Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
Not close? I agree there are several questions about Johnny that make him far from a sure thing but until they prove it in the NHL no prospect is a sure thing. Johnny has been on experts lists as one of the best prospects yet to play in the NHL. He almost won the Hobey Baker as a sophmore and lead the US WJ team in goals including lighting up team Canada. If he is not a blue chipper he is damn close.
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Size is the reason he's not a true blue chip player IMO. Blue chip prospects are gauranteed to be NHL players. I don't think he's a guarantee because he's so small. If he was 6' tall we would be discussing him in the same light Oilers fans discuss Hall as our franchise player. However he's going to have to get stronger and prove that he can play against big men of the NHL. Sven's a bigger guy and he looks like he has a lot of work to do so I'm going to wait and see with Gaudreau.
We all used to be pretty high on Backlund and while he's not a complete bust it just goes to show a lot of things can change from the junior to NHL translation.