It doesn't have to be 'or'.
Chara OR Zadorov. Why can't it be somewhere between these two points? There is a gigantic gap here. Silayev might end up closer to Chara on the spectrum than Zadorov, or close to Zadorov. Where he ends up will be interesting.
I think some people have remembered some of the prior giants that the Flames have drafted that didn't pan out. Where where they ranked? Where were they drafted? 3 come to mind without looking in the recent past (and IIRC Helenius way back when as well) - Kanzig, Falkovsky and Bruce. All 6'7". Kanzig and Falkovsky had some other attribute to go along with the size (Bruce didn't really seem to have much other than his size IIRC). At any rate, none were raked anywhere close to the 1st round, much less in the consensus top 10 (7.44 accoridng to Bingo's last aggregate list).
This is a kid who as a 17 year old was playing against men in the 2nd best league in the world, and looking fantastic doing so. He has the agility of a much smaller player. He ranks higher than Zadorov did at their respective drafts, and Zadorov was playing against kids at the same age in the OHL, rather than the KHL.
I would also argue that perhaps Zadorov's development kind of sucked as he was drafted by Buffalo, and that was a terrible environment, then shipped out to Colorado which was at the time a terrible environment, and then Chicago that was a terrible environment. IIRC, Zadorov got benched early on in his time with Sutter, but he took a step forward here and credited Sutter with being the best coach he has had in his career so far and helping him become a better defencemen.
He isn't the 'sexy' pick, but when everything is said and done, he could be a top-pairing defencemen that tilts the ice when he is out there. He is not the pick that I would love for the Flames to make, but i have a very difficult time agreeing with the notion that this would be a bad pick in any way.
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