Eh Gormley was just super vanilla. He was the classic case of a guy who got the label as having a balanced game... which meant that he was good at nothing.
I hope that we stay the **** away from Bouchard, but his shot and IQ are miles better than Gormley's ever were.
What worries you with Boqvist?
He's a smart player that produces at an elite level... In a league where his movement issues won't hinder him.
Good offensive defensemen don't move as poorly as he does. Those openings in the OHL are going to be much tougher to create in the NHL.
I wouldn't touch him with a top 20 pick, but hes likely to go top 5-7.
For Bouchard, I have seen a few poster compare him to Jason Garrison, which would not be what I wanted at 9. Semenov had a 103MPH slap shot, but who the hell cares? From point position, slow deflected shots in this era are much more important. Hard shots are only useful from the half wall, if you can hit them first time, with accuracy. That's not many NHL players. The difference between 96MPH and 101 MPH shot isn't that big.
Boqvist is about value and risk. There are a lot of players at 9 who should be close to surefire NHLers. If we're going to gamble on another offensive defenseman, I'd rather do it in the 2nd round with Merkley than at 9 with Boqvist. That he can't skate backwards at an NHL level is very concerning. Inability to separate forwards from the puck in the D zone is one of the things that DeAngelo and Shattenkirk struggle with too, so that's very salient in my considerations right now.
