Quote:
Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja
The Canucks are really starting to remind me of the 2009-2012 Flames. Hovrat and Shinkurak are better than any prospect we had in that time frame not named Sven though.
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Horvat, yes. Shinkaruk, I suspect not.
Post draft he may be comparable to Backlund. Not in any way in terms of playing style, but much more in terms of their journey into professional hockey and post-draft potential. Backlund was a player who slid down the draft-rankings from in the top-ten to the 20s by the time of the draft. There were clear questions about his ability to translate his game at the NHL level, and while he was the Flames best prospect at the time of the draft, he was clearly pretty average when compared to the top-end of other teams. Shinkaruk didn't slide down the rankings, but was passed over by a dozen teams on his way to being selected well below where he was projected. Like Backlund, there are serious questions about his game, and concerns about whether he will succeed at the NHL level. Like Backlund, compared to the top end of most other NHL teams, at this point Shinkaruk looks pretty average.
One could probably also add Erixon and Nemisz to the list of Flames picks with comparable post-draft potential to Shinkaruk.