- Jun 10, 2014
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This is a good debate. Is he or isn’t he ready?
I think every prospect has their path and they all won’t be the same. I would love for a switch to go off for Niku and have him transform his defensive game like Morrissey did but that might not happen. The transformation of Josh’s game was almost bizarre in one season in the AHL and I am not expecting us to capture lightning in a bottle twice.
I remember watching Sergachev in Windsor last year and thinking how good he looked but his “defensive consistency” was not NHL ready. It turns out I was partially right and he would have his ups and downs this season but mostly I was wrong due to undervaluing the team’s ability to shelter him and his ability to adapt to a new challenge given his skill set. Mikhail still makes mistakes but he is in the right league and he is thriving.
Sami is not Mikail or Josh but he will have his path too. At some point here budget is going to get real fast and we will need cost controlled assets playing in the NHL. I wish I could tell you what is going to happen next year but I can’t. I feel Niku will be able to play a sheltered bottom pairing role as soon as next season but I have no idea if the Jets are going to take that risk yet.
Still lots of season and post season left to play out then a full off season of development so let’s see how things look in September. I think we all agree on one thing though.....how cool is it to be having this debate about a really talented 7th round draft pick!!!
Looking back to his draft it seems to me that he has been on a steep development curve the whole time. There is no reason to believe that this has leveled off yet. Based on that, I expect he will be ready by September. Ready means for 3rd pair, sheltered.
There is no way to confirm that now. All we can do is continue to watch and wait.