Why was Nail Yakupov a bust?

[Turin]

He was a bad player who likely lied about his age which made him seem better in juniors than he was.

 

[oXo Cube]

I don't know how he didn't score 200 goals a season just from doing this tbqh:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1824526203987832982

Obviously I know your post isn't serious but the answer is it's because he almost never hit the net.

Even the idea that Nail had an elite shot is mythological. Elite release yes but that's worthless if you can't hit a soccer goal with it and Yakupov absolutely could not.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

"I don't really like playing without the puck, skate all the time and do forecheck and hit somebody every shift...I don't think it's my game."

Edmonton Oilers' Nail Yakupov not happy about sitting out

WASHINGTON, DC — As Petr Klima once said, “You need a really long stick to score from the press box.”

edmontonsun.com

 

[MoneyManny]

Speaking of low IQ, people are saying "Edmonton ruined him". Er... no.

The Oilers' drafting has (basically since 1982) been a disaster, but player development is a different issue. It's easy to look at it now in retrospect (with 4 more non-playoff seasons in-a-row in the future after 2012, and 6 of 7 seasons after Yakupov's arrival) and say, "They rushed him in too quickly!" "They didn't let him develop!" But I bet at the time, back in autumn 2012, if the Oilers hadn't played Yakupov in the line-up, 95% of you would have been on here castigating that decision.

So, yes, we can say now that probably one year in the AHL would have benefitted Yakupov's overall development... but then again, maybe not? In his rookie NHL season, he led the Oilers in goals, and he had a great relationship with a coach he trusted and respected. If the Oilers had sent Yak to the minors for one year, then he would have arrived as an NHL rookie in 2013-14, with his first head coach being... Dallas Eakins.

Anyway, the Eakins hiring was obviously a disaster that did not work out, and that's on the Oilers' org. But around this same period the Oilers also drafted and developed Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Tyler Pitlick, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oscar Klefbom, Jujhar Khaira, Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Ethan Bear, and I'm not aware of any "development problems" with these players. Many exceeded expectations, and three won the Hart trophy.

Also, Yakupov has had almost a decade since he left Edmonton to (re-)establish himself, and... he's done nothing of note for St. Louis, Colorado, or in the KHL.

It's just all confirmation bias to explain why a player sucks in the NHL.

If the guy is 30 years old and still hasn't improved after playing for many teams and many coaches (like Yakupov), chances are no amount of pampering would of saved his career.

Saying that a player was rushed only makes any kind of sense when they later improve and become better players under new leadership.

 

[GOilers88]

Speaking of low IQ, people are saying "Edmonton ruined him". Er... no.

The Oilers' drafting has (basically since 1982) been a disaster, but player development is a different issue. It's easy to look at it now in retrospect (with 4 more non-playoff seasons in-a-row in the future after 2012, and 6 of 7 seasons after Yakupov's arrival) and say, "They rushed him in too quickly!" "They didn't let him develop!" But I bet at the time, back in autumn 2012, if the Oilers hadn't played Yakupov in the line-up, 95% of you would have been on here castigating that decision.

So, yes, we can say now that probably one year in the AHL would have benefitted Yakupov's overall development... but then again, maybe not? In his rookie NHL season, he led the Oilers in goals, and he had a great relationship with a coach he trusted and respected. If the Oilers had sent Yak to the minors for one year, then he would have arrived as an NHL rookie in 2013-14, with his first head coach being... Dallas Eakins.

Anyway, the Eakins hiring was obviously a disaster that did not work out, and that's on the Oilers' org. But around this same period the Oilers also drafted and developed Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Tyler Pitlick, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oscar Klefbom, Jujhar Khaira, Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Ethan Bear, and I'm not aware of any "development problems" with these players. Many exceeded expectations, and three won the Hart trophy.

Also, Yakupov has had almost a decade since he left Edmonton to (re-)establish himself, and... he's done nothing of note for St. Louis, Colorado, or in the KHL.

Mostly just a few Flames fans saying it.

Who saw that coming.

 

[Fantomas]

I saw Yakupov many times when he was a teenager and was annoyed by his decision making, tunnel vision, tendency to make almost every play look difficult. He was a straight line player, who thought he could just drive through opponents and get his way. That worked only for a while. He was exposed at the World Juniors, which is never good. Even Puljujarvi dominated the World Juniors. At one of those, six months before the draft, he scored zero goals, and shift after shift gave me second hand embarrassment. There was no subtlety to his game. He still went first overall.

I'm sure there were other factors. Development, socialization, culture factors maybe. Did the Oilers screw things up with him somehow? Did he leave Russia too soon? Maybe the bad habits could have been coached out of him. Let's not forget that he did have a decent start in the NHL, so there was some promise early on and perhaps he could have had a good career under different circumstances.

More food for thought: even though Yakupov was a bad pick, let's admit that the 2012 draft had a very bad top 10. The three guys who went after him all fared badly: Murray, Galchenyuk, Reinhart. Yakupov's not even the biggest bust from this bunch. This was one of those drafts where having an early pick was like being cursed.

 

[WarriorofTime]

He was a bad player who likely lied about his age which made him seem better in juniors than he was.

