Quote Originally Posted by yougo View Post
Well, yes. Kuz is right now a better player than McDavid. If I was the Sharks,Kings,Hawks,Penguins or any team going for the Cup this year, I take Kuz over McDavid because McDavid hasn't reach the same level of play of Kuznetsov.
At what point do you draw the line on something like that? I could say the same thing about Travis Morin and the logic would still hold up. I highly doubt all those teams would take a complete unknown commodity over a freak talent like McDavid in the hopes that he'd step right into a top 6 role with a cup contending team. We have no idea how Kuz would perform in the NHL, he might be an instant top 6 asset or he could find himself a frequent pressbox visitor.

If we're only talking about best players (ignoring young studs who aren't ready to play against men) outside the NHL I'd say Kovalchuck owns that distinction by a large margin.