Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Hitting the home run though is basically luck though. Nobody will be able to say oh yes, the real gem of this draft is Lindholm or Jones or whomever.
Back in the 2007 draft everyone thought Toews was the worst pick in the top 5 and that Staal after scoring 30 goals in his rookie season was the homerun.
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Agree 100%, is is hard to predict who the best player from a draft class will be in the first 2 to 3 years after the draft, let alone on draft day.
These are 18 year old kids and you never truly know how they will develop.
Look people though Stamkos was going to bust after his first season, then he took it upon himself to go train with Gary Roberts and now he is looked at as a top 5 player.
Maybe he doesn't put in that extra work and isn't the player he is today if he gets drafted by L.A. instead, you never know.
What worries me with the d-men is that the step up to the NHL is a bigger adjustment then for a forward. The speed, strenghth, and size difference is remarkable and I am not sure we can truly predict how a d-man reacts to that change. Recently comparable d-men to Jones just haven't panned out in the NHL, E.Johnson, Hedman, and Larsson were probably just as touted as Jones and had similar positives (big, strong, great skater, etc) but just haven't taken that next step yet.