Rossi vs this years draft class

[Daydream Nation]

I think I’d take Rossi over anyone in this draft.

I have Rossi and I'll have to see if the guy drafting Slaf will trade for him.

[deantime419]

Wright in real life but a toss up for me between the two in fantasy.

Beniers and Johnston are 2 guys I'm curious what peoples opinions are vs this years top 3 after the seasons they had.

[bnet]

Fantasy purposes, Wright has a very safe floor, if he's anything less then a good 3rd line center, would be shocking, even a 3rd line center would be a big fall, his likely floor is a 2nd line, good two-way center who can put up 60-75 points ala Couture, Horvat etc; his ceiling good at maybe a ppg-90 point 1st line center, I feel like a safe projection for him is as a good, but not great, 1st line center who averages about 70-75 points a season.

Rossi is more boom/bust, his ceiling I think is roughly the same as Wright's, but in a weird way, I feel he's more likely to either reach his ceiling then Wright, or to bust/bottom out then fall somewhere in between. I think Rossi can eventually end up being that 1st line offensive C, who averages ppg or slightly above in his prime.

Funny enough, Johnston, Beniers and Wright all fall into the same category of responsible centers who do mostly everything right. Personally I'd list them as Wright > Beniers > Johnston. Beniers surprised at NHL level by producing immediately, granted it was over a short time, but he was only playing about 14-15min a night, not with the best cast either. Before that debut I would have marked him as a lesser Wright, maybe a decent, serviceable 1st line center on some teams, or more likely a very good 2nd line center on the right team. With his play though, especially with his lack of quality linemates, if he gets the right players around him, I could see him as a near ppg center and I would rank him just behind Wright and Slavkosky and tied with Cooley (Cooley I think has higher offensive upside, but Beniers is safer to at least be a quality top six center).

Johnston is hard to peg, we have no data from the year before, this year he exploded and tore up the OHL, did it as an 18yr old for the most part too. Dallas' scouting last few years has been top notch, finding gems in 2nd round or late 1st year after year. Dallas has so much young talent, it's hard to say where Johnston ends up, does he end up centering that top line eventually with Robertson, does he play wing on the 2nd line with their other young guns or does he wind up centering the 3rd line for years in Dallas? Johnston has the biggest variable I think, partly because there's less data on him and partly because of the team he'll be on, I would rank behind the top 3 this year, top 10 definitely, maybe even squeezing close to the top 5.

tl;dr
Rossi
Wright
Beniers
Johnston

Based off upside, not likelihood of achieving said upside.

[poolsharks]

I wouldn't trade Rossi for the 1st overall pick this year. So there's that.

Agreed and I own Rossi .