Sometimes I wonder why I even bother posting on this forum, because there are people like you just completely make stuff up or believe what you want to believe.
I have never once said that players have to play two years of college, in fact I have said the opposite and said as much about Adam Fantilli after last years draft and posted
An article by college hockey journalist Jess Meyers saying the same thing, less than 2 months ago. If a player is dominant in NCAA hockey as a freshman and is ready for an NHL role, he should leave, if he is destined for an AHL role at 19, he should return to college. Almost every team operates this way, but since Blake, Nelly and Surf Nutz think differently, you automatically assume they are right.
You are I assume comparing Will Smith and Alex Turcotte, which is just laughable when you consider the types of seasons they had as freshman, and the role that they were each going to play as 19 year olds. Will Smith lead the entire NCAA in scoring and was a dominant player from the drop through to the Frozen Four. He played 16 games vs teams that made the NCAA tournament and had a 12-17-29 stat line and was 9-4-13 in 7 games vs. Frozen Four teams (the ones most likely to have NHL caliber talent). He had nothing left to prove at the NCAA level, other than to chase a championship. He will be playing for the Sharks next season, and he and Celebrini will take their lumps but grow as players and be ready to be impactful by the end of their ELC's. Alex Turcotte scored 1 goal in conference play and did most of his statistical damage vs Arizona St. and Omaha and was moved down to the 3rd line by the end of the season, do to lack of offensive results. Alex Turcotte was nowhere close to playing in the NHL at 19, and was signed strictly so the Kings could foolishly put a teenage player who struggled mightily at Wisconsin into the AHL despite not being hockey ready or physically ready, because the Kings are more AHL obsessed than any team in the league (other than maybe Nashville).
It's just shocking to me, that 4 years after the pull and with the results that you still are somehow trying to defend the move by making an applies to oranges comparison between Turcotte and Will Smith.
It helps that they drafted and developed players that ended up being better than them. If people want to to blame the Kings inability to do that on poor scouting, poor development or poor deployment, the facts are, 11 and 8 are still the Kings best players.
If Wyatt Johnston had been an LA draft pick he makes his NHL debut sometime in the second half of this season and a guy like Stankoven is still playing in Ontario.
