What time invested. The guy hardly played even when he suited up. Can't tell much with 4 or 5 shifts a period once every ten days. It is not like this guy was unproductive playing 17 minutes a game. I don't think he fits Hitch's system very well and he didn't want to play the guy at all. Hopefully he lights the lamp in Chicago and recoups some trade value. No future for him in St.Louis unless Hitchcock is replaced.
He got 10 games this year and put up goose eggs. That's 5x more games than Rattie ever got. Turns out his lines sucked so Hitch wouldn't play them. And since he offers nothing on PK, PP, defense, or the cycle, can't play center, can't fight, and can't shoot the puck, maybe Hitch finally decided it was nice to stick him in the press box and roll 4 lines. Keep in mind he sucked his way through 55 games last year and two training camps so we've seen plenty of him by now. He had so many chances.
Yeah, sorry, he's never going to be as good as anyone in our top 6. Ever. Literally his one chance was that slot on the third line and he just couldn't offer anything. Once Jaskin grabbed onto the spot it was curtains. The one thing you guys keep going to is that he's fast. So what? Polak was probably faster. What's more important is your hockey IQ to anticipate a play, and his was garbage.
His acceleration doesn't blow anyone out of the water and we aren't going to turnover the puck willy nilly trying to make stretch passes to Magnus freakin' Paajarvi all game just because he was a #10 draft pick. And Hitch is never going to let him cheat on offense either. So how does straight line speed make up for the rest of his game? He just skates back and forth and loses the puck.
I'm sure there's a place somewhere in the world where he can happily try wraparounds all game but it's not the NHL.