Hope Of Glory
Registered User
Firstly I'm not saying it now. I said it when we got Eller. I never saw an offensive game in his toolset. So it's not an after the fact statement. The same way everyone last year was wetting his pants over KK's offense. Some of us didn't and still don't see it. Are you going to come back in six, seven years and accuse us of lazy arguments when he plateaus as a 2nd C?
Secondly, in response to your millions spent on development, Bouchard, our development coach, said in one of his pressers his job is not to turn every player into an NHLer - an impossible goal - his job is to get every player to reach his potential. That's a coach that knows what he is doing.
Well, good for you if you actually called that. But there's so many after-the-fact hot takes here that I can't help but assume that's what I'm reading.
As for the second part, I agree. Not every player has offensive potential or even an NHL future. But in any case, proper coaching is essential for any guy to reach their full potential (whatever that may be). If only just for the confidence/mental aspect of the game which is huge in any sport.
And proper coaching is also a shield. If you can tell confidently that you did everything you could to help a guy and he still didn't live up to the expectations, then you can say development wasn't an issue. Like with Drouin, he was given every opportunity to succeed so if he still fails, I doubt people will blame Julien for his limited offensive output (unlike for Therrien with Eller).