I still think we got the 3rd best player on the board. Raymond is sitting now exactly where I figured he'd be, I just didn't think the order would be different in front of him. To be fair though, I think some of Laf's issues lie directly with David Quinn, and less about him being a bust or something. Kakko's having similar issues. He's looked great even if the scoresheet doesn't reflect it.
It'll take some time for Raymond to develop, but he passed the eye test in Frolunda this year, and he played really well in that league. Raymond's production is being hampered by his lack of size and the fact that it seems as though the team as a whole has issues with scoring. When he went down with that elbow injury, he was 5th on the team in scoring with 18 points, and the rest of the guys ahead of him were 27-35 (the highest scorer at the time only had 23 points) and most were former NHL or AHL players. He was literally a PDO bender away from being their highest scorer.
Raymond's only flaws are size and strength. His skating fundamentals are great, so adding strength will only help his explosiveness, which has already improved tremendously since last season. And of course it'll help him protect the puck better. Example: I saw a play (I forget which game it was) where he was trailing his man, probably a step or two behind at center ice, and by the time the puck carrier entered the zone Raymond was already on him, and used his stick to break up the play.
