Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameZilla
So we're not quite at the 'Baertschi-Impasse' where he has to make the team or face the waiver-wire...
It's really tough to say what his true value is, but it's going to be high-risk, high-reward.
There's no denying he's a great prospect. He's always reminded me of a young Tanguay... lots of skill but not a whole lot of drive. I'm sure there's more to his game than that, but we've had enough floating skill players over the years. We need more guys like Bennett & Ferland who combine tenacity and skill.
I could see him going to the Nucks or Avs.
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I would classify Drouin as being a very tenacious player at times.
Look at the sequence around 1:10 in this clip to see what I mean:
Throughout this clip, you him being both very elusive (akin to Gaudreau) and also sometimes a bit hard-nosed and physical. Definitely not quite like Bennett, that's for sure, but he is not Baertschi in that regard.
If that doesn't convince you, look at how much of a puck-hound he is (like Bennett) all over the ice (not just in the offensive zone) in the NHL.
I would call him fairly tenacious, not afraid of contact, skates hard out there (don't really see him floating around much) and is a much better skater than Baertschi (doesn't fall over and get pushed off the puck if someone breathes on him).
You can easily see why he was a third overall pick, and why Yzerman intends to hold out for a good package. I made the comment earlier about Kylington and that he should be a relative 'untouchable'. I think that because Kylington's value is NOT that of Drouin, but he has the ceiling to get his value close in the long run. Including him as an + in a trade may drastically shift the balance of that trade towards Tampa, as I would assume the meat of the trade would be costly already.
We all see what Gaudreau can do and how he impacts the game out there. It is worrisome that Drouin hasn't cracked the lineup regularly, and no, Tampa doesn't have this amazing depth in their lineup that keeps a guy like this out of it.