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Clean Hits on Substack
It could easily be argued that drafting Barrett Hayton fifth overall was a huge mistake. Just as easily argued that putting him in the NHL right away is an epic blunder of historic proportions. Rushing a kid way before he's ready doesn't make up for reaching for a kid way before he was worthy. Two wrongs don't make a right.Epic.
ORRRRRRRR...
...it could just go like @YotesFan47 supposed it might. Maybe he has a nice, solid, under the radar 30ish point season where he's solid all-around, ala Christian Dvorak's rookie year. Then maybe like YF47 says, he eventually blows up and is like a Couturier, Monahan, or even a Bergeron type.
Either scenario is possible.
Maybe he's Josh Bailey. Maybe he takes years and years in the NHL before he really starts to pay off, after being rushed to the league too early.
Maybe he's Manny Malhotra. Similar draft years, draft production, draft position, similar scouting reports, and Manny was really, really rushed WAAAAY too early and ended up having a 1,000 game NHL career in which he wore a letter on several teams and was a pretty valuable player despite never putting up more than 35pts in a season and being a 4th liner for the vast majority of his time in the league.