Quote:
Originally Posted by The Fonz
Smith shouldn't be written off yet. He may not be a sexy pick, but the guy has improved his game every season. Often times prospect development seems to stall 2-3 years out from their draft years (Shinkaruk, Hickey), or even regress (Poirier). It's encouraging to see that he is still improving.
Same can be said for Jankowski. They've been baby steps, but the guy seems to move forward each season.
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The argument about jankowski is over in my opinion, it's never been about his year to year improvement, it's been about selecting him ahead of other players, specifically, the players picked immediately after him.
Olli Maatta has played 214 games for a cup contender at this point The argument for whether Jankowski was a good pick compared to who was drafted immediately after is over.
Now it's all about hoping Janko turns into an NHL player. Hopefully the Flames can get 214+ meaningful games out of him.
It will be the same objection about Smith. Dvorak, picked 4 spots later, is contributing offensively in the NHL this season, but unlike Jankowski, there aren't exactly a line of guys picked after Smith who are tearing up the league or even forcing their way into NHL lineups.
I don't think Smith was a bad pick, really. He's the kind of guy you take a flyer on in the second round because if he can put his size together with a different NHL calibre skill, he's easily a professional. Kanzig by comparison is probably a much bigger reach.
Janko with Pearson and Maatta picked basically immediately afterwards looks a heck of a lot different. Especially because of the importance of the 1st rounder.