No, i'm not a greyhound fan at all, in fact most Greyhound fans dislike Lawrence because he is so lazy.
Being honest, the kid might never have the motivation and the desire to become an NHL player. But, his hands and ability alone should see him taken over someone like Parent, who has relatively little upside.
From the OHL this year, there is no number 1 NHL d-man. If you think it's Staal, you are kidding yourself. People bang on Kindl for being poor defensively, Staal is not exactly a whole lot better. I'm not sure where I see Staal fitting in in the NHL, his offense isin't good enough to be a powerplay quarterback but he gets beaten too much defensively to be a true defensive rearguard. Staal is overhyped around here a lot because many people don't have access to OHL games and they only time they have seen him was at the prospects game, where he was pretty much the only d-man not to get abused.
I could see Staal going ahead of O'Marra in the draft definitely, but the reason for this is probably the lack of good defensemen in this years draft. All the mediocre ones, like Parent and Staal who would be taken later in the first round all jump up about ten spots.
Also, it's not the top 10 on this list that is bad, except for Smolenak(
) (and McQuaid) there's no one that flat out doesn't deserve to be there. But it seems to me that after thy top 10 that the rest of the list was just stuck together.
I mean having a guy like Downie 22 spots ahead of O Reilly because he's a goon is a little weird.