The 1st Ohio Battery summer prospect series continues with our No. 2 best prospect in the Blue Jackets organization, Alexandre Texier.
Reason for Ranking
Simply put, Texier has one of the highest ceilings in the entire Blue Jackets pipeline of prospects. He is skilled and can put the puck in the net, but the truly impressive part of his game is the unknown part.
We don't know just how good he is going to be. The French League doesn't have a track record of producing prospects; he's the outlier that other prospects are going to be measured against moving forward.
You get a partial baseline when seeing what he has done in Liiga, but even then, it doesn't fully explain his sky-high potential. He is one of the youngest players in his draft class and is already outperforming similar players in a pro league.
Our list is mostly angled toward potential and with it, Texier ranks higher than many "sure bets" that appear on the list.
Paul and I both had Texier as the second-best prospect in the system. Dan had Texier as the third-best prospect in the system. We were all very bullish on him as a prospect.
NHL Projection
Top-six center.
Texier has a lot of potential and he has lived up to it at every level. It doesn't appear that anything is going to stop him at this point. He has prototypical size and has speed that will make him tough to stop.
He has a genuine chance to be special with his play, and is a player that the Blue Jackets desperately needed to have in their system.
Best Case Scenario
Being a top-line center on the Blue Jackets.
That's a lofty goal, but trying to project Texier's future is hard and with comparables that are non-existent, why not hope that the sky is the limit? He has the tools and has shown that his pedigree could lead to something more.
Forging a new path means that the breadth in which he could perform is large. He is the real definition of a home-run pick.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Like a lot of the best players in the league, Texier is fast. The best part about him though is that he thinks the game fast as well. His moves and vision allow him to play well beyond his years. That's exciting for the Blue Jackets, and a great base to have for a player that you're trying to develop as a top-six force.
Where you start to worry about him, though, is his ability to raise the other parts of his game. He was put in a bottom-six capacity on KalPa and still was able to succeed. You want to see if he can do it all, especially if he might be a top player on your team. Texier isn't a one-dimensional player, but taking stock to see if he is rounding out his game properly is important for a player that is still only 19 years old.
