just a fantastic natural scorer. that term is thrown around far too much when talking about prospects, but when you see a kid that is special in that particular aspect you know it even if you can't explain it. i honestly didn't think there was a chance in hell he would make it to our pick and thought he would have a skinner type rise up the board since 50 goals in your draft eligible season is a magic number of undeniable ability. i wouldn't put him with the top tier of those guys (stamkos, kane, crosby, etc.) but that much should be a given. the rest of the names on the list provide a clearer outlook in my opinion for an expectation. kaliyev, mantha, lupul, debrincat, skinner. those are closer to the top end projection. obviously a lot of those guys have problems quinn doesn't and positives that he doesn't but the full ledger accounting should put him in that company.
the negatives working against him are partially misinformation and partially factors he can't control. people have been boxscore scouting him and saying that marco rossi is the reason for his rapid ascent and it's simply not true. they didn't even play together at even strength where quinn scored the lion's share of his goals. there's also the concept of the unsustainable shooting percentage being above 20% last season which is an easier point to validate but still something you're measuring in its absence instead of its presence. it makes people uncomfortable when players have seasons like this without the history to support their top prospect status and they look to explain it away or disperse credit for it. another talking point is that he's one of the older players first time eligible for this draft but i think that matters less in a world where guys in their d1 seasons are getting picked as high as the 2nd round after being passed over in their first eligible season. to me the age matters more on the opposite end of the spectrum where a player is several months younger than a lot of their comps. when we start getting into storylines about age and if this kid had been born a month prior, it wouldn't even be in the discussion as a factor. to me that illustrates the absurdity of holding that against him.
some folks have said that a late growth spurt is partially responsible for his production jump and it's usually good news when that happens. because when guys that are 5'10" or so are developing, they're developing skills that bigger guys aren't as obsessive about in terms of puck handling and technical skills because they don't have the body to shield the puck by using size and leverage the way some of their larger counterparts do it. that becomes problematic at higher levels when bigger players lose that advantage. so when you have a kid that goes from needing his hands to beat players 1 on 1 and the size comes later, it's just a bonus. supposedly he's up to 6'1" now but without a combine its hard to know. but suffice it to say that he's not smallish anymore. the skating isn't explosive and that is probably the biggest detraction that holds up, but i think he has enough. he's not going to stay up the middle and be responsible for being the primary puck carrier on his line. he's a right shooting right wing and that's a hole so obvious on our current composition that it was a storyline all year about williams coming back to fill it.
the thing that is unusual about him as compared to most guys that are lauded for their shot is that he's an obsessively hard worker and someone i think brind'amour would enjoy building upon. the biggest reason i think he's an option at our pick is because he's about as all or nothing as they come in the way this organization likes. he's either going to be like one of those guys above in the 30-30 neighborhood or he's just not going to make it. at least that's my read on it. but his hands are good and he's really good at making lanes for his shot. it's worth the gamble where we are.
