Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
How is that whining? Because I don't agree with the Jankowski gospel?
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People are whining about the Jankowski pick well before he's even close to busting. Tons of whining in this thread, it permeates it. Which a lot of us think is really silly because he still looks like he might turn out just fine. Would people rather have Maatta right now? Sure. But to expect your team to always take the best player available in the second half of the first round is crazy unrealistic. Feaster, Weisbrod and Button swung for the fences with Jankowski and it was a good gamble. The Flames had been looking for a big skilled centre for what, 15 years? Since Nieuwendyk left? Just because we drafted Monahan last year does not mean any can claim that we didn't badly, badly, badly need a big top two line centre. And Jankowski may very well turn out to be that. Which could still turn out to be a tremendous asset for us when he's fully developed.
I believe the Hockey News did an article on re-drafting Jankowski's draft and the scouts still had him as a first rounder so clearly that hockey world is not as down on Mark as many of the pessimists around here are.
Bottom line to me is that we all knew the kid was a 4-5 year project when he was drafted so those people going on and on and on about how terrible the pick after two years where he made a successful transition to college hockey and has showed improvement are being extremely premature in their assessment.