Cute.
Kovalev was creative, a wizard with the puck. He oozed skill. I was a kid, but I remember the car trips to Binghamton.
13 possesses nothing of the sort. Keep clutching onto that 1 ov tag. He’s Michael Bennett.
AK27 showed elite talent, always. I was a huge huge fan of his. But he never showed much interest in playing a complete game. And went invisible for long stretches. With his skillset he should have been a hall of famer and a franchise altering player or even just a Panarin. But he was never anything but a secondary threat on any team he played on. I will grant you, its an interesting comp, Kovy's skills and talent were always obviously elite in every way. And in that sense, we aren't really seeing that level of elite talent from Laffy. But Kovy was a super flashy player. You always noticed him when he was engaged in the game. In part because he would just go anywhere and do anything if it meant he could play with the puck on his stick.
Laffy has been a different player and on a diff development path. He's tried very hard to adapt his game to be responsible. To be a board player, to block a shooting lane, to make a hit, to stay on the right side of the puck. I see a guy who is constantly thinking too much out there. I see a kid who does a finesse play when he should make a strong play. I see a kid who slows down with the puck too much instead of attacking. I see a kid who hesitates on the forecheck. A kid who can find himself on the wrong side of the opposition in board battles.
To me, it's a process of trying to round out his whole game but trying to do so in the NHL. Vally or maybe Chris Peters said it best recently when they said, Laffy was a guy who was used to having the other guys on his line win the board battles, they'd get him the puck and he'd do the rest. Now, he's having to do all that little stuff and he's really focused on it. And it's very uneven process. And he's succeeding half the time and failing the other half. And he's really almost surprised when he suddenly finds himself in open space with the puck. Like you can feel it watching the game. He's almost too excited. I think we can all see him processing the moment -- like, oh my god, this is what I love. Yay. Then he overthinks it because he's not in any kind of rhythm.
That's killing his game and his confidence. It's a hard place for a young kid to find himself in. It's why a conditioning stint or something where he could just go and have fun and go back to his instincts would help. I think if he were traded to a team like the Blackhawks, you would see his game take off after like 40 games. And he'd never look back and we'd look like idiots for moving him. But the predicament we're in with him is he needed more non-NHL time to round out his game and it just was never possible for him. He's trying to develop at the NHL level and as a result, it's going to be very messy, and very uneven and very frustrating for him, for the team, for the fans. It sucks.
But -- Laffy does have great hands, he does have great vision. He has very good offensive instincts when he allows himself to use them. If the coaches would be okay with him just cheating a bunch just to get into an offensive rhythm it might help him right now. As terrible as that is for the team. And team chemistry. (it is!)
That said, Kovy cheated A LOT. He was an untamable wild stallion. And the game back then just naturally had more cheating and less structure. So, it's hard to compare these guys just based on that alone. I mean, Darren Turcotte looked like a perennial all star when he came up and then became very pedestrian. Countless Rangers rookies had this path (York, Turcotte, Hlavac, Prucha, Sundstrom).
But that was a different era (at least for the Rangers). Every single one of our forwards is being asked to play a far more responsible game. Kakko, Kravy, Laffy -- their numbers are lower in part because they don't really cheat. I would say the biggest cheater amongst our young forwards is Chytil. And I think it shows. I think he's very very inconsistent in his own zone. And a lot of it is because he can't wait to take off and go on the offense. But you see the benefit of that. He's def the most effective in getting the puck up the ice. But still our young forwards aren't ready to be 200 ft players that show up consistently on the scoresheet. That's just the reality of it. And it's the reality of almost every player under 24 in the entire league.
It's a choice though. In the name of winning now, we've decided to ask them all to pay attention to the first 180ft. We rarely give them PP time. And a result, their numbers are only ok at best. And because they're all still very young and being relied upon to score, its kind of an issue. As not only are they not consistently capable of what they're being asked to do (because they're still learning and physically maturing) but they're feeling a ton of pressure to prove their draft stock.
But I watch Jack Hughes out there and the guy is practically allergic to his own zone and putting up incredible points. Will Hughes ever round out his game? We'll see. I bet, one day he will.
Back to Laffy, I just think he's hit a particular rough patch in his development. He's really going through it and hasn't made a single excuse or blamed anyone. WIth the pressure he's feeling right now, I give him a ton of credit for it. It comes off like he's unaware, but I think he's very very aware.
Beyond that, we just don't know what Laffy will be in the long run. But I am more than fine with erring on the side of patience. The thing with Laffy is, he has a lot of offense in his hands and vision. He actually shows a decent hockey IQ away from the puck. He shows you things that actual 1st round busts like Puljijarvi or Daigle never came close to showing. What Laffy needs most right now is confidence and opportunity, then strength and power in his stride. The rest will come. Will he turn into a 100 point player? I don't know. Will he turn into a 65-75 point player and someone who comes up big in the playoffs one day. I believe he will. But I could be waaaaay off. But my instincts say there's a player here. And he's going through a really low point in his very young career. If we trade him in the next year or two, I think it would be one of those mistakes this board will talk about for decades.
