When it's all said and done, especially if he continues to develope his chemsitry with Michalek like Lehtinen and Modano have..he'll be a bigger and faster Lehtinen, which is high praise.
The 2003 draft was an amazing one. Michalek may not score in the end like Carter, Perry, Getzlaf, but he'll be just as important and probally an all star some day.
He does a lot of the little things there are not stats for. Example: Sharks score the winning goal in overtime last night against Phoenix... Thornton & McLaren get the assists and Preissing scores, but it was Michalek using his speed to beat two Coyotes in the neutral zone to gain the zone, then his perfect screen in front of Joseph that set it all up.
He's just learning how to harness his offensive talents, especially that elite speed. This is his first year in a long time being asked to be a scorer...He was out for two years with knee surgeries, and before that as a 17 & 18 year old he was playing a defensive role in a defensive league in the Czech Elite league. So it's been at least four years since he's been asked to be a scorer when he was excellent for the U-18 teams.
He'll have a Sedin like development curve but once he is in his prime years 25-29 he'll be one of the games best two way forwards and an absolute horse...nothing wront with that.
Just wanted to add: Bernier is going to be an offensive stud.
Along with Carle, Hennessey, Pavelski the 2003 draft was a good one for the Sharks.