No, you're missing the correlation. Kopitar is already a pretty good player (or looks to be, as you yourself affirmed to agree with, in your crazy selection). Staal is no where near his potential. Kopitar can still improve on the defensive side of the game and with more experience, but what you probably see now might only get more consistent.
That's the difference in this argument. They're in completely different stages of their development.
Your assessment of Kopitar is that his potential is merely to improve his game only somewhat, and by improving in certain areas?
Give me a break.
I've seen him on the ice back in July 2005 at the King prospect camp and at training camp and preseason last year. He then decided to go back to Sweden and play in the elite league. He knew he had to improve his skating and work hard.
He then had an excellent year in Sweden, followed by a great World Championship.
When I saw him on the ice again this July at rookie camp, his skating was much improved. I saw him do land training of various drills on a roller rink (outside the ice rink where the Kings train) and he finished #1 among all players in stamina testing. It was very impressive.
He is truly a committed, dedicated, hard working, top conditioned athelete, with a tremendous mindset, maturity, work ethic and attitude...I have read every quote, article and interview of the guy and he is a dream player to have in your organization. He is truly a freak of nature at 19 with all of these attributes, in that he is top 5% of all of these attributes. I know you say I am speculating, but I haven't seen anything like him in all the young King players that have come up since 1976. 30 years. Even the other top young Kings through the years do not match Anze in the total package when they were 19. I'm not just talking about talent; Luc was talented, Jimmy Carson (in his rookie year) was talented, Blake was talented, Larry Murphy, Olli Jokinen, etc. I am talking about ALL the attributes combined: talent, hockey sense, charisma, maturity, poise, character, smarts, work ethic, drive, physical maturity, goes to net, plays the corners, defensively sound, etc.
You ain't seen nothing yet. I'm not saying he will ever outscore Crosby or Ovechkin and have as many highlight plays. I am saying that if you think Anze is going to fade or that he is near his potential, you're mistaken.
His roommate is Brian Willsie. Brian told Anze he "has to score 50 goals this year" He is probably going to do his utmost to honor Brian's wish...and believe in himself to do it. Not that he will; he will push himself to. Anze has continuoulsy outdone himself the last 3 years, surprising ALL along the way.
He left a low level Slovenia league 3 seasons ago to play in the Swedish Jr league. They hoped he could fit in and compete...he LED the league in scoring.
He then played in the World Championships at 17 and did great. In the lockout year he played on a team with Scott Thornton and Kyle Calder and they spoke highly of him, praising how good he was at 17. Scouts were baffled about his keen hockey sense. How could he have learned that in Slovenia??
Last year he went back to Sweden and played in the Elitserian and did great, despite being on a horrible team. He worked hard on his game and improved his skating and speed.
Anze then followed the season by being 4th in scoring in the World Championships, again exceeding anyone's expectations. 9 points in 6 games on a team that scored only 13 goals in the entire tournament!
He then came to camp and Dean Lombardi talked and talked about having Anze start in the AHL, not wanting to rush him. Crawford and (ast GM) Hextall also spoke about taking it slow and not rushing him...Anze then goes out and was the best player on the Kings in the pre-season. Everyone again, blown away. Goes head to head with Joe Thornton and does very well against him.
Next, he makes the team (Lombardi deals Belanger to help make room for him) plays his first NHL game and beats Pronger, who helplessly watches him go in on Giguere and holds the puck until Giguere is down and lifts it high in the net. Finishes the game with 2 goals, 7 shots.
He then gets 3 assists the next game. Then 3 shots and an assist the next. 6 points in 3 games, plus 3, 12 shots.
I'm waiting for his next surprise. The last thing it's gonna be, is that he has "reached his potential"
He's not even getting warmed up yet.
he should have been picked right after crosby
dont get me wrong here. staal is a good player, im just not very high on him. plus i think he has belove average skating. and skating is very important in the new nhl. i would pick these guys before him just to let you know what a terrible gm i would have been
. if i where the gm of pittsburgh i would have picked kessel. does that make me a bad gm. is that a wrong choise because he wasn't picked #2. i dont think so.
everyone could protect three players. and the reason malkin wasn't protected was because you where only allowed to protect one player/prospect under 25 and crosby falls under that category.
