62 point pace before his injury on an AHL team, I will put money up he ellipses 60 points next season. He trolls all that doesn't wear a leaf.
Youve followed the prospect for years yet your analysis is so far off from most amateur scout rankings that its questionable what youre watching
Are we forgetting Matthews draft year that improved his stock due to the fact he was the best player in the Swiss League as an 18-year-old and had a very strong Men's WC? That sort of has t obe factored in at their draft date. Plus, lets ignore that one is built in the exact mold people want in their franchise centers. It's not like the analysis and expectations for Matthews stopped once he left the USNTDP. Matthews draft season was better, but he was also older, and his 17 year old season was as good or better. The 16 year old season you reference, since you want to point to the AHL situation with Hischier. Matthews was behind Larkin and Eichel when he got promoted to the U-18's mid-year after coming off of injury. He wasn't promoted to the first-line with two top 15 picks for that draft year.
If that's how you want to argue fine. I don't troll non-Leafs players around here. If you think I do, then fine. I guess I remember the backlash I got for my opinions on Zacha and McLeod. How are they doing today? I give players credit when I think they deserve it and I give an analysis.
I said I saw him more as a Duchene and Monahan level prospect. Which, I still think holds true today. I didn't think he was a lock to become a top 15 center in the league, and doing that will still be an uphill battle. His production is still pretty much in line with the comparables I gave, which were Duchene and RNH. I would never say a player of any skill level caps out at 60 points. Players exceed and underachieve expectations all the time.
How is it off from consensus? I still have him as the 1st overall player in the draft. Scouts/Bob McKenzie commonly compare him to the players I mentioned. Where does my opinion dramatically differ? The fact I don't think he's a truly elite number 1 pick?
Hughes could very easily put up 65 points in the NHL as an 18 year old, I'm not sure Matthews season with Zurich really did much either way for his draft ranking as you seem to think. It's an expected result from an 18 year old in a lesser european league.
Do you want me to go back and look at the opinions you got wrong? To be fair, I have been bashing McLeod since his 19 year season where no improvements were made.
The World's and Zurich absolutely helped and improved his stock overall. But, since he was the #1 it didn't really affect things. It also helped in the fact a 2nd season of truly elite performance obviously starts to mitigate risk attached with it. I haven't bashed Hughes at all. I don't think saying he's an average to good 1st overall pick is bashing him, and I don't think saying he's unlikely to be the goal-scorer Kane has become is either.
Troll maybe the wrong word, severely overrate Leafs prospects when comparing to others. Either way, in terms of skills you won't find many #1 picks with 70+ rankings for skating, puck skills, passing and hockey sense. If you don't like my scale then 5, 5, 5 and 5 may work for you.
The only guy I can think I overrated in retrospect was Nylander, who was still tracking extremely well until this season. You don't see me around here pumping the tires of guys like Bracco or Woll.
I don't rank him, it's a silly discussion that will just piss fans off and accomplishes nothing. All I know is that NJ will have one of the fastest dynamic 1/2 combo's up the middle for the next 10 years.
Well, I don't disagree with that. It's an exciting time for Devil's fan/ But, the issue people seem to have is one, saying he's an average to good first overall pick and that he's unlikely to have Patrick Kane's shot. Matthews wasn't even brought up by me. I was responding to why people think Matthews and Eichel were ahead. Which then devolved into bashing Matthews.
Like I said, after watching his training regiment I believe he will likely have a shot near Kane's level by the time he is 22. Whether he uses it as much as Kane is a different question, the skill will be in the toolbox.
Most high-end players train insanely hard. I have trouble seeing it make that type of jump. Not saying its impossible, just unlikely. Marner does similar training, and while his shot has grown since London, it is unlikely to ever be as good as Kane's. I believe a guy like Hughes is in the same boat.
It's not cherry picked at all. Just a good example. He does these pond hockey turns almost exclusively. It's an overarching playstyle, which you'll see if you watch any full match of his, or even a single period. If you watch the entire video, you'll see this very well - not sure how your analysis has anything to do with what I'm talking about. He specifically as his playstyle almost exclusively is constantly skating circles, stopping very rarely to react to a play.
