Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Lots of rookie centers start on the wing
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Those are highly drafted, but raw and physically underdeveloped eighteen/nineteen year olds out of Junior, in cases where they can't be sent down to the minors to refine their play at the position. Junior is a pretty crappy place for elite players to develop fine details, so teams take their chances, and also enjoy the fruits of the offensive skill those kind of guys get, as a bonus.
That's different from an almost-fully-physically-developed 21 year old with AHL eligibility. The AHL is the best developmental league in the world, and prospects can be called up with flexibility. The weight room, heavy responsibilities, and actual game experience with skilled wingers thst Janko accumulates there are invaluable. Anyone proposing he be used as a Joe Colborne is doing him a disservice. He should be used as a Backlund, Bennett, or Monahan when one of those guys gets hurt. Look at Edmonton, it was only a month in when McDavid got hurt and Draisaitl got the call up. That month in Bakersfield was huge for Draisaitl's development.