I was waiting for your input, but didn't think we would agree much haha. I was really hoping Rubtsov would have been able to play at the U18s, but he is intriguing to me, more of a question mark than the others on the list.
Gauthier just raises red flags for me, have considered him dropping more, and is a prospect that seems to be on a downtrend. By the sounds of it, he was a no-show in the playoffs.
Really in the same sort of boat with Rubtsov, just not as much familiarity as i'd like at all. But from everything i have seen with him...i just struggle to come up with anything he really does better than Brett Howden, who i
am more familiar with, and see as a very similar sort of player.
I know there can be some "mystique" around the exotic Russians...But when in doubt, i tend to err toward the side of familiarity. And in this case, there's not only "the Russian factor", but the whole scandal surrounding that group. Really is a shame we didn't get a chance to see them at the U18s though.
Gauthier really is a tricky read. I've said it before, and i still see it...but i get Benoit Pouliot type vibes from Gauthier. And that's not great. But it's also not 30th+ pick bad. I think whoever drafts him needs to be prepared to get...not quite what they thought. Product may not be exactly as depicted.
But a 6'3" goal-scorer with touch around the net and wheels in space is still a guy with real NHL upside. Just can't be expecting a true "power forward". For me, he's right at the tail end of that ~top-20 group, just before it drops off. But his size really doesn't make him a "safe" pick imo.
Stylistically, mainly based on how he gets around the ice rather than playmaker vs sniper, i see him like a Larkin/Duchene with their speed/attacking nature. But upside wise, more Kesler-like.
I can see the Larkin comp a bit.
With Duchene, i don't really see it. Duchene even as a prospect had a great command of his speed...not just all out, but changing gears and using that top gear to elude defenders and catch them off guard by changing his attack up in flight. And not only the varied speed, but a lot more east-west component to his game when his north-south speed opened things up to move that way. Stuff he still very much has in his game.
Whereas McLeod really seems more of a North-South guy to me. Still a Top-10 type prospect, but lacking a ton of the offensive nuance that Duchene had even at a similar age.
If McLeod had the same sort of feel for naturally creating offensive space to work, with varied tempo like Duchene...he'd be a surefire Top-5 pick. It's what Nylander does a lot of, that makes him so dangerous. Though obviously, Nylander is lacking a number of the raw traits that make McLeod so intriguing.
