As someone who hasn't seen Buchinger, how would you compare him to Perunovich? Seems like they are similar players in terms of style but can you or anyone else compare the two?
It's so hard to get a read on Perunovich and I honestly didn't see a lot of him before he joined the Blues so it's difficult for me to compare where they were as prospects. Buchinger has shown flashes of doing everything you want to see from a defender in the games I've watched. In every game I've seen Buchinger was a noticeable force at both ends outside of one game where he spent too much time in the box.
Buchinger should definitely be better in the defensive end than Perunovich who gets bullied at times. He's not big but he's bigger and more physical than Perunovich which allows him to position himself better (again, I'm seeing Perunovich v. pros and Buchinger v. OHLers). I'm also not sold that he's not going to be a better offensive player than Perunovich because despite the hype, Perunovich hasn't lived up to his offensive reputation. He may not be as quick as Perunovich, but he's a strong skater in his own right. I do question whether he's going to see the ice well enough at the pro level because he does make some questionable plays (both passing and skating) that he usually gets away with at his current level of competition. This is why I said that while I think he makes it to the NHL, I'm not confident enough to predict that he's able to stick long-term without cleaning that up. He's not the biggest player and his mobility isn't going to save him in the pros if he continues to make those same mistakes.
It's possible Buchinger gets exposed once the game speeds up and the pressure intensifies but I'm betting he ends up being better at both ends of the ice than anything we've seen from Perunovich thus far. He's going to be a sink or swim kind of player because he's too talented at both ends not to get a shot but he needs to clean up his game.
