It sounds reasonable your suggestion that Kakko might fit in better up in Hartford and I’d be willing to bet a lot of peeps in here agree with this line of thinking. I on the other hand am not very confident in that occurring.
Now maybe I’m on an island on this but I think Kakko would struggle even in Hartford. The players in the AHL are still plenty fast and plenty skilled. It’s not a skills issue with Kakko...it’s a “he’s not in real good hockey shape” issue.
And I just don’t think he’ll all of a sudden find things any easier for him in Hartford if he’s still gassed after 20-30 seconds, can’t keep up with his line mates and is still getting knocked off the puck as if he’s 5’8 160 lbs.
An argument can be made that if he stinks it up in Hartford like he has pretty much the entire year here in NY, this kind of move could backfire. Him being up with the big club insulates him and keeps the pressure somewhat off of him as no doubt Kakko would have a bullseye on him by opposing players and possibly goons, if he was sent to Hartford which I really don’t think will happen.
So for those reasons, I’d rather Kakko stay here in NY the rest of the way.
An off-season with whoever Lemieux’s trainer is what Kakko needs not Hartford...lol
Yeah, these kids really needs time to train AND especially recover.
Definitely think it would make more sense to design a schedule for him in NY that affords him the opportunity to workout hard, recover and play games but also sitting out a few.
Everyone are of course different, but I remember when I was 16-17 y/o. You really had to search and plan ahead to get time to do heavy squats during the season. For me it wasn’t an option to hit the gym and really abuse my legs like I wanted to if I had a game the same week, would have lost way to much jump in my skating.
If we put a group of experts in a room and asked them to design a perfect scheme for developing Kaako aiming say 12 months down the road — I can guarantee that playing more than 40 games, in total, during a season wouldn’t even be on the table. The NHL plays 82 games for financial reasons only. Certainly not because it’s best for an 18 y/o.
I think that there is a notion that it’s valuable for a kid to come in and “settle down” with the schedule of the NHL. To get used to not resting etc. I am more and more thinking that thinking like that is just nonsense, there are so many “rules” and approaches like this that are treated like they are sacred. Nobody dares to change anything. The NHL as a league is without rivals and the progress is really slow without outside pressure.
I’ve called out DQ for a few things, but look at how he has used the option to scratch players. “You can’t scratch a vet”. It’s not done. NOBODY (almost) did it. Really, what was the problem? It was brilliant by DQ.
