Right or wrong, top prospect status requires dynamic qualities. Even if those qualities – the end-to-end rushes, the manipulative chance generation, and seeming endless waves of attacks – won’t translate, they demonstrate that the player has NHL-calibre skills.

Dylan Guenther, a possible top-five pick in the upcoming 2021 NHL Entry Draft, without dynamic qualities in the WHL, is an anomaly. He projects as an average to slightly above-average skater and average handler in transition, with his hands and feet locked in rhythm. That dependency limits his deceptive qualities; he cannot make defenders move their feet and then go the other way consistently.

A lack of dynamic qualities gets painted as a weakness, an upside limiter that makes Guenther an uninspired top-10 pick. But that assumption would be wrong – very wrong.