I honestly don’t recall this. If there were posters calling him an “Grade A” prospect then it was an extreme minority and probably not worth mentioning.
I felt like I was slogging through the replies from people disagreeing with my take that he was a B prospect who likely projected as a 3C.
Lets ignore all the happenings prior to the trade and go with the 7 games since which has Beauvillier as the best piece of the Horvat deal?
Some situations allow for players to instantly succeed (playing with Pettersson and PP1 or with Barzal on the NYI top line) while others are in a new city new role with new players that don't fluff them and need a bit of time to adjust and find their place. Still remember Horvat in Utica going 5 games without any points.
Sure it would have been nice to see Raty fly out of the gate with Abbotsford but the AHL is a very good league and Hoglander Podkolzin didn't exactly step in and dominate without bigger defensive responsibilities.
Realistic projection should be 3C with linear improvements to his game. He wasnt ready in NY so no reason why he should have been here. Expecting a 3C that can match up next year would be once again setting players up for failure in this organization. I would hope they slow roll him into 4th line minutes and better than Lazar types on his wing.
More interested in his finish than his start in Abby
I don't really care about the 1 point in 7 games. What I care about is the level of performance I'm seeing.
His skating is a problem. It's below-average, even at the AHL level. He's lagging behind the play and isn't getting to where he needs to be to make plays. Big circles away from the play because he can't stop/start quickly. And while he's 'responsible' tracking the play defensively he's not nearly as aggressive or physical as I expected - not seeing a huge battle level there.
I think there was a hope/expectation that as a guy who put up numbers in a men's league last year and got into 12 NHL games already this year he'd be in the same realm of performance as guys like Podkolzin and Hoglander who are 'in-between' in terms of AHL/NHL and certainly expected to be on the roster in October. Instead he's closer to Bains and Klimovich who are middle-6 AHL types who have some things to like but do not appear to be close to making the NHL and are not expected to be on the team next season.
And of course how he finishes is more important than how he starts. And of course this is still a small sample size. But this doesn't look like a player to me who is close to the NHL or stands a strong chance of being on the roster in October - something that most in the trade thread seemed to be assuming would be the case.