[StrykerSteve]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

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.





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.

Byron is smaller.