Yeah and it would be a big shocker since he was a top player last season.
I’ve been trying to say this since the draft, it’s not necessarily that people make up obstacles that Lias have to overcome to become a top player in the NHL that don’t exist. But — Nolan Patrick, Cale Makar, Elias Pettersson, Cody Glass, Heiskanen, Mittlestad, Villardi and co. all certainly have obstacles they have to overcome too. Some drafts there are 7-8 busts in the top 10. Some drafts there are 5-6 very good players in the top 10. I’ve never heard anyone even remotely with any correctness claim that 8 of the top 10 picks of a draft will bust 4-10 months after the draft. Still it’s not that unusual that only 2-3 players in the top 10 becomes very good.
I am pretty sure that Heiskanen and Patrick are becoming solid players, but they certainly might not become better than say JVR/Edler types. I think a kid like Makar is exposed to bad coaching/bad environment. These kids seem to become as good as you make them, and when they are picked early they face the risk of playing with little support. It’s not entirely easy — for me at least — to pin down which kids in the high scoring CHL players mold will become the next Mark Schleife/Tkachuk and which kids will become Bennet/Reinhard/Virtanen/R Strome type of “busts”. Villardi? Glass? I don’t know with much certainty. To be honest I am a bit sceptical about both, but I am not sure I would have made the right call on Schleife either (don’t think I saw much of him). Mittlestad and Pettersson also must take big steps. I think both will, but it can be tough and it’s hard to know just exactly what they will amount to.
And it’s the same with Lias. He must get more intensity in his skating. Become quicker. I’ve seen him so many times really excel and expand his register and really execute offensively at a really high level when he gets open ice. To get that open ice he must move a little faster. Think he has as much potential as any kid in the top 10.
In the end most is in the hands of the kids in question. What will they do with the gifts they have? In this perspective — I think it’s hard to find a better kid than Lias.