What about Heiskanen’s game makes you think he has higher upside? I haven’t watched to much of him so I’m curious to know. Chabot seems to have really high upside, obviously he reached a lot of that this season. He glides with ease through the neutral zone, has the puck on a string, and has crazy good play making and scoring ability. My biggest knock on him is for a big guy he’s pretty slight and not really solid defensively. He has a big frame so hopefully that changes or at least gets better.
Chabot is a very good skater but I'd argue Heiskanen is better. He's an elite skater, high end puck skills, great passer, amazing hockey sense, good shot. It is extremely rare for someone at 19 to show as much poise as he has already shown and I have no doubt in my mind his counting stats will improve. Chabot has a lot of similarities to what I just mentioned above but he's also
3 years older. For a defenceman, 3 years is a lifetime in experience not to mention the transition that Heiskanen had to make for NA while Chabot has been here his whole life. Again, I don't think you can go wrong with either for a #1D and I can see both getting Norris consideration very soon but for me I like Heiskanen better.