Don't mistake that for me saying "Rossi is ready". I don't think he is, but I'm not overly worried about him being another Jost. He reminds me a bit of how JEE was brought along. A little too early; lots of development pains; and PPG in the AHL, but low offense in the NHL to the degree that some people were calling him a bust during his first two full seasons. Nobody thinks he's a bust now that he's become this generation's Mike Peca (minus the faceoffs). In other words, it's too early to judge which way he'll go. I think he's got better tools than Jost does already, though.
I like this because it's less bleak than the alternative.
My take is this:
He's too smart to completely bust. He's too hard working to completely bust. For now, his game is perfectly fine for a bottom six role. He's not a Selke level defender obviously, but when he's out there, he's not making defensive mistake after defensive mistake. He's pretty reliable already, and the reason he doesn't get featured more on defense is because Minnesota simply has better options than the 20 year old rookie. That's not necessarily something to hold against Rossi.
Obviously the offense leaves a lot to be desired, but he didn't really struggle that much last year in the AHL offensively, and frankly, the Iowa team is so uninspiring that I wouldn't expect him to move the needle down there either. I think working with the NHL guys is going to help develop those skills more than working with AHL guys.
There's also a little bit of a confidence issue mixed in. Obviously not scoring for this many games isn't helping that, and every game that passes he's probably questioning himself more and more, just adding to the mental side of it. And no matter how strong your mental fortitude is, when your expectations for yourself are as high as his are, not scoring a goal for 14 games is gonna have an effect on that.
I think from our perspective (the fans) obviously the hopes and expectations were high from us too. Was it fair? I don't know, does fairness really matter in this industry? Probably not. But this franchise has been so starved for an offensive center that we probably weren't prepared for him to struggle this much, and that's shaping our opinions of him to some degree. I mean not every prospect is gonna be Boldy. growing pains do happen a lot.
So I really think if he's able to just get the first goal monkey off his back, he'll start playing more loose (in a good way), and the points will start coming a little faster. But again, I think he's too smart and hard working to bust completely. And when people say he
needs to be sent back down to the AHL, I don't agree that it's a
need. I don't know what specifically he's going to learn by being down there. I can see an argument where it might help his confidence, or it might help get him playing his game again, but from a skills standpoint, his toolkit is fine for the NHL.
