From my viewing of Dermott this year, he always looked like a stud. What i mean by that is simply that a lot of players come and go through the Marlies, and we get to see a bunch have NHL careers ... but when there's a player who is that much better ... it sticks out. Obviously his injury damped the ability to get a long read on him this year, but more particularly in the last couple of months we have.
With respect to all the other very good players, he's not Valiev or Percy or Granberg or Loov or whoever. You just look at him on the ice out there and it's obvious he's on a different level.