Honestly, I think he was another one of those Russian players whose age was a lot higher than normal but was listed as 18. Because from watching his junior highlights he would be a player that'd look good in the AHL but never in the NHL.

Lots of Russian players. Don't know if true, but I read Grigorenko was actually 25 when he got drafted. Don't know the actual ages, but Ovechkin, Panarin, Kovalchuk, and more are older than they actually were.

Yakupov and other Russians playing on a false birth certificate would be about as likely as Macklin Celebrini being secretly 23 years old and playing on a false birth certificate.

Where do people just get off making up stupid lies like this? Russian birth certificates are well kept records. A player cannot just lie about their age.

 

[Fantomas]

Honestly, I think he was another one of those Russian players whose age was a lot higher than normal but was listed as 18. Because from watching his junior highlights he would be a player that'd look good in the AHL but never in the NHL.

But all together he was just very cocky.

"Another one of those."

Why you lyin'

Give me one example of this ever happening. What's that? You can't? Thought so.

 

[Junohockeyfan]

I see similarities between Yakupov and Brad Lambert's game. Low hockey sense and very frantic in their approach to the game. No planning.

 

[NOTENOUGHRYJOTHINGS]

Yakupov is MacGinnon with worse physical talents. Both players who wanted to do one thing and one thing only.

No secondary plan. No subtetly to their play.

Difference is even if the entire rink knows MacGinnon is going to try to skate into 3v1 coverage and go by every he is good enough to get away with it often enough. Yakupov wasn't good enough to just skate through NHL level defense.

 

[Paul4587]

Poor hockey IQ. A bad case of tunnel vision.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Yakupov is MacGinnon with worse physical talents. Both players who wanted to do one thing and one thing only.

No secondary plan. No subtetly to their play.

Difference is even if the entire rink knows MacGinnon is going to try to skate into 3v1 coverage and go by every he is good enough to get away with it often enough. Yakupov wasn't good enough to just skate through NHL level defense.

There is definitely some truth to this. He played like MacKinnon in the OHL, and people didn't really question if it was going to work in the NHL and expected it would. He had the stats, the flashy plays, he was even physical and was supposed to end up being a stocky 5'10 or 5'11 and still be able to use his strength in the NHL.

People also forget the heater that CHL and in particular OHL forwards were on going #1 in the draft and hitting. We had Crosby. Kane, Stamkos, Tavares, Hall and RNH from 2005-2011 so 6/7 and in fact the only "bust" of them was the non CHLer and non forward, keep in mind RNH was also having his great rookie season so most people assumed he was going to become a superstar like the others.. It almost seemed inevitable that some CHL forward was going to come up every year and likely be from the OHL and go #1. Yakupov checked every single box statistically, pedigree wise, and his play was super entertaining. He had an amazing shot at despite his flaws that many did see - most still thought he would be a 40+ goal scorer in his prime with the upside to hit 50.

Tons of 20/20 hindsight in here but he was a legit prospect. I guess he was just not quite big or skilled enough to make his game work and if you don't adapt that's where you hit a wall completely because it was the only style you ever knew. MacKinnon is that good that it did, but he also had to go through growing pains and learn to be more deceptive and selective initially rather than go 100 percent all the time like he and Yakupov would have done and dominated with their entire lives before the NHL.

 

[Turin]

Yakupov and other Russians playing on a false birth certificate would be about as likely as Macklin Celebrini being secretly 23 years old and playing on a false birth certificate.

Where do people just get off making up stupid lies like this? Russian birth certificates are well kept records. A player cannot just lie about their age.

I never said "other Russians" I said him cuz his player profile reads like it.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

 

[1specter]

There’s an inherent risk drafting these small crash and bang skilled forwards. Another older case was Gilbert Brule. When I saw Yakupov in Sarnia, I could tell this was risky but no one was talking about it. So I just followed the flow like everyone else. Probably many believed the same thing but no one spoke up.

Brule was a bit different, his physical style was tough to maintain with his size but it was more the wear and tear and injuries plus off ice issues that really derailed his progress... He actually looked like he was coming along well and he had a compelling package of skills, reminded me of a more skilled Ryan Callahan almost. Once he had the knee on knee hit and the concussion it was tough for him to bounce back plus he was on an awful tanking dysfunctional Oilers team at the time. Real shame to be honest, I always liked his potential.

Yak in comparison just seemed to have zero hockey sense. Brule still managed to put up decent numbers overseas / in the KHL while Yak's numbers there are even pedestrian. That's kind of the most shocking thing really is that even in the KHL, Yakupov is simply just average at best... Plenty of other NHL busts at least do well overseas.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Speaking of low IQ, people are saying "Edmonton ruined him". Er... no.

The Oilers' drafting has (basically since 1982) been a disaster, but player development is a different issue. It's easy to look at it now in retrospect (with 4 more non-playoff seasons in-a-row in the future after 2012, and 6 of 7 seasons after Yakupov's arrival) and say, "They rushed him in too quickly!" "They didn't let him develop!" But I bet at the time, back in autumn 2012, if the Oilers hadn't played Yakupov in the line-up, 95% of you would have been on here castigating that decision.

