Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
Much like the post I had quoted earlier, it is funny how you have such a strong opinion of Ritchie, but seem to know next to nothing about him?
Have you watched some video? Read some scouting reports? He has consistently been ranked in the top 10 of this draft, and occasionally in the top 5 IIRC, and all year there has been mentions of him cracking the top 3 (which he hasn't).
The players that have been compared to him on this forum have been Kassian, Lucic and lately Dingman. None of these players had the ceiling Ritchie had at their respective drafts. Ritchie has much more agility, a better shot, and better hockey sense than any of them. It is fine if you don't believe me - but go and actually get an informed opinion by reading those past player's scouting reports and compare the to Ritchie's.
You can't cap-off Ritchie at 60 pts just because that is what Lucic became. Ritchie's ceiling was WAY higher than Lucic. Now, look how valuable Lucic is, even though his offence isn't that high. Lucic (character issues aside) is an extremely valuable piece to Boston.
As for Ritchie's shot - many scouts have said Ritchie has the best shot in the CHL. It is always Ritchie, Virtanen and Dal Colle that get high praise for their shots. They are all lethal. Let's not pretend Ritchie's shot sucks here.
Position of need? You don't see Ritchie filling a position of need? Well, if all you look at are organizational charts, than I suppose you could be correct. I look at Gaudreau, Hudler, Baertschi, Granlund, Byron, Russel, etc. - all guys that are sub 6'. I look at our prospect list on forwards, and see only Ferland as a big beefy kind of guy, and Poirier who I love but is a much smaller frame. You can honestly say straight-faced that Ritchie isn't a position of need?
Once again, I am not advocating that the Flames select Ritchie. I have my own preferences. What I am saying is that Ritchie isn't as much of a 'reach' as you think he is. I will argue that if the Flames select Ritchie at 4, it isn't a 'reach' at all - they are selecting the prospect that they feel is the best available at their slot, and personally, I don't find anything wrong with that since if you follow enough drafts and prospects over the years, you smile every time you see people freaking out about deviating from the 'consensus' lists. They have proven to be anything but infallible. No scouting service list out there is perfect. No team drafts perfectly. Sure things become flops, surprises happen. Experience, due-diligence and hard work are what makes the difference between a good projection, and a poor one. Even then, teams make mistakes.
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