Leaderboard

I would be ok with that. Frankly, I'm hoping LA or OTT take a guy that isn't Stutzle or Byfield so that one of them falls to us.

I mean, if you really want to take the position that every NHL amateur scout and Credible Analyst™ believes Rossi is a centerman at the NHL level, more power to you. I'm guessing those people are not all on the same page on the matter. Honestly tho, it doesn't really matter to me. I think Rossi has the potential to be our top centerman if he's a centerman and our top winger if he's a winger. I'm not sure there's enough there in his game to allow him to be a powerhouse NHL producer (keep in mind: he's one of the elder statesemen of this draft class and he played for a very good CHL team this season), but what I like about him is how rounded and mature his game is and how many positive intangibles he seems to bring to the table. Basically, I see Rossi as closer to Ryan O'Reilly (or maybe Brayden Point?) than to Nathan MacKinnon, and I'm totally good with that, and I'd be totally good with having potentially three O'Reilly-esque two-way workhorses in Rossi, Larkin, Veleno. If that's our center group, I wouldn't be too concerned that our center group might not be able to generate offense in enough different ways, as I think there's actually a pretty good variety of strengths and styles there. When I talk about "loading up on Larkins," I'm mostly talking two-way ability. I don't mean I want three of the same player. I'm saying having three guys who can eat brutal minutes would be pretty great, in theory. From what I've seen of Lundell, he's plenty dynamic. I feel that he, like Byfield, hasn't yet realized how good he can be, and that he consciously tried to play conservatively this season because he was a teenaged centerman playing in the Liiga. I wouldn't take Lundell at 4th overall. But it's entirely possible he'd end up being a better NHLer than the guy I'd pick. I'm not convinced there's a whole lot of separation within this 3ish-10ish range.

Honestly, the thing I like about Rossi the most though is how dedicated he seems to be. Everybody who profiles him talks about how he's constantly working on aspects of his game. Those are always the kinds of guys who push through and find new levels to their game. That's what Datsyuk did. That's what Zetterberg did. Those weren't guys with amazing physical attributes. They were guys that played the game correctly and never quit looking for an improvement or an edge or a way to impact the game. I'm trying to find the quote now, but in an interview earlier this year Rossi's coach said something to the effect of "If you told Marco that eating raisins every day for a year would improve his game he'd go out and do it". That's awesome as hell.