Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
He was "exceptional" because he was a man-child with great skating not because he was a generational player. That's it. He had to play junior at that young age because he was so far ahead in physical development compared to his peers.
McDavid, Tavares and Ekblad all were exceptional talents and in Ekblad's case were exceptional in terms of physical development. The only thing Day shares with them is that he was similarly physically developed like Ekblad.
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IMO the real reason he was given exceptional player status is that Hockey Canada/CHL wanted to keep him away from the US development program so he'd play internationally in Canada. If he didn't have that option to play in the US program - I highly doubt he'd have been given the exception.