medhatcanuck
Registered User
Jensen is clearly not ready, but the Sedins and Kesler looked a lot better at the same age. Of course there are other factors that play into that as well - such as the overall team around them - young, not ready players, tend to look more "ready" when playing on weaker, non-competitive teams, but Kesler had a lot more jump to his game when he first stepped in, and not only looked passable defensively (which Jensen looks right now), but you could see him already looking like he would be a standout defensively when he first jumped into the league.. he had those instincts that Jensen simply doesn't. And the same is true for the Sedins, though on an offensive level. They were weak and slow when he first came in, but they still made great passes, showed tremendous vision and were solid positionally when they first stepped in - I really don't see the comparison at all. Though to be fair, Jensen is coming off a good year in the SEL with some question marks overall, while the Sedins were co-MVPs of the SEL at the same age.
Jensen just looks like another of the many young prospects that come into the NHL that simply isn't ready at this age and stage in his career. He's more likely a couple years away from having any kind of top-9 impact with this team. I'd think he'd be more along the lines of Schroeder in terms of development (another prospect that was talked about as being NHL ready when he was drafted), and he's played a couple full years in the AHL and is still not fully NHL ready at this stage, though is a lot closer now then he was a couple years removed from his draft, which is where Jensen is now.
Give him a full year in the AHL next season and then call-up duty for handful of games the following year, like Schroeder is doing this year... by the season after that he should be ready for full-time duty. IMO Schroeder will be ready for full-time duty next season - this is his part-time/call-up year. I see Jensen following a similar path, which when you compare to the average prospect, is still a very good development curve.
No they didnt. Kes didn't fully realize his wheels till his 2nd 3rd NHL season. And he and burr were looked terrible their first few years. And I don't even have to mention how the sedins were their first seasons.
I think your romanticizing how Kesler and the Sedins developed. Because the ones I watched had alot of growing pains and Jensen doesn't look too far off of what they looked like at 20.