ESPN’s top 25 NHL players under 25... Worth a heck of a laugh

[Sharkaholic707]

as someone that has watched him play and his games as a whole it seems about right. A great scorer as well as one of the top defensive forwards on that list

Not to mention he's played on the second and third line on the sharks for long stretches of the past few seasons, and still putting up decent offensive numbers and maintaining defensive responsibility.

[Sdig14]

Some of the players ahead of Eberle make me cringe a bit....

[Sdig14]

I'd say it's not a strength, but it has improved. I wouldn't claim that he deserves to be near the top, but being behind Gagner does seem a little over the top.

Couture will continue to fly under the radar because he's on the west coast, but he's a great player.

Eberle's defensive game is pretty underrated IMO.

He's been begging for PK time and I think he will get it this year, the kid is very smart and IMO will be a solid PKer who can chip in offensively shorthanded.

He's also very good along the boards and doesn't make many stupid plays.

Compared to a guy like Couture, then he isn't on that level devensively and plays a lesser defensive position, but I think as far as wingers go he's pretty solid for that age.

Anyone saying he should be in the 15-20 range isn't giving him enough credit though.

This is a kid coming off a 30+ goal 76 point sophmore year where he was an all-star at 22 years old. Enough said IMO.

[Sdig14]

I think everyone has JT over Eberle. Even Eberle himself :)
I don't see Eberle as top 10 looking at that list, around 15th seems about right. When you bring in names like Duchene, RNH or Landeskog, ....... Eberles not cracking any top 10.

I think some of the players you listed could potentially end up better than Eberle, but based on last year alone Eberle was better than all of the 3 rookies you listed IMO.

RNH was the only one who had a chance to come close to Ebs offensively, and might have if he did not get hurt and missed 20 games, but it's tough to tell if he would have kept up his stellar rookie scoring pace.