It's the opposite. He has the skills. He doesn't have a good hockey mind on his shoulders. This is the one thing I said on HFB like 20 times right before the draft. He's always been slow and picking up stuff and he's always had too high of a learning curve so that he always wound up not performing well in the big tournaments. Stutzle was the opposite, he was always ahead of the curve.
Having played some non-pro hockey myself when I was a young man, there were many games I could watch at the floor/roller rink which had very good players including those who played ice hockey too. One guy mentioned something to me that I never forgot: there's a lot of guys out there who have some skill...I have a shot as good as Modano, I can skate as fast as Fedorov, I can backskate as well as Chelios, etc. These guys keep trying out but not making teams despite having an elite level skill or two. However the difference between a guy who has no elite level skill but is playing in the bottom pair or bottom six every day in the NHL vs. the guy who does have some elite skill but will never make the NHL is this. How fast can you process what the opposing players are doing and react to it and also reacting to your own teammates? Are you fast enough mentally for the NHL and you can react well? Do you have good awareness and reactions both offensively and defensively?
That's the difference between an everyday player in the NHL vs. some amateur guy with skills. Coaches know there is a cap and they still have to field an entire team's roster. There will be guys who are just role players but if they are always defensively aware and can react appropriately, they will always have a job somewhere and the coach will always have ice time for them.
Exactly this, not every player has elite hockey sense. As someone who grew up playing, but as a young player was never a very good skater, etc, I was pudgy as a kid, then stretched so I was always a bit awkard on my skates, and clearly not being the best athlete, in order to play I had to learn to play within the game.
I had to develop my hockey sense to keep up, because my physical traits would not allow me to. What's interesting, is the kids who were elite skaters, fast, stronger often didn't go far because they could dominate simply on atheleticism, they never developed their game sense.
As I got older I got better, I never went further than Junior B in Canada because I didn't think I really could, although looking back maybe I might of had I committed. Reason being, a few of my friends have been drafted.
I play occasionally in some of their "pro skates' in the summer. One of the players a few years back, in the dressing room (who people would know) asked me, hey, where did you play. When I told him only Junior B, he said "WHAT?" and was surprised I only played at that level. It was the best compliment I ever have received as a player, but it was because he could see how well I read the game and anticipated. Its because that's the only thing I could develop as a kid!
Now, I'm under no impression I could have gone pro, my skating while very good for most people is nothing compared to these guys. You skate next to a pro and a solid skater feels like a pony next to a thoroughbread (and most of these guys never got a sniff other than being drafted or playing in the minors).
Anyways, long story short, to be elite in hockey, you've GOT to have hockey sense. You can actually get away with not being the greatest skated (Sedin's, Robataille, Hull, others) but one thing they ALL have is game sense.
I am wondering if Byfield is like Jake Virtanen that way. So much raw athleticism, never developed his hockey sense. Bette than JV but not worthy of 2nd overall.
As someone who hasn't seen him play much curious about that.
