The book in Surin is mixed. He has as good of highlight package as most, but those don’t show his lows. He’s a good, but short of great skater. Has a nasty edge to his game. Then when he’s properly motivated, he’s a buzz saw all over the ice. Huge compete when that is happening. Which is most of the time… but 2 or 3/10 games or so, you’ll get efforts that make Rants look like a worker. He’s got a pretty solid shot too. Not a 30g shot, but it’ll have some pop. A lot of people like him as a center and think he has the skill set for it… he hasn’t played it a ton
The downsides are that he shows a lot of low IQ tendencies. The amount of forced plays he makes is going to deuce coaches crazy. Lots of hero ball in his game. Which additionally, he completely ignores systems and teammates where he tries to pull off moves that would require skill he just doesn’t have. His skill isn’t super high, he’s not unskilled… but he’s a middle 6er at best. Probably more of a 3rd line guy. He’s also super undisciplined. Takes stupid penalties with frequency and will take runs at guys. He goes over the line a bit too much.
How much you like Surin likely depends on how much you think you can tame him down, keep the game to game effect consistency up, and get him to play within the system. If you buy into that, you are targeting a buzz saw middle 6 guy who has some positional versatility. If you don’t buy into this, you have a guy who has significant bust potential without high end upside. Thats why he’s got a pretty wide range.