Quoting: The_Puck_Whisperer
Lmao. You come on here every day and try to bully people into thinking the way you do... I know more about hockey than you could ever fathom. You have your opinion and I have mine. You DO NOT pass up a prototypical 1C (With comparisons to Anze and Gino) for a winger, just because he had a good season in a subpar men’s division. IMO both of these payers will have great nhl careers, but the need of the kings is a 1C. I see your cute posts about thinking Turcotte is the next 1C and... you’re wrong. Vilardi is the only one that has the potential and even that isn’t a certainty. With the depth of the kings prospects they can very much afford to take a chance on the amazing upside of Byfield...
First off, I dont bully people on here. I was out of line there.
Second, I highly doubt that.
Now, you've obviously missed some Kings games this year. Vilardi scored his first NHL goal 10 seconds into his first shift, broke the NHL record. Ever since his call up the Kings went 8-1-1 and he got 7 points in 10 games. There is no longer a question whether or not he will pan out. He most likely will be our #1 center after Kopitar. He and Turcotte will be fighting for his spot. You undervalue Turcotte, every scout out there knows Turcotte has the potential to be a #1 guy.
We don't need Byfield, not ever #1 franchise center is found in the lottery. Kopitar was found 11OA. So was Vilardi and both were supposed to go top 5, like Turcotte.
I strongly suggest you watch more of Byfield. While I'm sure we can both agree on his potential. He has ALOT of flaws in his game. He is not like Kopitar because Kopitar is elite in his own end, Byfield is not. He is somewhat lazy and can be caught watching the play in his own end. He doesn't have the best work ethic either. He's not an elite playmaker, he is a good goal scorer. He has almost zero physicality which is a HUGE turn off considering he is 6'4 probably soon to be 6'5. I hate when people compare him to Malkin not only is Malkin an elite playmaker, but a really good creative goal scorer. Byfield is somewhat limited. Also Malkin is a heavy hitting very physical player, Byfield is not. Byfield NEEDS alot of work and it's just not worth it when we have Turcotte and Vilardi.
I know you can say "can't have too much center depth" you actually can, but we'll put that aside and talk about how the Kings dont have any potential top caliber wingers in the pipeline other than Kaliyev. Kupari if he ever makes the NHL will be a bottom 6er at best.
Stutzle will be a natural LW for the Kings and exactly what we need. Not only is Stutzle the better player right now, but he is better than Byfield at almost everything except goalscoring.
Alot of scouts have Stutzle ahead of Byfield and some scouts have Byfield as low as 6. McKenzie has Stutzle at 2. The thing is, there is no unanimous #2 pick this draft, Stutzle and Byfield are neck and neck as far as who will be picked 2nd so in this case, picking for position is warranted especially when already have 2 potential franchises centers after Kopitar.