed up with Hudson Malinoski? This ties in with the first point that I think we (all of us) saw his points, compared them to Malinoski's on a worse team coming from the AJHL and put them together closer than they should've been. Malinoski was 20th last year and 25th this year in the T25. Maybe it's possible there are five new guys that jumped ahead, but it's been commented that folks have confused the two.

When you are comparing prospects, standing still is no different to moving backwards. Moldenhauer made a big step last year, going to the NCAA on a very competitive Michigan roster, but took a step back in the spotlight. The spotlight being higher in the lineup and thus lower in the points ranking. Even if a player is developing, they may not be developing in the areas that show up in the results.

After watching the highlights of Moldenhauer's season that Brigs has stored on Twitter, I see much of what he was doing in the USHL in the NCAA. He wasn't able to be as strong physically against a class of slightly older players, but as a winger he attacked from the top of the offensive zone towards the net, not skying away from contact or puck battles. His shot looked good, shooting 13% according to the team's site (8 goals on 62 shots). He was able to bury rebounds by keeping his stick on the ice and getting to the soft areas around the net.

#LeafsForever prospect Nick Moldenhauer pounces on a rebound and scores on the powerplay for his 8th goal of the season. He's up to 20 points in 35 games.pic.twitter.com/YfG9NVf4uo
— More like Nikita GREATbyonkin (@brigstew86) March 9, 2024

#LeafsForever prospect Nick Moldenhauer scores off the rebound for his 7th goal of the season. He's up to 17 points in 25 games in his freshman year in the NCAA.pic.twitter.com/EXgeNHCUig
— More like Nikita GREATbyonkin (@brigstew86) February 3, 2024

Moldenhauer did a lot of good things last year, I think what was missing for a lot of people was not having him do it enough. That frequency often comes naturally as a player spends more time in a league and works his way up to the top of the lineup through promotion.

So, yeah, he's a little lower this year, but by no means is that an indication that he should be ignored.

The Votes

Here's the voting spread for Moldenhauer. Brian, Adam, and Shinson are the highest on him. I think Shinson's blurb is definitely worth a read. Our perspectives were not something we shared before voting. I appreciate their perspective now.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	20
Brian	15
Species	17
Adam	15
Hardev	21
dhammm	17
Cameron S	18
Hound Line	22
brysplace	23
Catch-67	20
Sclodiggity	19
shinson93	12
The Bag	17
Zone Entry	22
Weighted Average	18.43
Highest Vote	12
Lowest Vote	23

For my vote at 21, it's among the lower of the votes for Moldenhauer. I think I fell victim to feeling bad for another player you'll see this week and wanting to find a place for the goalies that wasn't in the 20s again. If I had not done that, I think I would've been more in line with my previous votes for Moldenhauer. But at the end of the day, this is just a good, fun exercise.

The Opinions

dhammm: The glass-half-full take on Moldenhauer's 2023-24 season is that he got playing time as a freshman and had a pretty good year, but the half-empty is that there didn't seem to be the kind of explosive year-over-year growth in counting stats one associates with marquee prospects worth getting excited about. Someday Stars hit the ground running, even when changing leagues, so it’s only USHL priors that make me look at Moldenhauer differently than I look at, say, Hudson Malinoski. I'd like to see Moldenhauer bend the game to his will more at the NCAA level to get me excited again.

shinson93: Of all the prospects not on the Marlies, Moldenhauer is the one I watched the most. When he was on the ice, he was rarely doing anything wrong, but he also wasn’t doing anything particularly to demand more ice time (while fellow freshman Schifsky, undrafted, out played him most nights). Looking at that roster, it was always going to be hard for him to earn a role higher in the lineup. I gave him a bit of a pass as I still think he’s a bit late on the development curve, but he needs to move the needle more this year.

Cathy: Moldenhauer is a tough guy to nail down. On the one hand, his 22-23 season with Chicago Steel was outstanding, and he was one of the best players in the USHL. On the other hand, you may have heard of his centre? A fellow named Macklin Celebrini. This is the Zach Hyman problem or maybe the Connor Brown problem. Or maybe I should pull up some names of guys no one has ever heard of. Because Moldenhauer could be the guy who adds to the star's power or he could be the guy who basks in the reflected light for one brief moment. He seems to be a "go to the net, good things happen" guy, and that's hardly bad. But his first NCAA year is just good with only two goals and seven assists in 41 games. Whoops! Sorry, that's Hyman's first season in Michigan, not Moldenhauer.

Brigstew: To give credit to Moldenhauer, he probably would have gotten more points but was blocked on one of the deepest teams in the NCAA. Their top six were full of players who were older and/or higher draft picks. So he was getting only third line, secondary PP minutes and no higher. The knock against him from what I saw, and why I dropped his rankings from last year a bit, is that he didn't really look like he deserved more of a role than he got. His impact on the ice outside of the offensive zone wasn't great, and he wasn't driving play by helping transitions, or defensively, or anything like that. Two of the top six turned pro after last season, so he'll have a chance to earn more of a role. He'll have to be better to get it though.

Your turn. Do you think Moldenhauer was ignored somewhat this year or has he not developed enough to put up better numbers in the NCAA? Do you still see NHL potential in him?

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