P.K. Subban - What happened?

[Soundgarden]

I’m going to say something nice about Subhan .

He was a good hockey player / good Athlete / nice kid in Junior OHL/ good speaker and commentator.

Congrats to all his success and $ millions of dollars from his playing and broadcasting career. All the best in the future.

How ever … I stand by my statement that Nashville would have won the cup against Pittsburgh in 2017 if they hadn’t made the trade Subhan<Webber .( character based)

Lol, Weber just had his worst playoff performance of his career prior to the trade. In any case Nashville only has a chance to win if Johansen isn't injured vs. Anaheim.

 

[joestevens29]

injuries and probably some ego (cares a lot about his brand)

He lost a step. He changed his game into more of a physical 3rd pairing guy that still had a solid shot. He was still good enough to probably last another 3 years as a depth guy but the media opportunity was obvious and it pays better with less of a commitment than professional athletes do.

He had chronic back issues his last few years. Lost the foot speed he had to separate. Never really had top end speed.

Pretty much all of this. The ego however is what was limiting the amount of teams that were even willing to take a chance on him. He was already becoming a bottom pairing d-man on a poor club and just couldn't read the room when it came to July 1st.

 

[Number8]

This is a good summary. Subban played the game from the neck down. When he had an athletic edge on his opponents he thrived. When the athletic side was evened out, his game cratered and he quickly became a net-negative type of player.

He also attracted a lot of negative attention for his slewfooting habit, and for prioritizing his off-ice career. Even if he was capable of playing for longer, organizations didn’t necessarily want him around creating issues. And he had developed enough of a plan for his career in media that he just walked away.

Lots of good takes on PK, but I think this one is the go to. Covers all of the bases.

Being superbly athletically gifted is a huge advantage until it isn't anymore.

 

[sxvnert]

His ego happened.

 

[LokiDog]

Back injury, he was an absolutely incredible skater and lost it

This is the specific answer. He was an amazing skater and after his back injury he was a turtle and it nerfed his game to #5-6 status. As others have said, no point hurting yourself more for minimal salary 1-2 year deals just to hang around. He knew he’d have a post-playing career in the booth by then.

 

[Canovin]

Started wearing bikini

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Haha I hope I don't come across as racist so I'll try to source my claims with some science papers:

MANY Black people have Type II twitch fibers which help many black athletes in things like sprints and short powerful burst. The unfortunate downside to this is rapid earlier deterioration in performance, and hyper-tension etc.

These results suggest that individuals of difference races may have different muscle fiber compositions. Ama et al. 85 demonstrated that individuals of African descent have more fast fibers than Caucasians. As previously mentioned, athletes who have more fast fibers may be prone to muscle strain injury

Given how PK Subban played at his peak, he was just an incredibly explosive athlete who dominated I would call "Powerful" and he likely had built his game around the advantage his twitch-fiber muscles gave him.

Unfortunately his trajectory just follows the typical early dropoff of this kind of physionomy.


Aka.. PK Subban was black.

 

[AlternateSideParking]

He was horrible in Nashville toward the end. Low IQ stuff, stopped moving his feet, always looked gassed, scared to get hit during retrievals. Go watch his 2019 playoff. Absolutely useless in every facet so it was no surprise the Preds moved on from him that offseason. He was destined for the HHOF if he played up to his level after 30 but it was all downhill. Now he’s just an annoying self-absorbed talking head.

 

[Jacob]

I don't buy the injuries excuse. Janmark had a knee injury so serious he missed an entire season, and almost forced him to retire, but he's still statistically one of the fastest players in the NHL even after that and being well in his 30s.

 

[joestevens29]

I don't buy the injuries excuse. Janmark had a knee injury so serious he missed an entire season, and almost forced him to retire, but he's still statistically one of the fastest players in the NHL even after that and being well in his 30s.

Not every player will even be effected the same by the same injury. Nevermind when it's a completely different part of the body injured

 

[Soundgarden]

I don't buy the injuries excuse. Janmark had a knee injury so serious he missed an entire season, and almost forced him to retire, but he's still statistically one of the fastest players in the NHL even after that and being well in his 30s.

Ok, but what does Janmark's knee injury have to do with Subban's neck/back issues?

 

[Jacob]

Ok, but what does Janmark's knee injury have to do with Subban's neck/back issues?

I didn't see anything about a back injury, and I don't see why a neck injury would effect your skating.

 

[MrKabukiman]

His best years were with Montreal.

Had one decent season or two in Nashville, but those MTL years he was dominant. All downhill after that.

 

[Garbageyuk]

would back up their aggression with honor/ face to face in your face hockey drop the gloves let’s go attitude. Nothing but respect for that type of player .

Corny as hell

If we really want the real truth let’s poll his ex teammates anonymously for the truth.

Sure, let me just call up the boys. I’ll let you know what they say.

Lmao you have no idea what any of them think or what the dynamics in the locker rooms were.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

He lost a step. He changed his game into more of a physical 3rd pairing guy that still had a solid shot. He was still good enough to probably last another 3 years as a depth guy but the media opportunity was obvious and it pays better with less of a commitment than professional athletes do.

From what I recall. It would have been like 2 million dollars.

Even if he gets paid less being on TV he doesn't have that 82 game grind.

 

[Soundgarden]

I didn't see anything about a back injury, and I don't see why a neck injury would effect your skating.

He injured his back/neck in Montreal then added weight in Nashville which affected his skating.

