Fantilli's teammates might project to be better NHL players but Eichel clearly played with the better college players, who were much older than Fantilli's teammates. This is obvious when you look at the point gap between Fantilli and his teammates vs. Eichel and his.
Players get stronger and pack on more muscle from 18-21. Even if he doesn't grow an inch the idea that he's done "growing" is preposterous. And right now the biggest knocks are he tries too often to play the hero and doesn't utilize his teammates enough, his shooting when he gets in tight could use work, and his decision making with the puck could use work. These are coachable deficiencies. Then you have the room for growth on the inevitable and necessary adaptation to NHL pace and size, he has room to improve his shot, passing, skating. Like just because some guys who are physically superior in their draft year stop developing doesn't mean all of them do. You're writing off a lot of room for growth under a pretty superficial rationale from a guy who decides to write up undetermined upside as "blasphemy"
Fantilli also isn’t all that “built” if you ask me. Obviously he’s a big guy already, but from the photos I have seen he can still easily put 15+ pounds of lean muscle on his frame without sacrificing a fraction of his skating prowess.
I liked the sequence where he carried the puck in on his own from a neutral zone reception and dropped it off for a point shot. Nothing crazy but he displayed that speed and good hands at that speed. Also opted to rely on his teammates instead of trying to make his mark with hero puck.
Its used as a source of measurement to seed the NCAA tournament and thats it, its a small part of the equation. Not the end all be all. Its really only in place so the top dog in the Atlantic isn't ranked ahead of a 3-4 team in any other conference. SOS is irrelevant
Lol this is quite the reach. Would you rather play with Evan Rodrigues and Danny ORegan or Sameskovich/McGroarty/Brindley
I would be willing to bet 5 years from now he is the same height and within 5 pounds of his current measurement. He is already physically developed, thats my point.
And to think you already preferred him to Bedard before watching him skate! Amazing.
he could very well be within 5 pounds of his current weight but it'll be a recomp. The kid is going to get a long stronger. Will it be the same degree of stronger compared to NHLers at the same degree as he's stronger than a lot of the NCAA players he was up against this season? Probably not. But to think that he won't gain a lot of muscle is a bad bet.
Hot take considering Rodrigues went from 14 points as a junior without Eichel, to 61 points as a senior with Eichel.
Other than separating the Atlantic league from the rest of D1, yes it is irrelevent.
Regardless, his output doubled playing with Eichel.
I simply disagree with you. Anyone who watched that BU run knew Eichel was the only threat on that team. The team was actually fairly bad, they were one of the worst teams in the Hockey East one year prior with pretty much the exact same team.
