Quote:
Originally Posted by TheoFleury
I think Jankowski will eventually be a 35-45 point, middle 6 center who is elite, or near-elite, defensively. Basically a 6'4" version of Backlund, and not really much like Stajan at all. Matty only scored when he was younger and thrust into a top 6 role on a bad team. He is more of a jack of all trades type, who is good at nothing, average at everything. Basically, he's a bottom 6 character guy who doesn't embarrass himself out there. Obviously he has some skills, but the offense only ever showed when he got steady top 6 minutes and PP time, but he was only ever going to get that on a bad team.
Jankowski has some tantalizing tools that Stajan has never possessed despite what his score sheet from a seven or eight years ago says. Actually I'm not really sure what Stajan's offensive peak has to do with anything at all with regards to Jankowski. It was a total mirage as many players would be good enough to rake up some points in the NHL while the team loses game after game. Someone has to score on bad teams after all.
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Sorry to interrupt the Ferland discussion but I thought I would touch on this post.
I see a lot of fans with this attitude towards veteran players and prospects. Cogliano was going to be Marchant with hands for instance. Turns out their career ppg is identical at the moment, and Marchant was a better defensive player, hence a better player overall.
I'm not saying Jankowski vs Stajan will turn out this way, but it seems some fans are much more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to a player that is unproven versus one that has actually accomplished something in the NHL.
Stajan is discredited by saying that he could only put up points on a bad team, but when Stajan was 22 he scored 39 points on a team that finished the season with 91 points. That was a better team than the Flames were last year and what they are on pace for this season.
If we go by the cold hard numbers, Jankowski at 22 is lagging behind Stajan at 22 thus far. Jankowski has some real work to do to catch up to Stajan's career path. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
Other interesting guys to look at would be Joe Colborne, and Blake Wheeler for the fact that they are also big men who played at lower levels predraft and went to University. Wheeler in particular was drafted out of high school hockey in a situation similar to Jankowski.