Player Discussion #10 Jonathan Huberdeau

[Zirakzigil]

He looked a lot better with a healthy Kuzy on the PP, that 1st unit was deadly. I think hes got a good chance to bounch back to 70-80 points this year, really depends on who his linemates are though. Hube - Zary - Sharangovich or Hube and Mantha could find some good chemistry.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

We don't talk about it enough.
Is Huska and his crew one of the worst coaching groups in the league?

Like clearly Huska paid his dues, and he's a positive guy... but like, I don't think he's a particularly good coach. He'll be a good transitional guy while we tank out the next couple seasons.

If vanilla was a coaching staff this is it. Husks is Just keeping the chair warm until Jarome replaces him.

 

[User1996]

We don't talk about it enough.
Is Huska and his crew one of the worst coaching groups in the league?

Like clearly Huska paid his dues, and he's a positive guy... but like, I don't think he's a particularly good coach. He'll be a good transitional guy while we tank out the next couple seasons.

What about this staff makes you say this?

 

[Volica]

What about this staff makes you say this?

He’s clearly not a massive strategist or anything.

I’d say he’s good at getting the young guys involved, but he hasn’t been able to figure out special teams.

Dunno, just strikes me as a guy who’ll have a 3-4 year run as an HC and then will pop up as an assistant or AHL coach down the line.

 

[Flames Fanatic]

He’s clearly not a massive strategist or anything.

I’d say he’s good at getting the young guys involved, but he hasn’t been able to figure out special teams.

Dunno, just strikes me as a guy who’ll have a 3-4 year run as an HC and then will pop up as an assistant or AHL coach down the line.

Special teams is generally the purview of the assistants though. Not saying he's blameless, but there's a reason people are celebrating Savard leaving.

 

[Backlund]

He’s clearly not a massive strategist or anything.

I’d say he’s good at getting the young guys involved, but he hasn’t been able to figure out special teams.

Dunno, just strikes me as a guy who’ll have a 3-4 year run as an HC and then will pop up as an assistant or AHL coach down the line.

The PK was 9th last year and the PP is terrible because of the players we have. Why are you trying to blame Huska?

 

[User1996]

He’s clearly not a massive strategist or anything.

I’d say he’s good at getting the young guys involved, but he hasn’t been able to figure out special teams.

Dunno, just strikes me as a guy who’ll have a 3-4 year run as an HC and then will pop up as an assistant or AHL coach down the line.

Fair enough. I don’t know if there is enough to evaluate much on. Like, the major gripes I had were all corrected over time. Sharangovich was moved higher in the lineup and took off (though that was reportedly more Conroy strongly suggesting a move from the 4th). Zary was given a shot at C which I had been calling for.

Maybe it’s just a refreshing change from Sutter to see young players get chances, as well as avoiding not having to watch Lucic get repetitive defensive zone starts against McDavid (another Sutter thing).

 

[Ace Rimmer]

The PK was 9th last year and the PP is terrible because of the players we have. Why are you trying to blame Huska?

I'll give you the PK but the PP was an entire season of "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas"

 

[Backlund]

I'll give you the PK but the PP was an entire season of "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas"

Yeah I agree they could've tried other things instead of sticking to the same thing that wasn't working, but how good of a powerplay do you really expect out of this group of players? Even with better coaching the absolute best you could hope for is middle of the pack and that might be a bit generous. It's just a weird thing to put all on Huska.

 

[Khrox]

Like clearly Huska paid his dues, and he's a positive guy... but like, I don't think he's a particularly good coach. He'll be a good transitional guy while we tank out the next couple seasons.

Huska did a great job of helping develop quite a few of our players over his 4 years there (Hathaway, Lomberg, Kyllington, Andersson, Dube, Mangiapane, and Jankowski have all played a few full seasons for us). Which isn't a lot, but given some of our best prospects outside of those guys were ones like Morgan Klimchuk, Emile Poirier, Hunter Smith, Hunter Shinkaruk, Tyler Wotherspoon, and Patrick Seiloff, he did a damn good job. End of the day, it's his first NHL head coach job, and even if he does get an assistant coach job from our next HC, I think he'll definitely get another shot or two around the league as an HC. I don't think he'll be a *special* franchise changing HC, but I think he'll do decently on some bubble teams/teams expected to make it but not expecting deep runs.