Skill can be hard to isolate but 18yr old Cowan was way ahead of Kadri's 18yr old production (while 5 months older) and matched Kadri's 19yr old production (while 7 months younger).
Marner 18.5: 75gms, 55gls, 160pts (60gl/175pt pace)
Robertson 18.0: 46gms, 55gls, 86pts (98gl/153pt pace)
Spezza 18.5: 64gms, 47gls, 116pts (60gl/149pt pace)
Cowan 18.5: 72gms, 44gls, 130pts (50gl/148pt pace)
Tavares 18.0: 70gms, 68gls, 125pts (80gl/146pt pace)
Wellwood 19.5: 64gms, 46gls, 114pts (59gl/146pt pace)
Brown 19.5: 82gms, 53gls, 146pts (53gl/146pt pace) --> played with McDavid
Kadri 19.0: 68gms, 44gls, 120pts (53gl/145pt pace)
Brooks 20.5: 83gms, 48gls, 148pts (47gls/146pt pace) <-- overage
Boyes 19.5: 68gms, 58gls, 118pts (70gl/142pt pace)
Brooks 19.5: 84gms, 45gls, 143pts (44gl/140pt pace) <-- now there's an outlier. Both him and linemate Steel have been busts.
Konecny 18.5: 62gms, 31gls, 104pts (41gl/138pt pace)
Domi 19.5: 66gms, 37gls, 111pts (46gl/138pt pace)
Stajan 19.0: 64gms, 39gls, 107pts (50gl/137pt pace)
Didomenico 20.5: 26gms, 14gls, 43pts (44gl/136pt pace) <-- overage + Q bullshit + sample size
Hagel 20.0: 70gms,. 45gls, 108pts (53gl/127pt pace)
Boyes 18.5: 74gms, 55gls, 113pts (61gl/125pt pace)
Corbeil 18.5: 62gms, 41gls, 93pts (54gl/123pt pace) <--- Q bullshit
Corbeil 19.5: 80gms, 40gls, 119pts (41gl/122pt pace) <--- Q bullshit
Domi 18.5: 70gms, 38gls, 103pts (45gl/121pt pace)
Voit 19.5: 83gms, 27gls, 121pts (27gl/120pt pace) <--- not enough goals maybe?
Timashov 19.0: 78gms, 35gls, 113pts (37gl/119pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Williams 19.5: 73gms, 54gls, 104pts (61gl/117pt pace)
Didomenico 19.5: 66gms, 23gls, 94pts (29gl/117pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Kadri 18.0: 70gms, 34gls, 99pts (40gl/116pt pace)
Wellwood 18.5: 70gms, 42gls, 99pts (49gl/116pt pace)
Bertuzzi 19.5: 77gms, 49gls, 106pts (52gl/113pt pace)
Bracco 19.5: 64gms, 27gls, 88gls (35gl/113pt pace)
SDA 19.0: 55gms, 12gls, 75pts (18gl/112pt pace) <-- no goals
Didomenico 18.5: 84gms, 47gls, 114pts (46gl/111pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Bracco 18.5: 58gms, 24gls, 78pts (34gl/110pt pace)
Delisle 19.5: 80gms, 61gls, 107pts (63gl/110pt pace)
McKegg 18.5: 73gms, 53gls, 97pts (60gl/109pt pace)
D'Amigo 19.5: 28gms, 18gls, 37pts (53gl/108pt pace)
Stefanovich 20.0: 61gms, 28gls, 80pts (38gl/108pt pace) <--- overage + Q bullshit
J.Mitchell 18.5: 74gms, 34gls, 94pts (38gl/104pt pace)
Stefanovich 19.0: 73gms, 60gls, 92pts (67gl/103pt pace) <--- Q bullshit
Williams 18.5: 76gms, 42gls, 94pts (45gl/101pt pace)
Abramov 19.5: 44gms, 17gls, 54pts (32gl/101pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Timashov 18.0: 88gms, 22gls, 108pts (21gl/101pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Delisle 20.5: 65gms, 35gls, 79pts (44gl/100pt pace) <--- overage
Stajan 18.0: 79gms, 36gls, 96ps (37gl/100pt pace)
Verhaeghe 19.5: 79gms, 39gls, 96pts (41gl/100pt pace)
Verhaeghe 18.5: 71gms, 30gls, 86pts (35gl/99pt pace)
Abramov 18.5: 63gms, 35gls, 76pts (46gl/99pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Delisle 18.5: 81gms, 42gls, 97pts (43gl/98pt pace)
Voit 18.5: 73gms, 28gls, 86pts (32gl/97pt pace)
Nicholls 19.5: 60gms, 32gls, 71pts (44gl/97pt pace)
D.Mitchell 20.5: 51gms, 23gls, 60pts (37gl/97pt pace) <--- overage
Champagne 20.5: 86gms, 35gls, 102pts (33gl/97pt pace) <--- overage + Q bullshit
Leivo 19.5: 73gms, 32gls, 85pts (36gl/96pt pace)
Lisowsky 19.5: 84gms, 49gls, 97pts (48gl/95pt pace)
Ross 19.5: 90gms, 54gls, 104pts (49gl/95pt pace)
J.Mitchell 19.5: 67gms, 26gls, 77pts (32gl/94pt pace)
Nicholls 18.5: 81gms, 38gls, 93pts (38gl/94pt pace)
D.Mitchell 19.5: 86gms, 47gls, 97pts (45gl/93pt pace)
Champagne 19.5: 81gms, 45gls, 92pts (46gl/93pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Champagne: 18.5: 55gms, 24gls, 62pts (36gl/92pt pace) <-- Q bullshit
Hagel 18.0: 72gms, 38gls, 79pts (43gl/90pt pace)
Bertuzzi 18.5: 47gms, 19gls, 51pts (33gl/90pt pace)
Brown 18.5: 63gms, 28gls, 69pts (36gl/90pt pace)
Leivo 18.5: 70gms, 34gls, 76pts (40gl/89pt pace)
McKegg 19.5: 80gms, 35gls, 86pts (36gl/88pt pace)
Minten 18.5: 67gms, 33gls, 71pts (40gl/87pt pace)
Hagel 19.0: 61gms, 23gls, 65pts (31gl/87pt pace)
Minten 19.5: 59gms, 30gls, 62pts (42gl/86pt pace)
Tlusty 18.5: 50gms, 22gls, 51pts (36gl/84pt pace)
Lisowsky 18.5: 83gms, 41gls, 84pts (41gl/83pt pace)
Stefanovich 18.0: 73gms, 36gls, 74pts (40gl/83pt pace)
D.Mitchell 18.5: 78gms, 34gls, 76pts (36gl/80pt pace)
Brooks 18.5: 73gms, 34gls, 69pts (38gls/78pt pace)
Ross 18.5: 83gms, 35gls, 75pts (35gl/74pt pace)
SDA 18.0: 67gms, 6gls, 49pts (7gl/60pt pace)
I don't know that there's any need to put a hard ceiling on Cowan at all, especially since he's more than fine in the size/speed/grit/leaderbeans categories.
Hagel and Verhaeghe obviously surprised from where they were in junior. Bertuzzi to a lesser extent.
and hey i hope we don't give up on Voit. though the lack of goals might have been a warning sign. and of course he doesn't seem to have any other assets other than pure offense.
buncha guys in there that we probably should have done better developing - Wiliiams, Brooks, D'Amigo, McKegg, Ross, Bracco, Leivo, JMitchell, Nicholls - all showed enough that i think a better franchise could have got a player or two out of that group. Verhaeghe was right in that group at the time and we almost killed his career too.