Quote:
Originally Posted by ignite09
Is Keller as good as Gaudreau? I don't YouTube scout at all, and pretty much get all my prospect info from this site. Some of you seem to be selling Keller as the next Kane/JH, are the pro scouts in agreement with you?
|
guys like Gaudreau, Kane, panarin, kucherov are brought up to combat the notion that you have to be x height to even succeed in the NHL.
small players bust... but big players also bust.... there is no correlation between size and success in the NHL. Just look at the list of top 30 scorers in the NHL this past season...if the average NHL player is 6'1", the dispersal of guys over that and under that is pretty equal (excluding dmen, where size is obviously an advantage).
As for Keller, well he beat out Matthews scoring record for the US dev squad and he's almost a full year younger than Tkachuk... skill wise and compete wise, the kid is elite. If he were 6'3" he'd probably be in the conversation for top 3 this year
but there is no gaurantees for any player outside the top 3 (and even they could not reach expectations)
I don't think calgary is looking for a #1 center; they have one in Monahan... They are looking for someone to pair with bennett to create two legit scoring lines. I have no concern about a player shifting from center to wing - it happens all the time in the NHL.
And Gaudreau is not the exception; there are a lot of good 5'11" players in the league and Keller could still potentially crack the 6'0" mark considering his age.