So, yes, we can say now that probably one year in the AHL would have benefitted Yakupov's overall development... but then again, maybe not? In his rookie NHL season, he led the Oilers in goals, and he had a great relationship with a coach he trusted and respected. If the Oilers had sent Yak to the minors for one year, then he would have arrived as an NHL rookie in 2013-14, with his first head coach being... Dallas Eakins.

Anyway, the Eakins hiring was obviously a disaster that did not work out, and that's on the Oilers' org. But around this same period the Oilers also drafted and developed Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Tyler Pitlick, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oscar Klefbom, Jujhar Khaira, Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Ethan Bear, and I'm not aware of any "development problems" with these players. Many exceeded expectations, and three won the Hart trophy.

Also, Yakupov has had almost a decade since he left Edmonton to (re-)establish himself, and... he's done nothing of note for St. Louis, Colorado, or in the KHL.

5/10 of your examples of great Oiler development are top 10 picks. Three of them were 1st overall picks Holding them up as some beacon of the Oilers development system is almost as funny as holding up Tyler Pitlick, Jujhar Khaira, or Ethan Bear.

You scoff at anyone saying 'Edmonton ruined him' and then give several examples of where they did exactly that. You're right Eakins was a disaster.. who hired him I wonder?

 

[River Meadow]

#Fail4Nail

 

[joestevens29]

Always sad he need to see an eye doctor

 

[Hanji]

I never said "other Russians" I said him cuz his player profile reads like it.

How so? Yakupov never appeared more physically advanced than his peers like a Puljujärvi, Ekblad or Phaneuf did.
I mean if ceasing to develop after juniors is an alarm bell for fake birth certificates, Bettman has a major, major problem on his hands. A lot of players fall into this category every draft.

 

[Naych_PHX]

It's called "development". I think the OHL failed him off the bat. They let him get numbers but he should have spent a year or two in the AHL. Picking him right out of the O at #1 basically made him uncoachable.

 

[SeanAveryTheGreatOne]

Still crazy to think about the number of #1 overall picks the Oilers got insofar as they could afford to ruin multiple of them, including an outright bust in Yakupov, and still wind up with the best player of the generation

 

[Rorschach]

Basically he was a tin man who needed a new brain. Unfortunately the Wizard Of Oz is a fictional entity.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Kind of reminds me of Brendan Gallagher in hindsight. He's hitting and shooting everything in sight but not actually doing anything productive and you're just left wondering "wtf is this guy even doing"

 

[Leafshater67]

There’s an inherent risk drafting these small crash and bang skilled forwards. Another older case was Gilbert Brule. When I saw Yakupov in Sarnia, I could tell this was risky but no one was talking about it. So I just followed the flow like everyone else. Probably many believed the same thing but no one spoke up.

Me too but I thought Galchenyuk would be a stud and Murray would be a rock solid top 4, 2 way guy for 15 years so…

 

[Acallabeth]

I still believe that the root cause of Yakupov's eventual failure was the decision to move to the Sarnia.
He was good enough to torch OHL kids, but didn't really improve during his CHL career and then got thrown to the NHL because he was a #1 pick. Gradually getting acclimated to pro hockey in the KHL system and learning how to handle a top prospect pressure would be much better. Or maybe not moving to Edmonton during the lockout season would help him.

The main problem with Yakupov's NHL career was that he simply wasn't an exceptional hockey player. I really don't know what the Oilers (in that awful Steve Tambellini period) were thinking. Sure, he was likely to go in the first round to somebody, but as a 1st overall choice, he was an odd one. I remember watching him play -- it was, like, his third NHL game or something -- and my opinion after one game was, "This guy sucks". And nothing I saw over the next few seasons altered my opinion. (And he actually had a statistically decent rookie year, but I thought he was a whole lot of nothing.) Yakupov was a good skater, but so what? So are 90% of NHL-ers. He had terrible hands and could not process hockey at NHL speed.

Yes and no. Yakupov definitely wasn't as good as advertised, but he easily had NHL-level skills. He just couldn't show it due to lack of confidence, hockey sense and overall mental fortitude. As you pointed out, he was even to shy to speak to his only Russian teammate, because of their age difference. And people were calling him cocky because of goal celebrations.

The bizarre part is that how average Yakupov has looked for several recent seasons. He's had many injuries and isn't in his prime anymore, but when I was watching Avangard games the previous coupla years, he was utterly invisible, like a timid VHL callup.

Lots of Russian players. Don't know if true, but I read Grigorenko was actually 25 when he got drafted. Don't know the actual ages, but Ovechkin, Panarin, Kovalchuk, and more are older than they actually were.

Yeah, I can picture a 20-year-old Grigorenko playing against 13-year-olds Or people suddenly forgetting that Ovechkin's mom is a well-known athlete and high-profile personality, so persuading everyone that her son was born years later than everyone remembers would be... impossible?

Not to say DOB changes never happen, but most of those rumors are started by parents jealous of talented kids who are too dominant to play for their age group and are moved to play with/against guys 1-2 years older (which is a common practice in Russia).