WATCH: Fourth-Rounder Kiviharju to Guerin: "You Just Got the Steal Of the Draft"

Hopefully he will use the detractors and draft to prove people wrong. That's great swagger but Laine was the same way. 

Just prove it on the ice. Get something going to improve the speed and agility. If he wants it bad enough and can stand out in a good way, great!. 

So, immediately after this conversation with Guerin, the kid goes to the training table to get stretched into a 6'2" athlete. The weight will come by next season, he plans to be 210.

Overcoming his size will be his main issue. Why? because there's a guy named Zeev Buium ahead of him on the depth chart and they play a similar game. 

I like the kid, but he's really got to thicken, and he's absolutely got to get his top gear back. 

So, lesson #1, go and get as much tape as you can on Jared Spurgeon. Find out what makes him so good, and what you can do just like him. This was something that Addison was not willing to do. 

From reading up on the prospect, he is said to be very mature for his age. I wonder if he looks 14 like Spurgeon does? While he was out with his knee injury, he was looking to improve other parts of his game where he was weak. He seems like he's got a Rossi work ethic. 

Who knows, maybe he can be a difference maker. What I don't want to see, though, is something similar on the left side of our defense where our largest guy is 180 lbs. That means you've got nobody who can defend hard when needed on that side of the ice. Maybe one of these guys can play their off side? 

One thing is for sure, he won't be ready before Spurgeon's contract is up. Maybe we can carry another smaller guy.

He might get a little closer to 6'. 

If he's smart and coachable, that's a big plus. I wanted to see more size added at forward but these players are pretty hard to criticize for the places they were picked. 

You know, I kinda want every player we draft under 6 feet tall to have 10-15 year careers with the team and play to Spurgeon's level of quality or better just to spite people.

I like the kid already.

People freaking out about another undersized player (spurgeon)  as the team has too many.  

I see it as 4th rounders are likely a bust, and this kid is the probability of maybe a 2nd rounder.  We don't need him to play on the team.  We just need to build more NHL level prospects for trade bait, to keep the pool going for many years to come.  We wont be able to keep all the prospects we already have by say 2026-2028.  Maybe its mostly a surplus of bottom 6 ers and 3rd pairing D.  But there might be a few surprises of the ~20 prospects that arent expected to be top 6 players.  Whether Bankier or Haight or Lorenz or Peart or Lambos or Knutz,  we just need 1 or 2 to become impact players.  We already got yurov, ohgren, Buium, Rossi, Heidt as impact players to down right rock stars.  Worst case scenario, there is a logjam of bottom 6 ers forcing them all to go 110% in order to fight for spots.  yay.