Taylor Hall's coach 'shocked' that Tyler Seguin's ranked No. 1
Former Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Bob Boughner is the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires, which makes him de facto president of Team Taylor in its ongoing struggle for hockey prospect supremacy with Team Tyler.
The latest battle is over the fact that Tyler Seguin of the Plymouth Whalers was named the No. 1 prospect in the 2010 Draft by NHL Central Scouting, with Taylor Hall of the Spits at No. 2.
As the Windsor Star reported on Wednesday, Boughner would like to put that thang down, flip it and reverse it -- citing Hall's dominant performance in his team's playoff series against Seguin and the Whalers as a key reason:
"I'm shocked," Spitfires head coach Bob Boughner said. "Different people see different things, but if you've watched the way Hall's played in the second half of the season and in the playoffs, I don't know if there's a better player in junior hockey."
The final list was completed before Windsor began its playoff series with Plymouth. Hall, who was No. 1 in the mid-term rankings, has multi-point games in all seven playoff games. In the first three games of the series against Plymouth, Hall has three goals, six points and a plus six rating. Seguin has yet to record a point in the series and is a minus six.
Well, Magic outplayed Bird back in the 1979 NCAA final, too; although the comparison through three games of the OHL playoffs would be like Magic dropping 24 and Bird shooting 0-for-21.
But the reason for the ranking has less to do with numbers than where they are on the ice, according to Director of Central Scouting E.J. McGuire. Seguin is a center; Hall a winger. As he told NHL.com:
"The full season of body of work that said he (Seguin) is going to be a great player in the National Hockey League," Director of Central Scouting E.J. McGuire told NHL.com. "So is Taylor Hall. In our mind, other than the position, they are equal. ... They're equal, but we can't sit on the fence, and we went with the right-shot center."
"Sometimes the center has a little bit more of an influence on a line and the game because he controls the puck a little more, so that might have been the difference, too," added WHL scout B.J. MacDonald.
The Spits have a chance to eliminate the Whalers on Wednesday night (7 p.m. EST), for their second straight series sweep in the playoffs. The Windsor Star is live-bloggin' the action should you need such a thing to complete your evening.
