Dunno. To me, in hockey terms, ‘blue chip’ always goes with ‘prospect’. If a guy goes straight from the draft into the NHL, he's really only a prospect for that one summer. By that standard, the number of blue-chip prospects while the games are actually being played would be zero. Even if the standard is going straight from junior to the NHL, the number is very small.
Given that he's playing defence, a position where hardly anyone makes the NHL at age 19, and that he is already playing in the AHL when most players his age are in junior, I don't mind calling Kylington a blue-chip prospect. If he were in the CHL this year, or still in Sweden, he could be a blue chipper by your definitions; but since he is in the AHL at the same age, he isn't? I don't get that.
Andersson I'm on the fence about – he has more points so far and seems to be progressing in defensive play, but I don't know whether his conditioning has improved as much as necessary.
__________________
WARNING: The preceding message may not have been processed in a sarcasm-free facility.
|