Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
I look at his junior production and feel that the player he was last season is pretty close to his ceiling.
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I don't know if that's necessarily true. On the surface his draft year production wasn't amazing, but he had a tremendous finish to the year and a great playoffs. While playing a shutdown role he put up 41 goals in 61 games from the end of November until the end of the playoffs. Then in his 18 year old season he managed a 1.37 pt/g pace which is excellent. The improvement in his skating alone should give people pause when trying to draw too much from his numbers as a 17 year old.
With more PP time and better wingers in the future, I don't see why he couldn't improve to be a 60-65 point player. Where he really needs to make improvement is in his own end. For a guy who was projected by many to be a strong defensive center with weak skating and middling offense, he really has turned out to be the opposite.