Quote:
Originally Posted by cowtown75
Well going by your opinion on who succeeds based on size and the difference between a year or two in age, guys like Gretzky, Datsyuk, Theo Fleury, Nugent-Hopkins shouldn't have been successful because after all- they are going against 6'2 215 lb NHL defencemen. I guess because Ferland is bigger or one year older should definately spell his demise and end even before he starts. I guess Nemisz is also out of the picture too. Heck, Datsyuk was 23 when he made it to the NHL. Ridiculous ! you cannot predict who is or is not going to be successful based on age or size and lots of teams try and not throw their new draft picks (18 in age) into the next season and would rather develop them more first unless the team has nothing to loose by having them there. I think Sven Bartschi could be in the NHL now, but they feel another year in the north american minors only benefit the player and the team down the road- they are not in full re-build like the Oilers where spots are taken up on the Flames by vets like Iggy, Tanguay, Ollie, GlenX, Bourque, etc etc. In my personal opinion, an 18 year old or 19 is nothing, or even 20- size sometimes also amounts to be nothing- see- Gretzky, Fleury, Dionne, Kane, Skinner, Bure, Keon, I could go on....
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Had you not quoted my post I would have no idea this was response to me. I really don't know how to respond to this post because it completely seems to miss all my points completely, guess I'll try though.
I'll start with Bartschi, I don't know how I could be more clear on how I see him as a great prospect. If "His game which relies on his hockey sense, vision, puck awareness and skating will translate to the NHL easier" isn't a ringing endorsement to you I'm not quite sure what you're expecting. I think he plays physical enough game that size is a bit of an issue, right now, at 180 pounds he would simply not be able to play the same way in the NHL. Which is fine, he has enough skill and is smart enough to think he could adapt but I'd much rather see him put on 10 or 15 pounds this next off-season and come into the NHL north of 190. Similar with Horak, I think his size is holding him back a bit, get both these guys training with Roberts during the off-season and I'll be a happy Flames fan.
As for size in general, of course it matters. Yes, there are exceptions, but size is definitely taken into account. Look at Grimaldi, based on talent, speed, determination he was easily a first round pick, probably high first. But he's 5''6' and that's the
only reason he wasn't taken in the first, don't buy that his religious views cost him any spots. Gaudreau, not much different, many players taken above him possessed less talent. Is it completely stopping them from playing in the NHL? Of course not, but it's definitely an obstacle they will have to overcome that other players don't. No one will argue differently.
Now for Ferland, I'm not going to directly compare him to Casey Pierro-Zabotel, but like Pierro-Zabotel he's using his size to an advantage. With Pierro-Zabotel you couldn't knock him off the puck or out of the crease, he was too strong for the majority of WHL players, and along with good linemates who could get him to the puck, he just drove to the net or parked in front and waited. But, as time and time has shown again, at 210 pounds you can get away with that in the WHL, it's not as easy when you're going up against men. He couldn't make in the AHL and now he's in the ECHL, which comes to no surprise to everyone who watched him play and knew he wouldn't make it in the NHL without drastically improving his skating. And the list of big players who put up big points in the WHL who don't make it in the NHL is far bigger than those that do, like Cracknell. Thankfully Ferland is a better skater than Pierro-Zabotel, but like I said before, despite only being a couple spots below Bartschi in the leading scorer chart I don't got the same expectations, very few people do.