he's just a hard player to nail down. i don't know that he's established an identity and the relatively short time on d is certainly a major factor. he's got a ton of gifts, and i've seen signs of pretty solid hockey sense. i think the perceived setback that was last year was in some ways over analyzed, that wisco team was just a disaster of a "team" and the on ice result made everyone look worse. i think because of his skating and size at those levels he had a habit of trying to do too much and took a lot of risks that made him look bad at times rather than poor hockey sense...but thats an optimistic read...also possible its a habit he'll never correct. i think the optimism in my thought became more convinced hearing the rangers brass review of his game in bubble camp - they were clearly extremely impressed, i didn't take it was general praise for a highly regarded kid coming in and just holding his own...it was more like they couldn't stop talking about him up because it was that impressive and far beyond any expectations they had for him coming in. he's got a lot to like and a lot to offer, he's got a tremendously high ceiling but also comes with uncertainties in fundamental parts of the game which carries risk he can become an effective nhl defenseman. i'm partial to thinking he's going to make it no problem and the question becomes how good can he become primarily because of what came out of that camp...but i can see where people would have a lot of questions about his game and what he'll become and its not unreasonable to carry the same amount of skepticism with him that the people who like him have optimism. do agree with the thought it would be better for him to be playing somewhere now, think the best thing for his development would be playing as many games as possible but not sure what the realities of that are...if its not a high enough level he'll end up going back to trying to do everything and thats not beneficial