McKenzie: Canucks' Kassian, Sabres' Hodgson have fallen short of expectations

Bob McKenzie was on Vancouver’s TSN 1040 on Tuesday morning.

On if it would be mistake for the Vancouver Canucks to trade Zack Kassian, given that this is the organization that traded Cam Neely away:

“Well first off, my guess is that Kassian is not Cam Neely. But again, it’s not like he’s 18 or 19 years old. I mean, he’s at the age now where what you see should be what you get. And he’s had plenty of opportunities, both in Buffalo and Vancouver, to demonstrate that he’s a full-time NHLer that can place fairly high in your lineup.

“And Cody Hodgson, quite frankly, has been going through the same problem in Buffalo. It’s interesting. When the trade was made, everybody was like, ‘Oh boy, both of these guys could turn out to be really, really good. Cody Hodgson could be a prototypical No. 2 centre in the National Hockey League. Kassian could be that big power forward who scores 30 or 40 goals and fights people and hits.’

“And these are guys who aren’t close to either one of those points. That’s not to say, I guess, they can’t get there. But as I said, if they were 18 or 19 years old, you might give them the benefit of the doubt. But the fact that they’re the age that they are...

“Now that’s not to say that there’s not room for improvement and that some players don’t flourish between the ages of 23 and 26. That absolutely can happen. But it’s not as likely as when you’re 18 or 19, and you're projecting somebody five, six, seven years out.”

Source: TSN 1040/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

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