Quote:
Originally Posted by Crumpy-Gunt
I want Ritchie. I think Draisatl is soft, Dal Colle is promising and has a high ceiling. But Ritchie could just be a force in the NHL - even in his rookie year I could see him scoring 20+, beating up goons and throwing big hits. I watch the OHL whenever I can and I LOVE Ritchies game. He's not some untalented big guy he has good hands and one of the best shots in the draft and skates well for a big guy.
I think Dal Colle and Ritchie are our most realistic picks. I have a sense we are about as likely to trade down as we are to trade up though. Especially if the top 3 are gone by our pick. I could see Bennett / Ekblad 1st and 2nd - then it depends how teams view Reinhart and Draisatl who has to be the most polarizing player in the draft.
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It's easy to look at Ritchie and envision a Milan Lucic clone for the Flames, but those sorts of players are so rare. I cannot claim to have seen him live other than the prospects game, but looking at the stats scares me. Here's how he compares to Zach Kassian in his draft year:
NR - 2013-14 Peterborough Petes OHL 61 39 35 74 136
ZK - 2008-09 Peterborough Petes OHL 61 24 39 63 136
So Ritchie put up a few more points with other stats looking close. I'm not saying Ritchie couldn't be a top 6 player, but he's just as likely, if not more likely, to end up a quality 3rd liner. Nothing wrong with that, but when you pick top 5 you've got to get more than that.