I think he is a guy that stays similar to the player he was in junior and it isn't all that flattering to his game at the next level for those envisioning a point per game two-way center. In fact their pre-draft campaigns are almost carbon copies of each other. Really by the way Gagner was a fractionally better skater with more size. But he played on a ridiculously dominate junior team, was already 5'11" and 190 lbs. Really Gagner had the August Birthday so in a lot of ways he is a more flattering comparison than I really need to make as I honestly felt there was more in Gagner game at the time though he too fell short of anything close to first line. Also for the record Gagner has played 800+ NHL games so he is nothing to sneeze at, that is a heck of a career for Rossi. Gagner just lived more in the 40 to 50 point range for most of his career. In part because his physical limitations really were a problem at the next level. The battles he would win in junior, he couldn't consistently win in the NHL.
A lot of times when I watch Rossi, he is living by the boards and on the cycle or wandering wide, it is really hard to imagine him doing that at the next level with the same consistent success. There a reason we are excited about a guy like Seider, he is actually a far superior skater, so imagine poor Rossi when that space can be closed while protecting lanes. We will see, I actually think he might be better off on the wing if you really want him, I just don't think he gets to the middle of the ice enough in smart ways and that is really scary to write about a center. We will see, if they do pick him I hope he can fix a lot of the way he plays the game in the o-zone despite those gaudy numbers and I hope he doesn't get KO'd a bunch on his blind cuts to the middle of the ice in terms of his sometimes serpentine entries. Once in the zone he has a tendency to drift to places that aren't great, especially for a guy that I think can and will get knocked off the puck by better athletes. We will see, people think he is ready, I think he is ready like Gagner in that he will enter the league as he is, if he cannot make some adjustments he will likely stay a very similar player with some notable problems in terms of dominate NHL guys that know how to use those issues against him.
If we do pick him, I am going to hope we can develop him into a top flight winger, I think that best suits his talents to be honest. I have deep concerns but that is probably what I see most of in his game in terms of what we have to work with from a talent standpoint. Work on his shot and skating a little and hope to team him with some of our more physically dominate guys to create space for him. Good news there is we do have some hulking guys on the squad.
