Mountie said:
Personally I'd take Boyes over Lombardi without hesitation.
Being traded a great deal means that you're coveted, not unwanted. If Lombardi's rights were owned by a better team (on paper) he would not have played this year I don't think. I don't think there is any question that Boyes would have been on the Flames had they owned his rights.
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not so sure about this.
to start the season Lombardi was trying out for the Flames, and Boyes for the Sharks. both had been bad, non-playoff, teams in 02-03. Both were surprisingly good teams in 03-04
Lombardi wasn't supposed to make the 03-04 Flames, at all...but he surprised with a great camp, and got a little lucky with the Reinprecht injury.
The kid did score 16 goals, and was one of the Flames top scorers in the first round against Vancouver. so he produced.
Boyes ends up in Boston, where they did find room for a kid like Bergeron, so it's not like they weren't open to playing kids either
I'm kind of rambling here...I don't mean to imply that Lombardi is definitely the better prospect, but I am saying he earned his spot out of camp in Calgary, it didn't just fall to him...and he produced this year. I don't know alot about Boyes' situation in San Jose, but I am assuming (perhaps erroneously) that there would have been a job for him coming out of camp too...if he had stepped up and stolen one like Lombardi did
ps. can we assume that Ruslan Zainullin is one seriously coveted prospect then? because he's been traded as much as Boyes if not more