Nasty Nazem
Come at me Crow!
Right. Eberle only had Ales Hemsky ahead of him. Kadri had Tyler Bozak and Mikhail Grabovski. Not to mention the Leafs finished a whole one place ahead of Edmonton last year.
Kadri couldnt crack the weakest center lineup in the entire nhl (arguably). Not to mention he didnt impress at the WJC like Eberle did. Twice.
Give it up.
The comparison is a joke.
At this point, it seems like he is not really a center. At least not this year because he wasn't good enough on the faceoffs and a defensive liability. He played wing for about 80% of his games at the NHL level. I do think he still has a future at center but needs to get stronger and improve on the faceoffs which should happen as he gets stronger.
But if you want to argue cracking the roster then Kadri probably should have made the team last year when he had a great training camp but he was sent down to OHL because he was 177 lbs.
Kadri could have made this year's roster as well but Burke wanted to give him AHL time to get more mentally and physically prepared. He also wanted him to cut down on his turnovers and improve his defensive game. Now, that is something Kadri could learn in the NHL as well but it would take growing pains, something the team wasn't ready for because they were aiming for playoffs. Whether or not they made is a whole different story.
Like I said, the two are in completely different situations. Eberle also doesn't have the same problems as Kadri which are turnovers at the blueline or poor defense.
Luckily, for those who watched Kadri in his second stint will agree he was a completely different player and he was solid defensively (still got lost positionally at times) and really cut down on his turnovers.
It's probably a premature comparison, I think it would be better if we bring it up in a year or two.