but he had a horrible WJC tournament [other than the Gold Medal game] and I think you'd be extremely remiss in judging him on that. Also, doobiedoo - you keep saying O'Sullivan's had a "slight" improvement defensively...but, dude - his defensive improvement is tremendous. He's been a much more physical player, laying out hits [which result in opponents coughing up the puck and several goals for the Icedogs] - hell, the kid even had a 5 minute major and was ejected for a game misconduct the other night [not that THAT was a good thing, of course]....but, what I'm saying is, his defensive side has vastly improved....he also leads his team in the +/- department with a +12.
I have NO idea, Jay, how you can say that Carter's game is more "translatable" to the NHL. I mean....Carter's game isn't very good even by OHL standards.....so how do you come up with that??Of course, you're entitled to your opinion - I just don't know what you're basing that on.
Anyway, of course O'Sullivan - along with ALL prospects - hasn't "proved" he can play at the NHL level. I agree with that. But, I believe he has proved he has NHL level SKILLS. Something, I absolutely do not believe Jeff Carter has proved.
As for what caused Patrick to fall so far in the '03 draft. It's simple. The interviews absolutely KILLED him. They were so awful in fact, some were truly painful to watch. I've seen a few tapes, try to believe me when I tell you that after seeing them even I - although I'm a huge supporter of O'Sullivan's - would definitely wonder about the kid. Unfortunately, his communication skills -in that kind of a stressful environment - sucked beyond imagination. [although he's been working on that, too]