Quote:
Originally Posted by circle
This vote was a toss-up for me. I originally voted Linus Lindstrom because I liked what I saw from him at the World Juniors this year and I think his 2-way skill is very translatable to today's game but here I voted for Gawdin over Ruzicka.
My main reasoning here is that Gawdin has shown the ability to be a consistent producer for his team and watching him through the WHL playoffs and Memorial Cup, you could see that he was getting tons of scoring chances and also capitalizing on many of them. Although he is an overager, I did find that he played a big role in the success of his line and team rather than Heponiemi "carrying" his line. Has good all around skill although nothing jumps out at you but consistency is his greatest strength IMO. Gawdin will need to work on his skating in the next few years.
The problem I have with Ruzicka at the moment and why I can't vote for him yet is that he has all the tools to be successful but doesn't have the drive and compete to be "the guy." This was most evident in the World Juniors where as a returnee and leader of the Slovak team, he was benched by his coach in the meaningful games. This guy has all the abilities that you look for in a player (size, skill, great shot) but if he doesn't have the will to win, then all of that talent is useless. He will shoot up my personal rankings next year if he can show more consistency and drive.
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He wasn't a captain or one of the assistants, in fact he was one of the handful of 18 year olds on the team. The majority of the team were 19 year olds.
In the American game he was on the top line and the ice for all three goals that the Slovaks scored (none against). I can't find any ice times from the juniors, but I don't recall him being benched. His line was typically the first one on after the Slovaks got scored on.
He was probably touted as one of the more skill players on the Slovak team, but they were always picked as a team that would struggle to score. I doubt many had them making it to the quarter finals.