Now. I ask about ehlers for the exact same reason. Questioning how a large bodied fast skating (like really fast for his size) will transition into a larger bodied league without asking the same thing about Ehlers is kind of one sided.
Ritchie has all the skill and speed to spare and is a workhorse, he put his team on his back and won their playoff series. Added he has the potential to grow another 1 inch 2 maybe 3 inches and put on another 20+ pounds of lean muscle making him and absolute monster
Ehlers is incredible yes I agree. I am also not sold on him though. What happens if he comes in and gets pasted by a guy like Brown and his hanging knee, or Byfuglien squishes him against the board. All the speed in the world means nothing when someone that much larger than you leans in on you.
For the same reasons you question Ritchie I question Ehlers as larger bodied people seem to fake it in the NHL better than smaller bodied people.
And again, think of the division we play in and the team we play on. It seems liberties can be taken with all of our guys without anything more than a fine to the opposing player
I have the same though process.
He is big, he is so very fast for his size and no he doesn't just bull through D men, he dangles and deaks. He is surprisingly agile and has a Blake Wheeler look to him with more offensive upside and speed.
Him coming in to the league right away would be foolish for the same reason as Ehlers.
Both would be projects over a 2 or 3 year term and I would be happy with that really. Honestly I think all of our current prospects deserve a solid year + in the AHL
Ritchie's size is the only thing that would make him NHL viable though, although it could impact his development negatively the same way Kassian's was stunted when Buffalo threw his bag self into the line up without considering what he'd gone through regarding his killer hit in junior or how big men need grooming.
Ehlers WILL be a game breaker if he can translate his skill set to the NHL level accordingly.
But Ritchie will be as well.
IMO honestly at where we stand today we have a chance at
Ehlers
Dal Colle (way outside chance)
Draistl
Ritchie
Virtanen
And shouldn't look far beyond that unless we add another top 10 draft pick (Ottawa's via Anaheim maybe?)
But should we win the lottery and NOT take Reinhart or Ekblad though we'd be criminally stupid for the same reason i'd be upset if Virtanen was still on the board and the rest were gone and we didn't pick him.
Local boys will excite the crowd.
Again, Ehlers OR Ritchie will be solid picks for their own reasons, but both have just as much of a chance of not translating in to the NHL level as they do of making it.
Either way this team has no need to rush its players in, the same way Detroit didn't have to. Whoever we pick this, next and the following draft needs to be groomed accordingly. Almost universally we should be letting our guys play a full AHL season before bringing them in to the big club regardless of where they were picked.