Not all Dallas fans have soured on Nuke, but there are a lot of vocal ones who have. He just turned 21, did he have a disappointing season, sure. But he missed almost his entire sophomore year of hockey, thats not easy to just bounce back from, look at Nemeth. He also struggled after missing most of last season.
He gets so much blame for crap he doesn't even do or say. I read the interview mentioned earlier and quite a few of the questions were leading like the one posted about the KHL. Another was when he was asked if he thought the Coach and GM were limiting his minutes to avoid a big contract.
Also you know who else complained about ice time over and over again and even asked to be traded twice, yet most Dallas fans still liked him, Fiddler. All he said was he was frustrated because he felt he was doing what the coach asked of him, but he felt Ruff didnt trust him. And honestly Ruff does not like to change his mind on players. Look at Oleksiak and Nemeth, even if one had a decent game they were usually quickly benched again.
I will say Nuke did not look like he did in his rookie season for much of the year, and he often looked frustrated and hesitant (also applies to Nemeth and Oleksiak, always looked like they were thinking too much and not playing instinctively enough). The best he looked was late in the series vs the Blues, lots of chances, but just couldn't bury them. Its funny as bad as Nuke looked he had as many points if not goals as Janmark, while a rookie is older then nuke, who everyone says had a great season.
Ruff will do things that are incredibly frustrating to us fans, like shuffle the crap out of the forward lines, often using completely different lines in game from those used in practice. Sometimes it works and surprising chemistry is found, other times the players look lost and have no clue where each other is going to be. Yet the D will remain unchanged through prolonged losing streaks, why not ruffle them for a change. If its frustrating to us, I'm sure it can be frustrating to players, especially ones who feel they are struggling.
One of the things that really bugged me was when he put together Nuke Spezza and Sharp, and despite both players preferring their off hand wing he kept them on the wing the were least comfortable on, why? Don't get me started on Eakin, who I like, just not as a 1C.
Honestly, it would have probably been better for him and us, if he had played in the KHL a few years before coming over, or allowed to play in the AHL, but his Russian contract only permitted him to play in the NHL not AHL. Yet for some reason he is often blamed, with fans saying he refused to play in the AHL. He wasn't allowed to, other than conditioning assignments which he did with no complaints.
Some of the Negativity fans have for him is just really frustrating
