You're dragging up awful memories. The amount of times I recall us drafting a skilled player only for management to make comments about how the prospect needs to focus on the defensive side or something else would infuriate me. Player XYZ is an extremely good skater with fast hands and good playmaking, let's focus the next 3-5 years of development trying to force them to become a 30 point two-way player who plays da right way. Why draft a prospect for their strengths if you only ever focus on weaknesses.
Yet another trivial analysis of the development process to marginalize any workout on making a player a more complete player.
It's obvious from reading countless posts oaths subject that the average fan needs to have something gift-wrapped in the simplest of approaches to understand somewhat how development works.
At some point, unless a player produces 300 points a season and spends 99.99% of his time on ice in the O-zone (one of the most effective defensive stratagems ever), he needs to be at least somewhat defensively responsible to justify his ice time to the level you would need it to be to benefit from his offensive acumen.
The easiest concept to understand when it comes to this is that of the offensive player's need to play with a positive goal differential when he is on the ice to be valuable to the team.
You score 27 goals, with 20 minutes of ice time a game, including 13 goals the PP, but your line has a negative goal differential where it give up 36 goals more than you score, at even strength, on the PP, or on the PK..
While I'd still use you on the PP, hoping you will score goals there endnote give up that many, I'd have a serious problem handing out even strength minutes toy like candy.
The key about working on a player's defensive game, when they are an offensive players to get them a level where their defensive game is at least not a major handicap. That way, giving them more ice time will only come with a greater positive goal differential that will increase the odds of winning games.
There's nothing worse than talented offensive players that need sheltered minutes with strictly O-Zone draws, PP minutes, game situations that aren't as crucial, etc...
Working on a player's defensive game also serves to help increase puck touches and puck recovery to initiate transitions to offense and lead to more scoring opportunities.
Working on a player's defensive game isn't limited to only working on D.
A better D-game will lead to increased ice time and more opportunities to rack up more points.
Choosing to describe the situation as such, to minimize its importance, is either a bad faith observation or a lack of understanding.
