Fig
Absolute Horse Shirt
- Dec 15, 2014
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He worked incredibly hard.
He had a LOT of problems as a player, and a lot of reasons why he succeeded in Junior, and a gamut of reasons why he failed in the NHL.
Rundown of his tools:
- In JR he could plow through the opposition with superior strength. He was stronger than 17-18 year olds, He was NEVER stronger than NHL men.
- He was faster than 17-18 year old kids. He was never going to be able to burn past NHL defenders on the outside.
- He didn't need to use his linemates in Junior. Galchenyuk was the perfect compliment to him in Junior. Neither were going to be stars in the NHL. They both have too many holes.
Kruegar Era:
Played PP Taylor Hall, and on the PP with Eberle Hall and Nuge. Otherwise played on a line with Sam Gagner.
He just had to be a trigger man, and never really had to carry the puck. Worked to his strengths, and had the best season of his career as a rookie. Lead the team in goals (A team that had Hall, Eberle, Nuge).
Eakins era:
Required to be the defensive anchor on the line with a rotation of players who weren't really NHLers then, and most were out of the league shortly after. Eric Belanger, Korpikoski, Arcobello, Paajaarvi, Hamilton, Pouliot, Letestu.
This was all compounded with a horrifying "Swarm" defense that made absolutely zero sense to the players or fans. Questionable benchings for no reason:
Nelson Era
Derek Roy was brought in. He used Yakupov to his strengths. Just being a guided missile with tunnel vision.
He could get to areas he needed to get to quickly, and could fire the puck. Great communication with the veteran.
Nelson gave Yakupov a modicum of trust, and that did wonders for his confidence and game.
Unfortunately the end of the season was the end of both Roy and Nelsons tenure with the Oilers.
This article really highlights the difference between Eakins and Nelson, and the importance of his chemistry with Roy:
Eakins: 'Roy has paid huge dividends for Yakupov' - Sportsnet.ca
TMac Era:
Hall McDavid was tried at first, but they really sucked together. Both wanted to carry the puck, and neither really found any real chemistry throughout the pre-season. Hall-Nuge were reunited but Eberle was injured.
So Yak ended up flanking McDavid.
Yakupov never carried the puck (his weakness), and always fed McDavid the puck, and zipped up ice.
They were actually great together. Yak leaned on McDavid, and just had to get open to rifle the puck.
Yakupov went PPG.
Oilers' McDavid-Pouliot-Yakupov trio turning into one of NHL's best lines - TheHockeyNews
When McDavid and Yak both got injured, they never played a second together ever again.
TMac always envisioned Eberle as the perfect partner to McDavid, and that was the end of that.
Whenever Yak played with superior offensive players, he seemed to elevate his game, and the numbers seemed to show that. Unfortunately most coaches felt whatever he brought to those top lines didn't seem to cover what the line lost.
Even on the HFOil Board the argument always went like this:
It's been 5 years. We KNOW what Yakupov is now. He is not a line driver or a puck carrier. He can be a decent compliment to a player like McDavid.
NO! HE WAS DRAFTED 1ST OVERALL! HE NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO CARRY A LINE!!!
Well, now we know he can't. Let him be a complimentary player to McDavid.
NO!!! HE HAS TO BE ABLE TO CARRY A LINE! FIRST OVERALL PICK!! HE WAS FIRST OVERALL!!!!! ARRRGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH
Not that I'm trying to rain insults against the Oilers or piling on, but Yakupov was badly, badly managed. He wasn't developed correctly (the later on lack of translation and communication on Pulujarvi for like a year was maddening as it seemingly showed to me that the Oilers has not learned and were risking derailing another high promise prospect) and every time it seemed like he started to click, they ripped the rug out from underneath him. I feel like the kid was definitely confused and felt he was treated unfairly.
Your comments about Derek Roy are on point IMO and one of the biggest examples of the organization's failures on Yakupov. It is the same piece of evidence I was using years ago in stating that Yakupov likely was serviceable and work looking into. We're talking about Roy who wasn't in the league a year later making Yakupov look highly serviceable. I wanted the Flames to nab Yakupov and get a guy like Stajan to do the same as Roy with Yakupov (much to my own fan base's ridicule), but I could see that there was a serious problems in Yakupov's deployment and seemingly communication on what they wanted from him.
In Aesop's fable, there's a story about a cat and a fox. The fox brags about the different ways he can avoid the dogs to the cats single method. Dogs arrive and the cat avoids the dogs, but the fox cannot decide which of the many methods to use. Ultimately the fox's indecision causes it to be captured and killed by the dogs.
I felt this was kinda the case with Yakupov. Although everyone ridicules him for not being elite in any specific manner and a bit undersized, I always felt that he was at least some sort of jack of all trades kind of player and should have been at least a solid middle 6 occasional top line player. When a guy like CMD or Roy sat him down and told him to focus on specific things, he was serviceable and effective. When given no instructions he'd do a ton of everything and fail because he couldn't use his teammate effectively and IMO his teammates weren't too sure how to predictably use him and possibly would decide not to use him at all.
I've always felt that Yakupov's failure distilled into a single concept, communication. I agree Yakupov seemed to work hard, but he often seemed to work hard in the wrong ways. But we also saw glimpses of nobodies and talents bringing out his talent and in those situations, it was always credited to communication and discussion with him. I seem to recall there was an Galchenyuk article that kinda scolded Yakupov for not learning English and instead approaching him constantly and asking questions in Russian. For that reason, I feel that was the reason why he failed. It was also quite odd to see several seasons later something similar happen to Pulujarvi. The articles that mentioned that a translator was brought in (but not right away) is kinda mind boggling. Why Yakupov and Pulujarvi and the Oilers took so long to figure out that something as simple as talking was straining the relationship is kinda strange.