In a league where you get drafted as early as you do in the NHL, it is quite the challenge to guess the developmental curve of a young player. Hockey is not a pure-skill kind of game, and to estimate which talented players will continue to grow both physically and mentally in the subsequent years is a challenge for professional scouts, let alone amateur hockey analysts.
Naturally, there is a challenge in examining the European talent pool. How are you supposed to rank a player who excels in the Swedish J20 SuperElit and plays a few games in the SHL or HockeyAllsvenskan compared to a guy who puts up 1.