There is no dispute that the only reason that Latendresse has been in the NHL for 3 years because the Canadiens brass made a HUGE mistake with his development. Perhaps there is no bigger single mistake that they made with any one player.

And there is also consensus that Latendresse has not developed at all in those 3 years. In fact, some say he has regressed.

As far as McDonagh, would you prefer that he was one-dimensional like Mark Streit? Just because McDonagh is responsible at both ends of the ice with no glaring weaknesses doesn’t make him “a bland Everyman”.

McDonagh is average (or slightly below average) in terms of his size, and shows no outstanding skill. He isn’t that good with the puck (third string PP on his college team), isn’t particularly physical, doesn’t drop the gloves. He is just a bland Everyman, who at best will neutralize the other team’s player. If he was drafted in the third or fourth round that would be O.K., but Timmins took him in the top half of the first round and tried to convince everyone that he stole the guy there.

We’re dealing with the 12th pick(McDonagh) and 45th pick (Latendresse).

Regardless of where they were selected, there’s no denying we shouldn’t pass judgement on any 19 year old player until he’s had 2-3 years to further develop.

Will Latendresse be another Keith Tkachuk or Cam Neely, not likely. Will he be a very good third line player, at this point in time I think he will.

Will McDonagh be another Chris Chelios, probably not. Will he be a quality top four NHL defensemen, most likely.

It’s fun to evaluate players but it’s a crap shoot at best when they’re 19 years old.

I consider him “overrated” in comparison to his draft position. I wasn’t a fan of the pick at the time (or any other Minnesota high schooler, for that matter) and nothing has happened in the past 18 months to change my perception. At least we didn’t get screw up as badly as the Vancouver Canucks, who wasted their first rounder on Patrick White out of the Minnesota H.S. system.

I don’t understand why you give other players like Guillaume Latendresse the benefit of doubt when it pertains to how young they are, give them time to develop,yet you won’t give Ryan McDonagh the same benefit.

He’s only 19 years old and is still developing as a player, something Gui took almost three years to do as a forward on top of that!!

Rob, you are fully aware that it takes most defensemen a few years to fully develop. Defense is a much harder position to learn especially in the pro ranks.

I saw a very steady two way game from McDonagh during the WJC tournament and he didn’t look out of place against his best peer in the world.

On numerous occasions, he demonstrated his great skating stride and out skated some pretty nible forwards.

Give him more time like you did with Gui.

Happy New Year!!!

The college prospects are bigger, and not as offensively inclined, but they are all right side defenders, and all have NHL potential in my opinion. Some of them for sure are going to have their development stifled because Timmins got carried away with drafting right handed shooters over the past few years.