rahan said:
1- P-M Bouchard has first line upside but I read you write on another thread that Christopher Higgins has low upside (read 3rd line). Right. Bouchard is weak, and will NEVER fill out. He loses 10 pounds a game, he's gonna get pushed around all his career, he's too much of a perimeter player and the best he can expect is to pull a Ribeiro and get second line duties. Higgins on the other hand is MUCH stronger (still has to fill out a bit, sometimes get pushed), can go in traffic and is really a smart guy. Oh, and he can backcheck.
2- P-M Bouchard is from the province of Quebec. That's in North America..
Yes, having seen Bouchard for a long time since that's where I live, I don't know what exactly I had in mind but obviously made a mistake. Thanks for that.
As for P-M, he already looks much stronger (he was really weak though so still has a way to go) in the second half of the season. Played much less on the permieter and surprisingly was able to battle for the puck efficiently enough. In lloks to me like he has already begun to fill on so I would say you are incorrect. Bouchard's game is rounding out, as I've mentioned. He can backcheck too and is a diligent worker, which goes a long way.
He can do much better than Ribeiro because his maturity level ioff the chart compared to Mike. Ribeiro has a great creativity and vision but it is still a tunnel-vision collectively. He seems to be able to have good nights only when he goes for high-risk plays and low percentage stuff. I think he is very entertaining but that condemns him to be a 2nd line player unless he can constantly get away with it, and I doubt that will be the case. Bouchard on the other hand will be able to play 82 games a year without being a liability and be effective een when he does not produce offense. He is much smarter team-wise.
I do think Higgins has low upside but I do not see that as meaning he has 3rd liner written all over him and if you've read what I have to say about him, you'll see that. The problem is, he can be much stronger than Bouchard, he will never have the natural skill of that kind of player. He can make up for it through work and development but frankly, he's not the same kind of player. As for his work ethic, you will see next season that Bouchard is catching up in that department so I do not see it as a big advantage for Higgins either.
I was disappointed by Bouchard in the first half of the season, maybe that's when you saw him or maybe we just disagree but he was much more solid (even if that doesn't really show on the scoresheet) in the second half.