burstnbloom
Registered User
- Mar 10, 2006
- 4,552
- 3,980
Well Ritchie is 25 years old now. If he doesn't have much "projection" left, what does that say about the likes of Frederic, Lauzon, Zboril, etc. who are all roughly the same age and yet still lesser NHL players than Nick Ritchie?
I'd argue that only Frederic is a lesser player than Ritchie and not by a particularly wide margin. He's easily the worst player in the top 9 and you can make an argument for Lazar and Kuraly over him as well. Maybe even Wagner if you look back at who he was last year and ignore completely this season. He doesn't skate very well, he's not particularly skilled with the puck (though he does have decent hands around the net), and he doesn't have much hockey sense. He does hit a little when he's engaged and he's a good fighter. I just don't see the things he would need to develop (feel for the game, hockey sense, skating) improving all that much after 300+ NHL games. Ritchie kind of is what he is at this point because if his head was going to catch up, you'd think after this many games, it would have. At 25, I'd be really surprised if the physical tools that he doesn't appear to have show up as they don't typically do that for most players. It hink he's a 3rd line LW on a second division team and the bruins fancy themselves as a first division team.
Lauzon and Zboril both appear to be significantly more talented than him and play positions that usually take 100+ games of development to see who they are at the NHL level. So I'd say there is a fair amount more projection in those two players. Zboril, in particular, has a lot of projection left in him because all of the physical tools are there. He's a very good skater, has a good shot (that never hits the net), can pass etc he just struggles with the pace of the game and the cerebral parts of playing D in the NHL. Will he develop more with more ice time? I have no idea, but he could. I think Lauzon is ahead of him between the ears but isn't quite as talented physically. I could see him getting a better feel for the game and settling in to a Johnny Boychuk type player but Johnny wasn't that guy until he was 26/27 years old. D develop slower than wingers.