I think most of what was written above is predicated upon our hopes and desires for what he will be - not anything more. In other words, people are merely projecting onto Boqvist and Mitchell what they desire to see. Anyway, Boqvist was solid for a rookie last season. To me, he was a modest letdown. He was not what I had hoped - but he was also not a disappointment either; he was ... OK. He was merely solid for a rookie. No more. He was young and one cannot from his rookie season predict much about his future. Often it is not until year 3 or 4 that you get a real sense of what a D-man is and will become. People develop at different rates. So, there is a great deal of hope going forward. What we have seen so far, measured against his peers (D-men of similar draft rank over similar time) has him as... OK. He was many levels below the play of Hughes, Makar and a handful of others in their first seasons. That said, he looked pretty good.
What we know only is that he has potential. I am hopeful that he will be great - of course, all Hawks fans are. But what we have mostly is that - hopeful expectation and not enough data yet to know whether he will be all we hope. We will see.
As an aside, I see Dach much the same. He was pretty good as a rookie - though below what I had hoped. There too, we have hopeful expectation that he will develop into a great player. Once again, not enough data yet and the data we have had is not compelling one way or another. He did not in any way wow us - nor did he flop. He was... solid (and, like Boqvist, at times showed flashes suggesting much more). Just like Boqvist, we will see over time. For now, all we have is hopeful expectations.
