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Originally Posted by Textcritic
Maybe a different way to look at this is to qualify Gaudreau's significance to the organisation differently, and by arguing that he could be the most naturally gifted or skilled prospect in Flames history.
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Absolutely, I think his name is in the mix for this. I am not arguing against his tantalizing skill. I just caution anyone calling him the Flames best prospect ever.
I like your example of Kovalev. Another example of a prospect with extremely gifted puck skills was Ales Hemsky. The Oilers hype is always extra "special", but he was touted as their most skilled prospect ever (by MacT I think?).
Skill is great, and we've had such a shortage of it through the prospect pipeline for so many years now, I certainly get why people are excited, myself included.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Of course, there are also real, possible limitations on his ability to harness it because of his very small size. I think this is what you are objecting to, but quite frankly, we've been hearing about how much of a determent this will be to his development over and over ever since the day he was drafted.
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You are correct.
Here's the thing with Johnny: he is the biggest wild card in the organization. If everything works out perfectly, if his small stature plays well at the NHL level the way he has everywhere else, then he's a blue chip prospect as good as any other in the organization right now.
But there's also the flip side. The kid is smaller than any prospect I've ever seen - he's built like a 15 year old kid. And maybe the cerebral nature of his game will allow this to be a non-issue - who can possibly know right now?
For any undersized player it's an uphill battle, but for Johnny even more. I don't think we've seen a player as small as him EVER in the NHL. I know people will point to Gerbe, but he's 25 lbs heavier than Johnny on an even shorter frame. So I guess my long-winded point is in order for Johnny to reach star status in the NHL, he'll have to do something that has rarely if ever been done before.