F A N
Registered User
- Aug 12, 2005
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Not to defend the pick, but FWIW, he was a couple points away from top-10 in QMJHL scoring while also top-10 in PIM. You can kind of see what they were going for, in that it was hopefully an indicator that he had hands enough to be a useful bottom six guy with toughness. You wonder if things somehow turn out differently if they send him back for an OA season, or do the Grenier thing and send him to Europe instead of letting him end up in the coast.
Yeah, there was a skill/grit/toughness toolset there where you can see where they were going for an Andrew Shaw-type projection (Shaw coincidentally was also a double-overage pick in the 2011 draft) but they just totally whiffed on his skating ability which was immediately exposed in pro hockey. Plus they probably overrated the importance of his fighting skills.
Probably also didn’t help that he was dropped into the Chicago Wolves era of AHL development.
Oddly, the scouting reports at the time said he was a powerful skater. That was definitely a WTF reach pick at the moment of selection.