Quote:
Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard
I agree in part, however Hopkins was too good to send down to the WHL, the risk that I can see is potentially stalling his development. I can see both sides of the argument, I do think that it would have been good for him to go back to junior and bulk up more. I don't know if it was because of a bad lineup - the Oilers were not going to make the playoffs with or without Hopkins in the lineup, so I don't see that as being a driving factor. The fact that he got a hat-trick in his first couple games did show he had the skill though.
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As a junior could get to compete and lead in some important games.
His Red Deer team was seeded 2nd in the playoffs in his draft year... They won 1 round. In his total career RNH has been in 13 playoff games and lost most of them.
Imagine how Mackinnon and Drouin and Seth Jones stock would have fallen when playing on dominant regular season teams had been beaten in round 2 of the playoffs. Seth Jones stock dropped from 1st to 4th because he did not dominate against Mackinnon.
RNH has a better playoff record than Jay Bouwmeester but not by a lot.
It will be interesting to see how Scheifele does this year compared to RNH. Drafted 7th in 2011 with RNH he looked as ready for the NHL as did RNH in 2011. He went back to Juniors for 2 years and last years playoff carried a team to within a spit of the memorial cup... He had 41 pts in 21 OHL playoff games.
Scheifele is starting year 1 of his ELC this year.