Sometimes, but stats can be VERY deceiving. That season he was glued next to McDavid and as we be seen in the past, ESPECIALLY in Junior, some very bad players have put up elite numbers next to the league's best players.
Another example is that junior stats can be very misleading due to icetime/usage and often some players don't work on their game the way they should be.
Conor Garland put up a stat line of 35G-94A - 129Pts leading the league in scoring by 27pts. Despite that he was drafted in the 4th rd. Next year he puts up 128pts leading his own team in points by over 60 and the league by 20 again. All this points to one hell of a future star if looking at CHL stats.
His next season..... 14pts .... in the AHL.
Reason being is that once you actually watched him you realize that he would play the full 2mins of EVERY power play. His coach also allowed him to cheat defensively, and by that I mean he would never even cross his own blue line most nights.
This is why scouting exists. With that said, something was definitely missed with Debrincat.
You have a point, however...when everyone (experts,scouts&most fans) was saying McDavid carried DeBrincat
his entire rookie season, Otters head coach said, in one interview , that it was actually the other way around
(but i guess scouts/experts didn't see/hear/believe that interview (to be true)),
DeBrincat proved that next season by scoring 5 goals in a game and 12 goals in...4 or was it in 5 first games,
without McDavid. Even McDavid's injury didn't stop Brinksy to score goals and points in his rookie season.
And we cannot forget how in that next season, lots of people said DeBrincat's being carried by Strome,
now we know, who carried whom.
During in his final season in the OHL there were still doubters, that his game wouldn't translate to the NHL
and people said Strome was the better prospect, he was a 3rd overall pick after all, scouts can't be wrong, am i right?.
Last season Toews was horrible, this season incredible, now i'm not saying 1+1=2 (or 3)....still...
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i do understand what you meant with your post, but there are other factors in this case of scouts vs DeBrincat
and for me....the reason why he got snubbed by so many, is because of his size and that they believed
McDavid carried him in his rookie season. - Stereotype, "type casting" -