 

[Anemia]

He lost a step. He changed his game into more of a physical 3rd pairing guy that still had a solid shot. He was still good enough to probably last another 3 years as a depth guy but the media opportunity was obvious and it pays better with less of a commitment than professional athletes do.

Not sure what is funnier. The fact that you think media personalities make more than an NHLer or that some people actually liked this post. LOL, why am I not surprised.

 

[DEANYOUNGBLOOD17]

Corny as hell

Sure, let me just call up the boys. I’ll let you know what they say.

Lmao you have no idea what any of them think or what the dynamics in the locker rooms were.

You are the only poster quoting my post and disagreeing with me.

Everyone seems to accept them as reasonable assertions and accept them as fact.

I don’t know what can of distant internet obsession you have about protecting Subhans legacy.

Fact He was a very good player in Montreal then wore out his welcome with his team mates ( Character driven)

Wasn’t team Canada top ten choice for the Olympics on defense when he was a Noris trophy winner ( character driven )

Wasn’t a favorite in Nashville dressing room ( character driven / and skills were evaporating)

Wasn’t a fan or dressing room favorite in New Jersey final years of the contract were deemed an anchor!

Played dirty ( slew foots / hitting from behind) would never commit to a fair fight in response to any of his cheap shot antics!

 

[Wats]

I’m going to say something nice about Subhan .

He was a good hockey player / good Athlete / nice kid in Junior OHL/ good speaker and commentator.

Congrats to all his success and $ millions of dollars from his playing and broadcasting career. All the best in the future.

How ever … I stand by my statement that Nashville would have won the cup against Pittsburgh in 2017 if they hadn’t made the trade Subhan<Webber .( character based)

If a prime Weber couldn't take the Preds anywhere, the washed Weber certainly wasn't. The guy was pretty broken by time he came to Montreal. Both these guys didn't have much left as it turned out.

 

[DEANYOUNGBLOOD17]

If a prime Weber couldn't take the Preds anywhere, the washed Weber certainly wasn't. The guy was pretty broken by time he came to Montreal.

Then took a terrible Montreal team to the finals during Covid and the Canadian division experiment.

Character breeds championships lack of character sucks the life out of the room .

 

[Garbageyuk]

You are the only poster quoting my post and disagreeing with me.

Everyone seems to accept them as reasonable assertions and accept them as fact.

I don’t know what can of distant internet obsession you have about protecting Subhans legacy.

Fact He was a very good player in Montreal then wore out his welcome with his team mates ( Character driven)

Wasn’t team Canada top ten choice for the Olympics on defense when he was a Noris trophy winner ( character driven )

Wasn’t a favorite in Nashville dressing room ( character driven / and skills were evaporating)

Wasn’t a fan or dressing room favorite in New Jersey final years of the contract were deemed an anchor!

Played dirty ( slew foots / hitting from behind) would never commit to a fair fight in response to any of his cheap shot antics!

You have no idea whether any of this stuff is true, beyond the “dirty” stuff - it’s nothing more than speculation and rumours. The Team Canada thing is what it is. it’s hard to make the Canadian Olympic Team. Just admit you’re simply a hater lol. I’ve never seen a player get so much hate for such benign stuff.

 

[Wats]

Then took a terrible Montreal team to the finals during Covid and the Canadian division experiment.

Character breeds championships lack of character sucks the life out of the room .

Well then judging by how bad Preds playoff record was with Weber as captain, he must not be as good as a character as you're saying. Habs/Preds both got out of the 2nd round with Subban. It's not a mystery, it was actually Price that took that terrible team to finals.

 

[DEANYOUNGBLOOD17]

You have no idea whether any of this stuff is true, beyond the “dirty” stuff - it’s nothing more than speculation and rumours. The Team Canada thing is what it is. it’s hard to make the Canadian Olympic Team. Just admit you’re simply a hater lol. I’ve never seen a player get so much hate for such benign stuff.

Speculation and rumours .

Pretty safe to say the French crowd loved him and his antics - management got rid of him because he was destroying the dressing room.

Fans in Quebec loved his antics so much they almost staged one of their famous French sports riots when he was traded.

Managements response … either we trade Subhan or we have to trade everyone else in the room.

He’s not the most annoying announcer though …. That goes to Bieska what a cry baby suck up wanna be…. And Ron ( get out of my fox hole b4 you flip teams on me - stick a knife in my back again ) McLean.

 

[BenchBrawl]

I tried searching for a post on this here but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for nor on a basic Google AI search with a result of "reality of decline". PK was 32 his last season before he retired. As a Norris-winning D-man, what exactly were the "tangibles" or in-tangibles with his game that led to his decline and early retirement that can be described here? Saying, "he lost a step" isn't necessarily what I'm looking for. I'm asking more about the actual things that he was doing or not doing on the ice that made it obvious that his window was over, eg: "could never make a first pass out of the zone without sending it RIGHT to the opposition on a consistent basis" or "every time he pinched, it led to an odd-man rush the other way". Appreciate the input.

Subban's game was built on his phenomenal edgework and explosiveness, once he lost this he couldn't beat people 1-on-1 (defensively and offensively) as he used to, so he lost the essence of his game. He could play cat and mouse and win battles with a combo of edgework + physical strength, that made him get away with the puck. His spinoramas are a famous example of his edgework.

It's not that Subban was that fast, but his skating style was explosive and he was strong like a horse, so stopping him was like trying to stop a train when he went on those electrifying rushes.

 

[Stylizer1]

What does that have to do with the fact that your claim is objectively false?

It's not false to me. You could see it that he was a train wreck when he was on the ice. He is and was a blip on the radar.