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Originally Posted by Strange Brew
It think its interesting to compare Poirier to Markus Granlund. In the trade thread, many people concluded Granlund had "proved" he would never amount to more than a bottom line player in the NHL.
In this thread many people are preaching patience for Poirier.
Granlund is 22, about 20 months older than Poirier. But he has parts of two seasons in the NHL. If anything, he was further along in a trajectory to being an effective NHLer when he got traded. At 21, he was playing in the NHL.
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The key part of the assertion from fans about Granlund's ceiling have to do with the fairly well established fact that between the pivotal ages of 22–24, the majority of NHL forwards have hit their target as to what sort of a player they are and will be for the balance of their careers. There is NOTHING to suggest at this point in his development that Marcus Granlund will be anything more than a third line centre at the NHL level, if that. As for Poirer—and also for Shinkaruk—there is still time for them to realistically emerge as more offensive players and better suited to top six roles. Not so for Granlund, whose development looks to have plateaued—he is what he is.
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I believe in patience for all these guys. Poirier needs to take a step next year for sure and at least be one of the better players on the AHL squad. Granlund may still turn into a very effective NHLer. With the Granlund trade, Flames get a little younger but are getting a prospect who is a longer shot at this point, IMO.
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I think that everyone would by and large agree with your call for patience, but because of the disparity in their age and development, there most certainly is more room to be patient with Shinkaruk and Poirer than with Granlund.
As for your last sentence, I would respond with "a longer shot at what"? A NHL career, most obviously, but I would challenge the notion that Shinkaruk and Poirer are longer shots than Granlund to become scoring forwards in the top-six at some point. It seems most likely that Granlund will not ever play in a scoring role at the NHL level, but that is yet to be determined for the other two.