Charlie made the point that part of the reason Torts is down on Coots and Frost is because they don't skate fast (well Frost is fast but doesn't run around with his head cut off) and on the flipside he is the high guy on Poehling and Luchanko because they do skate fast. All while once golden boy Noah Cates, also slow, is a likely healthy scratch.
I'd like my NHL coach to evaluate with a bit more nuance, but it's hard to argue against it. Can kind of lump in what happened with PLD into that as well.
Frost just doesn't play fast, this is similar to what Torts said about Bonk. Has to process faster.
In the CHL, you have time to patiently wait to make your move, in the NHL the game is much faster and the windows are smaller. You can see that with Michkov, great vision but at times in preseason he seemed surprised how fast defenders got to him. Learning curve.
Frost has improved gradually the last few years, but he still goes MIA too often, he doesn't have great instincts (compare to Giroux, who is same size, slower but much smarter), and needs to use his speed to force the action instead of waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
The game is faster with the rule changes, which have eliminated most big, slow players and encouraged the movement to faster forecheckers on the bottom six to counter faster skill players.
Speed isn't enough, or Richard would have stuck in the NHL by now.
And Couts and Foerster show there's a place for smart players with average or slightly below average speed.
But if you have speed, learning how to use it to force the action makes you a better player.