Patrick and Luchanko's birthdays are September 19th and August 21st respectively, so Nolan's D-1 year equals Jett's draft year in terms of age. Add to this that Patrick played on a powerhouse team that won the championship while Luchanko played on a shitty one.
Obviously Patrick was better offensively in juniors but the gap between them is not as huge as the point totals show.
A big reason that team was a powerhouse was because of Patrick though (MVP when they won the WHL title). No other NHL regulars on that team besides Provorov. Hell Provorov looked like a competent PP contributor with Patrick on the ice.
Also if we are discounting Patrick’s age relative to draft class, consider he was PPG on a “powerhouse” team in his D-2 season fresh out of midget hockey. Jett had 14 points in his first year in the OHL as a first round pick on a less than stellar Guelph team (I.e. plenty of opportunity).
In his draft year Patrick played on a relatively poor Brandon team and posted one of the highest single season involvement rates ever in the modern era of the CHL.
Patrick certainly didn’t set a high bar to clear in the NHL and I don’t really care to rehash those conversations as to why, but we are talking about different levels of prospects here.
Also the rhetoric about Guelph last year has to stop. They were not a great team by any stretch but people talk like they were Niagara. They had a positive record ffs playing in a division with London and Kitchener. And again, a worse roster means more opportunity he may not have gotten elsewhere.
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