Oberyn,
Your points are very well taken. I agree that I wouldn't want to get rid of either player too early. And that the team's current funk, CAP/contract problems with aging players, and lack of high-level prospects, all leading seemingly to need for a major re-tooling, has led me to panic about the team's future, and start thinking about how they can start moving in the right direction, leading to looking to trade at least one of their assets seen as a valuable building piece to get back a potentially MORE valuable long-term building piece.
You have a good point in that I MAY be misjudging the differences between the levels of Kyrou's and Thomas' improvements over the past 3 years, and my guessing that Kyrou is much, much less of a "team player" than Thomas, because of my "perceived" idea that Kyrou hasn't put enough extra work into improving his game as he could IF he really wanted to become a top-level player. The idea I have is instinctual guessing, rather than from concrete knowledge of facts. And so, it may be totally wrong. I admit that your points that Kyrou, like Thomas had a breakout season last year, at roughly the same level as Thomas in scoring, and both adding the bulk, strength and knowledge of use of body leverage providing the ability to stand up to the physical pounding of The NHL game, and be able to perform consistently well at that level. And I also admit that your point that Kyrou performed much better offensively during the playoffs last season than Thomas, provides some proof that their improvement levels over the past 3 seasons could easily be a lot closer than I assume.
My instinct that Kyrou is not very determined to improve his game enough to become one of The NHL's top players may well be wrong. It comes from my having watched hockey players for over 70 years, and seeing naturally gifted athletes take two different paths in developing their careers: (1) working hard all the time, to improve their skills and overall game, and (2) coasting, living off their natural talent, but not putting much extra work in to take full advantage of their opportunities to untapped the potential of that natural talent to become the best player they could possibly be. I saw the difference between players like Rocket Richard, Jean Beliveau, Andy Bathgate, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr, Al MacInnis, and other players of their times, who had a lot of natural talent, but coasted , living on that, which was enough to make them superstars on The Bantam, Midget, and Juniors levels, but needed a LOT of regular extra work on specific skills, to make them generational superstars, or even just normal stars (best couple players on each team). Al MacInnis became a very valuable offensive defence man by practising one-timers against his barn for several of his development years to develop his exceptional booming 100+ MPH accurate shot. The generational smooth stickhandling, high-scoring, finishers with great moves developed those skills by spending hundreds and hundreds of hours practising finishing moves. I, myself, was not very naturally gifted physically. So, I had to work very hard for hundreds of hours developing my skills, just to be on the lower end of average as a player. Luckily, we had a backyard rink, which was available every day for practising and playing in games for 4.5 to 5 months a year where I lived.
I understand that NHLers don't have a lot of extra time during their season. But we hear stories all the time about the great stars like Ovechkin, and those I mentioned above, coming to their team's practice early (first player there), and leaving late (last by far), practising their skills. The players who reach the top levels at their position are usually those that have the combination of being the most naturally-gifted AND who also work the hardest on their games skills and fundamentals. While they are young, the work on shoring up the holes in their overall game to help their own marketing value to make the best living they can for themselves and their families, but also to help their team win.
My view on this is simply that regardless of Kyrou's improvement in actual scoring during his 3 NHL seasons, which has been quite good, he hasn't improved much, at all in the % of goals he scores on breakaways, or when he is all alone in front of the net (both of which opportunities he gets more often than almost all of his teammates). Often in those situations, he loses control of the puck, seemingly because he is undecided and rushes his shot, or delays his shot too long. He doesn't seem clear on what moves (if any) he plans to try. Those problems can be improved by being in that situation a lot more times than he is now, by practising much more on his moves and shooting off them in extra early or late practices with Greiss (who doesn't get enough work currently), or in special sessions with a goalie coach. My contention is, IF he were really dedicated, he would do that, And to me, THAT, along with his seemingly meagre improvement in his defensive efforts (at least in my view), gives me the feeling that he doesn't care very much to be the best player he can be (for hi career and his teammates). He seems to not have the hunger. That quality separates the very good players from the great ones. I could be totally wrong about my instincts here, and so, I don't want The Blues to trade him away in a panic over the team's current doldrums and bleak-looking transition out of their last SC contending window into a re-tooling. I'll just have to wait and see what happens for the next several weeks. But, I'm convinced there is no way The Blues can win The Stanley Cup this season, and they probably should trade both Tarasenko and O'Reilly, and maybe Krug as well, before the deadline, and get the most young player assets they can.
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