Quote:
Originally Posted by 1991 Canadian
Phillips was my biggest surprise from the rookie games. I'm always leery of these big low point defenseman, but there is some solid potential here.
I was expecting him to assert himself physically (and he did), but he had better hands / poise than I expected of a guy his size. Some good breakout passes. Some good poise at the blueline in the zone.
I can see why the Flames scouts had him the 3rd round.
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Teams find 2-3 players every draft at best, and the rest don't turn out.
But the backlash on his selection was off for me.
The Flames as a drafting group wouldn't have selected a player that they felt had zero ceiling and was destined to be the equivalent of a replacement level 7-8 defenseman.
Yet that was the assumption ... "why draft those guys?"
They didn't. They saw shutdown defenseman with upside and took him in the third round.
May not make it but they never had the "hey lets find a big guy that can't produce offensively" plan from the start.