Quote:
Originally Posted by dammage79
If by some insane miracle Nichushkin falls to another of the Flames first round picks, there should be no way he isn't donning a Flames Jersey in two years.
Look, I get and understand fully the inherent risk of taking a Russian player that isn't even on the boat yet. Call me crazy if you like but I don't see how he isn't the better prospect over MacKinnon and Drouin and Jones. Even my favorite in the draft Barkov. This is the kind of player you start building a core with and keep for a very long time.
Sorry for getting all uppity about this, but I am sold on this player. Eventually he will make all the teams that passed on him rue the day. Rue I say!
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Well all that we can see from the highlights is that he is great at driving the puck down the wing and has excellent speed and some great puckhandling. His shot doesn't seem to be that amazing.
The highlights don't really show his passing, or his decision making and hockey sense, etc.
His hands aren't as good as Drouin or MacKinnon's IMO. He seems to half flub some of his shots and I'm not sure of those will go in vs NHL goalies. In the highlights he appears to be quite puckhoggish.
Big, one-dimensional goal scoring wingers are valuable (Vanek is probably an okay comparable but I think Vanek has a much better shot). But I don't see why you'd consider him more valuable than a franchise centre.
I'll probably go back and watch a world junior game of his again before the draft. But I'm really not seeing why you'd think he's better than MacKinnon or Drouin. Maybe you haven't seen MacKinnon and Drouin highlights? There's plenty of them.