To be honest I haven't seen enough of Connauton to make a fair assessment. But, from what I have seen out of Bell, this year alone (seen him live 6-7 times) I really think he is a great fit for the Nucks and will be a better player than Connauton.
Like I said, I think Vancouver has a solid group of good 2 way defenders, but Bell will be more of a gambreaking offensive threat than any of their players back there.
How much have you seen of Bell? And I assume you are a Nucks fan, what's the feel from fans? They want a winger more than anything else?
On another note, I can't wait to do another mock draft in a few weeks now that all these 1st round picks have been dealt.
Connauton has a Mike-Green
esque shot from the point, gets hit through, deadly accurate, hard, and the kids has unreal hands. He has 10 goals and 8 assists so for this year in the AHL after his 72 point first(and ony) season in the Dub. It seems like the characteristics you speak of, regarding Bell are exactly what we already have in Connauton - You can always add more, thats not my complaint.
I've only seen Bell through a few highlight packages, and I tried Isolating him while watching the top prospects game (a bad player assessment tool, but thats all I have). I like his body type - Doughtyish, shoots it hard, skates well, but that one play where he was a pylon on that goal.
I just dont see Bell as a BPA at 30th (man I hope they pick 30th
).
About Canucks fans, most of them are idiots, for the most part the desire is to get a big forward....preferable a winger....I like Jaskin, McNeil, and Zibanejad right now....I think the group needs a little size.