Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
You're going to have to back that up.
It was a mixed bag, with some support for each of the top 3 at #1, between Ekblad, Reinhart and Bennett. Ekblad probably had the most support, and Reinhart and Bennett were a coin toss. Draisaitl was a clear 4th on virtually every list, with a couple pushing him up to 3rd.
But no doubt you had a better read on the 4 of them 10 years ago, than all the scouts did. No hindsight bias there.
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Well I don't know why I would need to back it up, wasn't trying to show off here. If I really wanted to show off, I would have said previously that I had Robert Thomas ranked ahead of Nolan Patrick back in 2017.
So not sure what to say other than I watched the Ice vs the Raiders play and thought that Reinhart looked pretty listless compared to Draisaitl. Leon just had that big #1 center type of quality in him whereas Reinhart didn't. Sam was clearly a quality prospect at the time, but I don't remember any attributes that really stood out that could set him apart at the NHL level. Draisaitl on the other hand, played like a power forward, but still had soft hands for a big guy and that elite backhand pass never went away.
As for Sam Bennett, I remember liking the piss and vinegar he played with, he was a total ball of energy out there, almost too rambunctious though. He tried to do too much, forced a lot of plays, overzealous in a lot of other instances, just a very high risk/high probability not to meet expectations and not the type of style that lends itself to success against big league defenders and we saw it all throughout his career as a Flame. How many times did we see him try to go one on one against the opposition only to turn the puck over and take a bad penalty. That's why I think he's more effective in the playoffs, because the game becomes more simple. Straight lines, north-south, dump and chase, hit, separate player from puck and get greasy in front of the net.
Lastly, In terms of Aaron Ekblad's game, truthfully, I never saw him play as a Barrie Colt, so I don't have an opinion or recollection of his game one way or another.