Arguing that a pick was a bad one because another prospect made the jump into the NHL at an earlier date is not much of an argument. By this logic, Joe Nieuwendyk was an absolutely stupid pick when the Flames made it. Drafted out of the NCAA? Are you serious? NHL teams don't draft many players from there! (At the time).
Instead, the Flames should have drafted Alain Cote - who played in the NHL right away.
You can make good arguments for both and against why a prospect who plays in the NHL sooner is the better prospect. It does NOTHING to show which one ends up having the better career. Some prospects are better equipped to enter the NHL sooner, but that doesn't mean they will either have a bigger impact, or even a longer one.
Okposo, Mueller, Sheppard were all superior and logical picks ahead of Giroux, who were 100% the right choices even with hindsight, because they started their NHL seasons before Giroux. Right?
By this logic, you can also make a very good case that Giroux was a mistake of a pick, and that Philadelphia should have indeed selected Foligno.
By the same argument once again, Giroux = Nodl, since they both entered the NHL (and the same team) in the same year.
The more you look at it, the sillier that argument becomes. You can find both very good examples as to why drafting NHL-ready prospects are better, and you can find just as many bad examples as well.
Drafting should have nothing to do with ensuring that whomever you select should be NHL ready ASAP. It should be about drafting with the long-term future success of your team in mind. If that wasn't the case, and it is really that important that you receive a player ASAP, you are better off trading away as many draft picks as possible for NHL-ready players. Why don't all teams do this?
Flames picked Jankowski as a project. It was known then, and it is known now. Of COURSE you are going to start seeing other prospects making the NHL. They were not all rated as project picks.
Ceiling - I guess some of you don't agree with some scouting services' take on his ceiling. He does have high-end skill (we have all witnessed that at the very least in small spurts - Freidmen even mentioned it during a HNIC broadcast). He does possess very high-end IQ. He is a good skater. He is a good playmaker. He does have wonderful size as well. His "ceiling" is that of a 1st line center. Will he make it there? Who knows. Is it a bust if he makes it as a 3rd or 4th line center? He has the size to do it. That is what I think his 'floor' is - I think he will be an NHL player, but at what level is anyone's guess - but to say he doesn't have a high-ceiling goes contrary to not only expert opinions on him, but also evidence we have all seen - albeit in flashes - from him.
This is a pick that is going to take a while to see if it was awesome, terrible or somewhere in the middle. To anoint him as this organization's future franchise center is stupid. To label him as a bust and a terrible pick is just as stupid I think. He still can go both ways, or end up somewhere in the middle.
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