We will see about Skille. He does certainly have an NHL body and no one is questioning his finishing ability. You're right that I haven't paid attention to Skille outside of his role in Wisconsin and you're also right that HF rankings don't mean squat. His games in college do represent the bulk of his play since being drafted, though, so it's not like I'm completely out in the cold on this player.
Listen. I like Chicago and I'd like to like Jack Skille. Wisconsin is my favorite college team and I'd be thrilled if Skille came up big for the Badgers next season. I think you overstate Eaves' toughness as a coach. He plays the best players he's got, regardless of how long they've been with the program. The aforementioned Joe Pavelski led all Badger forwards in icetime and scoring in '04-'05 as a freshman and Robbie Earl, a sophomore, was second. In fact, five of the top six forwards on the team that year were underclassmen, getting scoringline time over more established guys like Licari, Degenhardt and Funk.
Of course, the team was young in '04-'05 and pretty much everybody came back, so cracking the top lines was a tougher task for Skille, but Skille was on the 1st unit powerplay from day one (until he played himself onto the 2nd unit) and Skille was not relegated to some line with a bunch of neanderthals on skates. He spent the season moving between the Carlson and MacMurchy lines. Wisconsin only had one great line last year - the Pavelski/Earl line - and essentially the 2nd and 3rd lines were interchangeable. This is where Jack Skille found himself playing. Were he on the Pavelski/Earl line his points would have been higher, no doubt, but the simple fact of the matter is there was only really one spot even remotely open on that line in Badgers camp last year (Pavelski and Earl were entrenched) and Skille did not earn the spot, being outplayed by Adam Burish, not to mention Carlson and MacMurchy.
Mike Eaves is not Bill Parcells. If Jack Skille had shown he deserved it, he'd have gotten that top-line role, but he had a pretty bad start to the season, so what was Eaves supposed to do - stick him on Pavelski's line because he was supposed to be good?
I don't know what Skille has done outside of Wisconsin. Maybe he's putting it together. Maybe what he showed at the end of the year on the Badgers will carry over this season. But I don't know. Pavelski's gone, so there is no top center in Wisconsin - no one any better than who Skille played with last season, so if you're expecting an improvement in linemates, it is not forthcoming. Which may be a good thing. Any improvement in Jack Skille's numbers will be because he, himself, has raised him level of play, and I will be the first to admit it. Hell, I'll be thrilled.
We shall see. As I said before, I hope he does turn it on, both for the Badgers' and the Hawks' sake. I think a lot of Wisconsin fans last year expected bigger things out of Skille and were disappointed. This year will be telling because aside from Robbie Earl, Skille will be The Man, or at least should be.