Just to pick up on the vein of the "Darnell Nurse is terrible at hockey and will be lucky to be even a middle pairing dman" beatdown going on in the previous thread...
I think the poster who was originally talking about the Pronger comparison wasn't saying he had the same potential as Pronger, obviously that would be silly as Pronger was getting comparisons to being a potential Larry Robinson on his draft day. But I think it's fair to suggest that Pronger took a few years of learning some hard lessons before he became the Pronger everyone remembers, and even though he had that 30 point rookie season that's really not relevant considering that was over 20 years ago in a league where 23 players had 40+ goals that year. Compare that to this season where we *might* have 1/4 that number accomplish the same.
That year, 20 of the 26 teams had 250+ goals. This year we'll be lucky to see even 2 teams score like that. It's a completely different era.
And while Pronger had that 30 point rookie season as an 18 yr old, as a 20 year old (same age as Nurse was for most of this year) with St. Louis he had 25 points and was a team-worst -18, and that was by far the worst minus on the team. Back then you had more than a few people wondering if he was more bust than sure thing, and that he maybe didn't have the mental makeup to succeed. There were many nights where he looked clumsy and made bad decisions all over the ice.
Point being, it can make you look really foolish to make blanket projections on a young defenseman when he's got lots of physical tools but lacks experience.
Not saying Nurse is guaranteed to succeed, maybe he doesn't make it and becomes a tools-but-no-toolbox player like many others before him. But it would be short sighted and reactionary to get rid of him after his first pro season.
He is the only prospect in our system who has even the slightest hope of becoming a top pairing dman, and those guys you simply cannot get via trade. You have to grow them or pray you can outbid 29 other teams when the rare one pops up in free agency, and that is exceedingly rare.