Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire
While he's not a centre, I wonder if the skill and aggressiveness of Gabriel Landeskog is a good comparison. I mean, the kid's a Swede, but he plays like he just left the prairies.
All I know is that I hope the Flames get a top 3 pick, so they can get Barkov.
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Maybe in terms of maturity, but I don't see Barkov as an aggressive player. More like a big presence with great offensive awareness. At the moment I think Joe Thornton is roughly the type. He turned 17 a couple of months ago and he definitely plays a number-one centre game against men already. Size helps a lot but he's also very smart.
He seems like a safe pick and I don't mean that in a bad sense. I don't know how his skill cap compares to other top prospects. He could make the NHL at 18, although I wouldn't expect huge points in the first year.