Our development team down in AHL. There's something wrong there.
The sad thing is that most of our prospects aren't doing anything to earn the ice time.My concern is the fact the vets are getting so much icetime and the kids are no seeing the ice as much as i would like. But that is just me
The sad thing is that most of our prospects aren't doing anything to earn the ice time.
Bad scouting.
Bad player development.
Bad coaching staff.
Bad management.
great speed, no hands and only corners he went into were corner stores
What about Musil? Does that blown 2nd pick ever have a chance of growing into a 5/6 at the NHL level? Unreal that Boone Jenner was taken after... How would that guy look on this team. Wow.
Hartikainen is looking like one of the best forwards in Europe today the locals their saying.
he is a very coachable player. His game has gotten better here in Europe.
At the age of 25 just entering his prime today, it will be interesting to see the progression definitely. Thrown to the wolves at a bad time in Edmonton, nice to see his head is up still.
he did everthing the oiler's asked him to do and it was not enough.. from what I gather the oilers saw him as Cam Neely type player and that he is not
I read somewhere recently that he has struggled with depression. Probably not a good situation when playing for a bottom feeder. I think he's the kind of guy that needs to feel secure in his surroundings to perform. Obviously it didn't work out here.I don't think he will be on the team... Apparently [Omark] is a new man, humble and wise (in the news the other day), but I'll believe it when I see it.
Sometimes I wonder if a player can truly be ruined or not...like maybe prospects who have everything to become star players will get there no matter the path. And players who "busted" due to being rushed, would have busted regardless.
Joe Thornton. 7 points in his rookie year.
Shane Doan. 17 points as a rookie.
Keith Primeau 15 points as a rookie.
These three players could've instead gone back to junior for another year and completely destroyed it, but would their NHL careers have been any different for it? If any of these three had busted, people would be pointing to them as classic examples of a team ruining a player. But the teams didn't ruin those players by bringing them in too early. Those guys found their way because they had it in them all along.
Maybe if Gagner went back to London for another year and put up 150+ points he still would've only gotten around 40 points in the NHL every year after.
Jason Spezza was brought along slowly by Ottawa considering his pre-draft hype, and didn't make the NHL full-time until he was 20. He had a pretty good 55 points as a 20-year-old. Now, if he had played in the NHL as an 18-year old and gotten, say, 15 points...Would he not have had a relatively similar career to what he's had? Would he have been ruined?
I know there is merit to how a team handles a player at the NHL level and how it relates to them developing, but I'm beginning to at the very least question if, for the most part, busts would've busted no matter how they were handled. And maybe to a lesser extent, star players who weren't "rushed" would've been just fine having a low-scoring season as a teenager rather than play in junior another year.
Interesting thought at least.
I personally think Maggie was ready to take the next step, should have been given top6 minutes in his second season.
Us bringing in Smytty to play a top six role wasn't the best in MPS development, it pushed him down the lineup where he wasn't successful, which absolutely destroyed his confidence.
That being said Smyth was a great mentor for the team, and if I remember correctly was RNH's winger for the majority of the season, probably helped RNH tremendously.
Gagner and Paajarvi are definitely on us. I think they would be stars if drafted by most other teams.