I'm sure many Habs homers voted and clearly a handful of blanket Habs haters judging from the posters on the first page. The thread would have been shorter and less contentious if Suzuki hadn't been traded to the Habs. For my part, I would have voted the same way, but maybe not joined the argument.
Suzuki had a higher standing in his draft class to me at the time of his draft than Hayton. Hayton may have played on the second line behind Frost, but he also played on the first power play unit with Frost and co, scored a high percentage of his points on the PP, and played a decent chunk of time on Frost's wing. Suzuki scored 0.99 non-power play points per game in his draft season; Hayton scored 0.62. That's a massive gap that's impossible to explain through usage alone.
From an eye test perspective, I don't quite see Hayton's NHL scoring upside either. I see just an average skater with a good but not great shot and a guy who isn't exceptionally clever making plays for his teammates. He doesn't bully people physically in junior and he won't in the NHL. Nothing in his toolbox stands out to the point where I could be at all confident that he'll translate into above average offensively at the next level. Suzuki has better hands, better playmaking, and is both smarter offensively and just more consistent at using his offensive tools to score, rather than showing them in flashes. I also think he's actually fine defensively at the junior level, and the comparisons Hayton gets to Bergeron or other defensively elite NHL centers are ridiculous.
