Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
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.
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Good post.
I think the good thing about Ferland is that his upside is as a goal scoring power forward, but his downside is as an enforcer who can play. There may be other knocks about his skills, but I don't think anyone who's been watching his fights on youtube, can question his ability to fight.
If you can pick up a Chris Neil type in the low rounds of the draft, you've done a good job.