Runner77 - "How "serious" might a random sampling of these posters be? And, they're not all saying he'll bust, but safe to say there are quite a few who claimed he would and the rest wouldn't exclude it."
There's a difference between calling someone a bust and saying there's a bust factor (or probability he could bust). My comment was made after a game (against Kingston I believe) in which McCarron looked really bad. It was in response to one of Grant's early statement about McCarron when he said there was no bust factor with McCarron. To which I responded at that time that there's quite obviously a bust factor with every player and more importantly with players selected lower than 2 or 3 overall. Saying there was no risk McCarron could bust was a bit too optimistic I thought. After his season in the OHL I thought the chances the greater he could bust but I never he was already a bust.
In fairness to you Mathletic, you are seemingly not influenced by emotionalism and idiocy, but by intelligence and statistics. Of course, I disagree with your opinion on Big Mac, but I genuinely respect your opinion on him because of what I just said.
You and Whitesnake are one of the very few skeptics (not sure if WHitesnake qualifies as a skeptic) who provide a reasonable (key word) basis for your skepticism on Big Mac's potential, even if I believe that at times last year, you were too unwilling at times to consider other factors that contributed to Big Mac's poor season.
There are however far too many posters on this board who seemingly lack the reason and intelligence necessary to properly assess a player like Big Mac. Personally, I am more interested in why a person believes what they believe than what it is they believe. Too many posters were willing to consider all the supposed reasons why Mac wouldn't be an NHL'er, instead of considering why he may be one, and a potentially good one at that.
And of course, they are now either continuing to discredit his solid play this season (even if he should be a better player this year), or they will pretend that they have always believed in him.
No doubt about it, no matter the circumstances, he had a poor season last year. In the same way, no matter the circumstances, he is having a great season (so far) this year. What should we make of this? He wasn't as bad as he looked this year, and he also isn't as good as he looks this year. Nevertheless, there is plenty of reason to believe that he has the potential to be what the Habs want him to be one day, a big, physical player who should be top 6 or top 9 player in the future.
I also hope that people will stop discrediting Grant's deep knowledge and expertise in this. He isn't always going to be right, as he knows, but he is going to be a lot more balanced and knowledgeable than the 12 year olds posting nonsense on this board.