You must have some very strong Kyrou critics in ignore if you think people give him a pass. Personally I defend Kyrou more than I want because there is such distortion about his value and what he brings. People complained all last year about his defense (and it was absolutely a valid criticism), but it went way beyond criticism. It was whipping post level commentary. So, people try to defend the guy due to the over the top criticism. Flash forward to this year. The guy actually works on his defense and who would have guessed his detractors won’t give him credit for that. Now there are more complaints about his points. The guy cannot win with some people due to their bias.
The thing I don’t get is those same people don’t seem to criticize others like Schenn who is objectively poor defensively and he is not producing at his contract level. Those are very similar criticisms that Kyrou gets and deserves. Yet there is a huge double standard there. So, I personally callout Schenn more than I want or feel should be necessary to counter the overvaluing and free passes he gets from a vocal subset of our fan base and in response to the bias toward other players.
What I find strange is that Kyrou suffers from a lot of the same issues that Vladdy had. Yet our fan base didn’t ridicule Vladdy. I used to callout Vladdys flaws often because so many would just let it pass while grilling others and because you could tell the guy could have been a much better player if he rounded out his game. Just like Kyrou and Schenn for that matter. Yet here we are with double standards flying everywhere.
Maybe I am part of the problem playing devils advocate / trying to balance the scales, but it’s hard to listen to one person being held to one standard while another doesn’t have to.
I don't really keep track of who is pro or anti- Kyrou but I know I've got at least one of his biggest haters on ignore. But I'm not basing my opinion on anything besides what I'm seeing in games. When him and Thomas signed those big contracts, we needed them to step up and lead the team. I think everyone can see that Thomas has raised his game this year. He's winning a lot of puck battles, making great plays every night and has established himself as a star.
From what I can see, Kyrou hasn't taken a similar step forward. Has his play away from the puck improved? Sure, to an extent. Most young players need time to become good 200-foot players and Kyrou is getting there. But I won't give him that much credit for hustling to get back, block shots and try to break up plays on defense because every player should do that whether they are a first or fourth line player. So while it is good that he's improved his defensive play, I don't think it makes up for the drop in offense when you consider he's now an $8 million player.
I can see some similarities with Tarasenko, although I never questioned Vladi's drive and competitiveness unlike Kyrou. But when Tarasenko signed his big contact, he had scored 37 goals the year before (just like Kyrou) and followed that up with 40, 39, 33, 33 goals and was considered a top 5 goal scorer in the league until his injury issues. In Kyrou's first season after the big contract his defense may have improved but his offense has taken a step back. I'm not buying the bad luck argument as his finishing ability has been lacking all season long.
I'm not giving up on Kyrou, but I am fairly disappointed that he hasn't taken a bigger step forward this year. He's had some decent stretches, but like I said before. Teams need their best players to come up big from Feb-April and so far he hasn't done that. We need more than 2 goals in 15 games from our top winger when we're pushing for a playoff spot. There are other guys who haven't met expectations, but it doesn't change the fact that Kyrou hasn't either.
If he shot at his career shooting percentage this year he'd have 28 goals in 69 games, a 33 goal pace. He's just had shit luck this year. Next year the pucks will start going in despite no material changes and these same posters will be talking about Kyrou's "improvement". He's been well worth his contract. He's the most talented player on the team and is the only forward outside of Thomas who can take the game over by himself. He's a 31 G/82 pace scorer in the playoffs too, so he brings it in important games too. People bitch because he actually tries to make things happen on the ice and turns it over sometimes(just as all great players do). I'd much rather he play this way than chip and chase which leads to a turnover anyway like 75% of the time.
