I am pretty confident he will play in the NHL next year and his production will depend on his ice time+ role but IMO he should have a good shot at being used on the first line + top PP (it will be between him or Slafkovsky) if not maybe 2nd line + 2nd waive PP.
I think he’ll be much closer to your optimistic totals than the pessimistic ones . Hard to see him getting 40 pts unless buried; which doesn’t seem likely with a young lineup / rebuild on the fly happening. 60 ish sounds right as a rookie
I agree. Hence why I labelled it pessimistic. I think him being slowly integrated to the lineup is not impossible. My reasoning for the pessimistic projection is based on other top players like Cooley, Slafkovsky, Carlsson who had similar numbers than my projection in their first season and had similar pedigree, I used Michkov/Celebrini for my optimistic. Anyway nothing is linear, if you look at Stutzle, Pastrnak or Kucherov first few seasons you would not believe what they have now become at their peak. It's not impossible with top prospect to see a player going with 40 pts in their first season and then have 80 pts their 2nd season.
I think a slower development where he plays in the ahl before the jump as he has tremendous physical tools and iq but still isn't michkov or celebrini level his high end physical tools are up there but michkov and celebrini are a slight step ahead he could make the jump next year but I don't think he goes ppg unless he has a ahl year before the jump where he will get top line and special units TOI and be given the reigns to be the primary offensive driver
He’s not playing in the AHL. He’s playing in a better league than that now and, based on his overtime, is essentially dominating there. He’s going to the top 6 forward group from the get-go.
