Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
After reading the first page I don’t know if “first line center by 14/15” looks much better than a negative response.
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I was a little enthusiastic, plus look at the team's prospects at the time. There was nobody at all he was competing with. Then in the two years after both Bennett and Monahan fell into the Flames lap at the draft table. Nobody could have predicted that you would have players like that available when the Flames were still a quasi playoff challenger. I think that if they did not get those two and with Backlund emerging as a quality top 2 center, they would have pushed Janko's development ahead faster. However, when you have three guys all of a sudden that can play like those guys can after two decades of trying to find a quality center, there's no need to rush him at all.
It certainly hasn't hurt him spending the full 4 years in the NCAA or the added year in the A, which with how he tore it up down there, he would have been in the NHL full time if the Flames had the need to.
I also still think he has 1st line upside. My opinion on that hasn't changed.