Watching a bunch of his highlight videos, I don't care if he is a fast skater or not (and I can't seem to see him having an issue in his acceleration or top speed anyway). Why?
This kid plays AT speed. He reminds me somewhat of Gaudreau - he is making plays in-tight and with speed. He isn't just carrying the puck on his stick as fast as he can skate like Lombardi or something (not a knock on Lombardi at all back then), but he is making moves at speed, he is attacking at speed, he is making plays at speed.
Worst case scenario and he doesn't improve his skating at all (which would be rather surprising, actually), is that he won't win as many races to the puck. However, once he has the puck, he plays at speed with the puck and looks very capable to make very quick decisions with the puck, or use his edges and puck possession ability to go around defenders deftly, and his shot seems to have a really nice quick release too.
I really like this kid.
As for Pelletier - I think he is underrated as well. Kid competes incredibly hard. I would be that he will be an NHL'er sooner rather that later. I thought he would make it next season, but with this damn pandemic, I am not sure how that will affect him, as I thought he would benefit from a having some AHL time for his development. Wouldn't surprise me if he made things difficult for the Flames whenever the season starts up again (and if the Flames pull him out of junior for training camp/pre-season - not sure that will really be an option), but more likely next year will be his push to make the team.
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