Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Well the way the conversation went people were writing him off due to being slightly overweight while assuming everything would go just fine with the underweight prospects. Which made
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His size raises two red flags for me. They're not deal-breakers but they're also not present with most other prospects in the 3-7 range. I suspect this is where many other people are coming from, too.
These are:
1) Not all players with conditioning problems just "figure it out". See Byfuglien, Penner, Howse, Cundari
2) A player so much more physically mature than others at his age may give him an unfair advantage in junior that may not be there in the NHL.
With the latter, I admit to having similar reservations about Ekblad. It's one thing to dominate guys when you're 20 or 30 or 50 lbs heavier than them. It's another when you're no longer the biggest player on the ice. How much of their game is merely a result of their being able to physically dominate those around them? If this physical domination doesn't translate to the NHL, will they be effective?
You'd expect that players rated in the top tier are probably not those that scouts are
really concerned about re: this issues, but it's not surprising that fans are apprehensive about it, especially when there are other guys in the same area that don't have these red flags.