Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
This is the exact point i was trying to make. Just saying Ryan Francis has no shot to please Darryl or play for his flames because he's 5'9 is a poor take. He's 19, many people continue growing until they're in their early 20s.
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Francis will be liked by Sutter if he does make it to the bigs.
Francis plays with a low center of gravity and is very sturdy. He doesn't go out head hunting but he is very good at retrieving pucks along the boards. It's like a sneaky good talent of his.
For Francis to make it to the NHL he doesn't have a huge list of things to work on.
Francis needs to get stronger, he needs to somewhat correct his skating ( not slow just clunky), work on his gaps a little and faceoffs (if he is a center which I doubt he will be in the NHL). He already has a good Hockey IQ and is where he needs to be most of the time.
In all honesty Poirier is going to have a lot harder time making to the NHL than Francis in my opinion. If Poirier doesn't clean up his defensive effort he will never play a game in the NHL.