I NEVER know what to think of college kids turning pro. Never. It just seems so hard to read when you have such a wide range of ages and talent abilities from guys who will never touch pro ice to NHL Allstars like Toews.
it's a crap shoot, always has and always will be. it's no different than trying to evaluate kids out of the Jr leagues. wide range of talent and more important to me is size/physical stature.
you see a lot of midgets, with speed and hands but they are to small to play up at the next levels. now throw in a kid with NHL size and skill against them and you end up with a difficult situation to evaluate. do you ding the NHL prospect for playing against smaller/lesser competition?
the style of games in college and the Jrs is also more open and offense in nature, so this makes it tough to check a kid's attributes.
i look at the following as my base litmus test:
* physical build - knowing it's likely these kids are still growing and not maxed out
* hockey sense
* desire to succeed and win
* skating - speed, ability, agility
* hands - shooter, stick handling, passing
* physical style - do they play or initiate contact? do they shy away from it?
you look at those and you can get a good sense of where/how the kid may develop and turn into.
if they can't pass two of those then i don't see them as having the necessary tools to succeed. those will turn into 'holes' in their game that will be exposed at a higher level