The thing that matters isn’t what’re you going to do when lined up with college players. It’s what’re you going to do in the NHL.
If the question was the former Trevor Connolly would’ve been a top 3 pick. I like Jackson Blake as a prospect. But does he have the tools to be a line driver in the NHL? Probably not. But he does in college.
That doesn't make sense. If you are not going to do it against college players, how do you expect to be able to do it against pros? And Trevor Connelly is a non-sequitur. His draft stock dropped due to off-ice issues. That does not apply here.
You comment about Jackson Blake is my point. He's not projected as a line driver in the NHL, but he is still having success in college without having a great supporting cast. Snuggerud didn't have a good year at all. He is supposedly NHL ready and he finished 65th or something in points, and 90 something in ppg. His level of play dropped to that of his linemates. And that is worrisome.
People say, oh just put him with Thomas. What if Thomas gets hurt. Then we lost 2 guys because Snuggerud's success is 100% related to his linemate? Snuggerud's shot is lethal, and he can potentially carve out an NHL career based on that. But nobody is clamoring for Laine, who has an incredible shot. You have to be able to do more. Hopefully Snuggy figures it out, but he went back to college because he is not ready.
Exactly players can dominate at college and don't amount to anything in the NHL. I can think of a couple former Blues draft picks/ players we signed that were great in college but didn't do much in NHL.
Peter Senja won Hobey Baker.
TJ Hensick
Of course. Perunovich won the Hobey Baker too. They did it when they were older, so it is less impressive than Fantilli, Celebrini or Eichel. But I am not going to argue that players can be good in colege and bad in the pros.
But what about the reverse? Has any player been meh in college and become a star NHL player?