My thoughts on Emile:
- Potential to be a secondary playmaker i.e. Tanguay / Monahan with the right teammates. The higher his teammate quality the more he feeds off of that.
- He's visibly progressed his game this year, the stats aren't an issue.
- Still a WIP physically and defensively. I'd like to see him at ~208lbs as an NHLer, I think he's still listed around 200lbs.
- Not the best shot in the world, so he'll probably top out as a 15-20 goal guy in the NHL but I think he will be able to be a second line forward.
- Good puck skills especially on the rush.
- Not at all concerned about him busting, but I was never as high as others on here as far as him being a Hudler replacement. Sven might have been a Hudler replacement, not Emile.
Quote:
Originally Posted by curves2000
Our current crop of young stars like Monahan, Bennett and Johnny G haven't touched the minors at all. Other players though haven't seen the type of growth that maybe they should have?
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When I think of our 1st/2nd rounders... I usually start at 2007 because Darryl pretty much outright said it was a mess before then. And then when I think of guys who couldn't figure the skating part out, I'm a lot more optimistic as the new move to the Pacific Division has a power skating coach with dedicated skating days.
- Backlund worked out
- Nemisz/Wahl had concussion issues. Maybe they were bad picks but we can never say that definitively due to injuries.
- Erixon never played for our farm.
- no 1st or 2nd in 2010
- Baertschi is an everyday NHLer now. Look where he is now compared to three years ago, he's a much better player. He was never going to win a selke but he definitely developed. Hartley just had it in for him.
- Granlund isn't quite an everyday NHLer but he's shown enough at the NHL level that we should be happy with his development/selection. Some guys just max out.
- Sieloff isn't ready to be written off just yet. His actual game experience since his draft has been hit hard by injuries.
- Jankowski, Klimchuk, Poirier, Smith still have two years of waiver-exemption after this year. That's a long time. Smith is also a bit of a long shot anyways which is fine for where he was chosen.
- 2014/2015 drafts aren't even in the A yet.
Basically the only top 60 pick I'm unsatisfied with is Wotherspoon (cue Wotherspoon getting called up and having his best NHL showing of his career).
Top 60 picks aside, I would say Brodie, Bouma, Kulak, Jooris, Ferland, Byron have all had growth in the minors through our system. I'm gonna bet on Culkin also being that kind of riser. And of course there's Kylington, who's taken huge strides even since September.