King Henry I said:
I think that he will be a great defenseman in the future. A lot of people on this site think that he will be a top 4 quality defenseman on a playoff team this year. He is not that good right now.
With Calgary's depth on the blueline, he is certainly not a top 4 defenseman on the Flames right now.
But I love his game, and think he'll be terrific.
And as for the Bouwmeester thing....
1) He's still very young
2) He plays on a team that over the years used an unique defensive system, the one known as "Get the he11 out of Luongo's way, then ice the puck."
Bouwmeester has had no one adequate as a pairing partner than I can think of, and he played in the NHL his draft year. Rookie defensemen on a bad team face an unbelievably difficult learning process. Chris Pronger, if I remember correctly, had a rocky first two years as well.
I think when a defenseman wins an award that is almost exclusively given to forwards and goalies, that probably means he turned out OK...
Bouwmeester will be excellent.