Offensively, he's always been an elite player, and I think his points ceiling is just as high as Smith's. But I think his overall game lags behind the other two, and his game isn't necessarily as projectable. He makes a lot of bad turnovers still, and his skating and physical strength are going to make it hard for him at the next level, which won't a be as much of a problem for Leonard and Smith.
That said, I had the three of them much tighter in my rankings than their draft positions (Smith at 8, Leonard at 14 and Perreault at 17). If everything works out for him, he could be a legit top line offensive player for the Rangers.
agree on leonard. he is who he is, he's got the skillset to be good in the nhl and that game always translates. re smith though, watching a fair amount of them this year, i don't agree. for one, the skating thing with perrault just isn't an issue. he's not connor mcdavid and he never will be. he's not trying to be though. as a skater he's demonstrated all year he's got more than enough speed, but more importantly, he's got fantastic control/balance as a skater. being able to move any direction at any time and being able to control play with his pace are his foundation and he's very strong in those areas. he's been really impressive with handling bad passes or grabbing loose pucks he has to reach for without losing speed or full body control...and he has the puck in control almost instantly. he certainly needs to get stronger skating through contact and, like everyone, would benefit from any pop he adds to his first step - but the former will certainly and the latter will likely come to an uncertain degree as he gets stronger. there's no question at all re whether or not he can skate well enough to play in the nhl - only when he'll be ready for it physically. his iq is also a cut about either of his linemates....i mean watching him closely he is incredible at timing his pace joining plays off the puck to hit a lane at the right time or conversely, controlling play with his pace to create spacing that opens up a passing lane on the puck. on the downside, he has certainly been responsible than you'd want to see, but it seems like most are getting outmuscled on pucks or losing the handle. i almost never see him put a puck in a bad area moving it. i have zero concerns about him being an nhl player, the only question is when.
smith to me is the wildcard. like gabe he needs to get a lot stronger, but he has to more work to do to get where he'd be capable of playing the game he wants to at the nhl level. he wants to play a high pace game challenging defenders 1 on 1 all the time or beat them wide, and struggles to do those things in college right now. now, he might make some major physical jumps that give him the pace he needs. i think that's entirely possible, it's just a bigger uncertainty for me. he also has a turnover issue, but i see more of the concerning type with him than with perrault. smith gets the puck poked off his stick way too often to take on as many players as he does, and he will make passes that he should definitely see are taken away - something you very rarely see from perrault. obviously there's a ton to like about smith's game, and he very well could turn out to be great. as far as nhl futures though, at the moment i definitely see more from smith that makes me wonder if he can get to where he needs to be physically and as a skater to play the game he wants to - and the turnovers being more related to bad decisions isn't ideal.
