Ogee has rode a slant against Raymond since that draft. Not much more to say than that. Everyone has their blind spots with certain prospects. Now he’s been a huge advocate of William Eklund and views him clearly ahead of Raymond, but also has this weird opinion of Raymond. Something doesn’t quite click, but so be it.
I'm not the only one that views Eklund ahead of Raymond. There have been a few podcasts that have said that Eklund is a better prospect in his draft year than Raymond was. Were it not for appendicitis AND covid Eklund would probably have been around Peter Forsberg's SHL draft year points per game total.
Take off the rose colored glasses and watch Eklund. Objectively he does everything that Raymond does either at the same level or better while being much stronger on the puck at the same height/weight.
What has Raymond done to not be worthy of a top ten pick?
Looking back at the 2020 draft if there was a redraft today Raymond would fall either at 10 or just outside of it. Quinn and Holtz wouldn't even be there.
Guys that I can immediately think of that had better D+1 showings:
Lundell
Askarov
Perfetti
Reichel
Holloway (though I don't think he will be better than Raymond will be. His D+1 was really impressive)
Arguably Sanderson, Peterka, Bourque, and Jarvis did as well.
Back on Lysell, I think that he does a lot of the things Raymond does and plays a very similar style and has a similar motor, but he's not as good at the finer skills; he's not as fast, not as good a stickhandler/passer/shooter, is even less physical and doesn't have the same high level IQ as Raymond. I'm basing this on what I saw at the WJC18's. He's a good player who had some decent highlights but shouldn't be anywhere near the top 10.