Kuzmenko wants to sail in to the NHL and put on cruise control. He has immense talent and he's going to use that to make a heap of money while enjoying life. Good for him.
This isn't what Rock Tocchet wants. Tocchet wants an undying commitment to the team. Someone who works overtime and hates losing. A guy that is pissed we lost to Edmonton last year and will do anything to get better. This isn't Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko is 28 or 29 and is a finished product. He's not re-inventing himself or his game and anyone who thinks he was going to flip a switch and be a player for us has serious denial issues. He is an absolute wreck of a systems player - he will be a good fit in Calgary where they are in a rebuild.
So please I think I speak for a lot of posters when I say 'shut up about the Kuzmenko tears!'. As if because he got hot down the stretch in Calgary and outproduced; and we didn't win the cup it was somehow a farcical trade that put us back goal scoring. Like everyone has said, Kumenko wasn't going to strive in a rigid system on a team with aspirations to WIN. Kuzmenko wants the bag and he wants to enjoy American life while his hockey days run out.
Tocchet is too old school in his demands and too ridged in compromising. A short term coach. His message will get old quickly.
Shut up about Kuzmenko? How when the the traded items are benefiting/playing on Calgary for the next 7 years?
You think I am posting about not winning the cup? Get real. I am posting about the ramifications that now exist.
He played well with Pettersson. Pettersson was a 100 point Selke candidate.
Now the team is looking/hoping to find another player like him to play with their 11+ million dollar man and spending more to do so. Eating up cap space they don't have.
The loss of prospect depth
The loss of draft picks.
He wants to enjoy life? Ya, that's a good reason to get rid of players. Can't play unless you are miserable and unhappy.
Tocchet is simply a "my way or the highway" type of coach and in the new NHL with 32 teams, soon to be more no doubt, there are other options. Even Tortorella works out issues with players, coaches them up.
What do you think Boeser's next contract should be for? 9 mil X 8 yrs? Why not have a bunch of players in their late thirties making the majority of the cap?
Next year "we'll see" my guess is a repeat of 2016. After a surprising 2015. Now after a surprising 2023/24 next year a miss.
Although a good PP and PK should be enough to get a decent result in the easy season. And it depends on Demko's knee(s)/hip(s) and Pettersson's .....knee?
The last about Kuzmenko, many many times hockey people lament about how hard it is to find players that can score 30 or 40 goals a season, rarely are they lamenting that these players are useless because they are creative in their games. Often coaches will build lines that take advantage of skills or make up for a deficiency, it is called coaching. If every player is the same then it makes coaching so much easier because there are no changes to make, just complain about a player here or there not doing enough.
But his departure had EP scoring tank, team scoring tank, PP start to falter. Now this is not all on him, Tocchet I think changed the system to a more defensive style a 1 - 3 - 1 for the playoffs but the timing matches.
Last year when Boeser asking for a trade that no other team would do, Kuzmenko was going to take his place at a lot less money. Fans were behind that mostly because oh how he fit with EP.