1. Richards played a key role winning the World Juniors in 2005 and Kesler played a key role in winning the World Juniors in 2004. I would say that their roles were equal but Kesler did it a year earlier.
push? Richards team absolutely dismantled the opposition... USA got a bit lucky the year before... goofy goals always help.
2. Kesler got a invite to the US National Team Tryouts and Richards was not invited (not close to being invited) to the Canadian National Team tryouts
okay... who is going to post the depth chart comparison between Team USA's pool and Team Canada's pool?
i'm sorry, but THAT isn't a fair comparison above AT ALL.
3. Kesler scored 30 goals last year playing with pros in the AHL (enriched during the strike year) and Richards scored 22 goals playing with Junior players. (albeit a shorten year)
GP-G-A-P +/- PIM PPG-SHG-GWG-SHT-PCT
18 Richards, Mike C 14 7 8 15 +8 28 3 2 2 38 .184
PPG in the AHL playoffs ain't too shabby?
4. Kesler is bigger and stronger. He is legit 6'2" and apparently 215 and growing while Richards is maybe 6" and around 190. Richards looks to be filled out as much as he will get.
size comparisons are difficult to deal with... especially when we are talking about players at this age given they will be adding 10-15 lbs of muscle minimum. Martin St. Louis has some comments about what people should say about size as well...
5. Last year Kesler was the top defensive center on the Moose and was matched up against people like Spezza on a consistent basis. Richards has not, outside ot the playoffs, played against anything like that type competition
so because Richards didn't play in the regular season and his only experience is being the match-up center at the AHL level was for 14 games on a Calder Cup winning run, we hold this against him?
the guy showed up in the AHL from juniors and was IMMEDIATELY the second best player on a team that won the Calder Cup. he was getting big minutes and taking big draws all over the ice...
who knows who will be the better player... i tend to agree that it is hard to tell when one hasn't played a single NHL game yet. however, i'm not sure the above points hold much water at all in terms of comparing or attempting to force any kind of consensus opinion about the two players.
