Yakupov was on pace for 53 pts as a rookie. So what happened?

[MessierII]

He was good with Derrick Roy too, he needed a playmaking Center to set him up.

Yep 25 points in 46 games after Eakins was canned and Roy joined the oilers that year. Started good the next year too but had it all ruined when Mcdavid broke his collarbone. Eberle who was hurt to start the year in 15/16 was back when Mcdavid returned and took that spot. Yak had I believe one other hot stretch with Colorado early his last year but outside of that never found any consistency.

 

[El Travo]

During his tenure in Colorado, the biggest thing I noticed is that he was a pretty good skater but he didn't know what to do with it. His shot did create some good rebounds because they were difficult for the goalie to handle.

I have a hard time believing that a single coach could completely change the trajectory of a career in a way that it's been implied. Eakins didn't help, but Yakupov wasn't ever anything special in the first place.

 

[MessierII]

During his tenure in Colorado, the biggest thing I noticed is that he was a pretty good skater but he didn't know what to do with it. His shot did create some good rebounds because they were difficult for the goalie to handle.

I have a hard time believing that a single coach could completely change the trajectory of a career in a way that it's been implied. Eakins didn't help, but Yakupov wasn't ever anything special in the first place.

Your first paragraph is yak in a nutshell. He was a busy idiot. He would fly around the ice like crazy seemingly working his tail off but not accomplishing anything. In the o zone he would skate into coverage with and without the puck. Just zero head for the game.

 

[Waterbuf]

Burke mentioned in an interview that he had one of the worst predraft interviews of all time.

I like Burke as an analyst but I don't trust his stupid opinions.

 

[FDBluth]

meh, still better than Lafreniere

 

[KingsHockey24]

He celebrated too hard against LA.

 

[McRpro]

Yak had million dollar hockey skills and a 10 cent hockey brain.

He also ended his rookie year with 6 goals in the last 3 games which made his totals look better than they otherwise would have been.

 

[belair]

Ten cent head, unfortunately. If he had any ounce of responsibility as a young player, I have zero doubt he'd still be in the league as a regular 20-goal guy, not unlike David Perron.

But he was entitled. Despite that he was still given numerous opportunities that he never took full advantage of.

Shame. He was fun to watch.

 

[Bank Shot]

I think Ray Ferraro summed up Yakupov's playstyle best, "He plays hockey like he's being chased by bees"

 

[Menzinger]

Oilers at that time had perhaps the worst player development system in the league (and the Leafs, my favorite team didn't have much better one).

 

[LevelingSolo]

Dallas Eakins no doubt contributed but at the end of the day he struggled wherever he went

 

[TaLoN]

People here say Yakupov is the worst bust in a long time. But his rookie numbers are pretty good at 31 points in 48 games, or a 53 point pace. This is a better PPG than Hughes, Kakko, Hischier, Laf, etc. So why did he bust if he had the rookie numbers that he did?

Utterly terrible hockey IQ, made worse by utterly terrible coaching during his developmental years.

A better coach might have been able to salvage something despite the terrible hockey IQ, but alas... we'll never know.

 

[AUAIOMRN]

He was actually having a bit of a resurgence when this happened. He lost his spot while he was injured and didn't regain his form after coming back.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Yakupov just wasn't a smart player. He had skills but didn't know how to play hockey the North American way. The guy often just looked lost out there. Had the IQ of a cabbage.

 

[illpucks]

Utterly terrible hockey IQ, made worse by utterly terrible coaching during his developmental years.

A better coach might have been able to salvage something despite the terrible hockey IQ, but alas... we'll never know.

Find it hard to believe that if he had so bad hockey iq that scouts would make him #1 pick

 

[Chainshot]

He wasn't strong enough, fast enough or skilled enough to play the style that saw him dominate in junior.

It just didn't translate to the NHL where the players were bigger, faster and smarter. All of a sudden he couldn't get open to get his shot off. He couldn't beat guys wide. He couldn't physically impose his will. And he unfortunately never learned to adapt his game.

Which was the failure of Daigle too if we go back far enough - he could no longer just outrace someone to a puck but instead had to think about what he had to do. And that exposed an inability to process the game at NHL speeds.

 

[illpucks]

Which was the failure of Daigle too if we go back far enough - he could no longer just outrace someone to a puck but instead had to think about what he had to do. And that exposed an inability to process the game at NHL speeds.

Wasn't the issue with Daigle that he didn't really care about hockey

 

[Chainshot]

Wasn't the issue with Daigle that he didn't really care about hockey

He certainly didn't change his style from junior to the pro game and then had limited success. Not sure which came first, the lack of success or the lack of care.

 

[JianYang]

Burke mentioned in an interview that he had one of the worst predraft interviews of all time.

Had a lot of holes in his game that needed fixing and an attitude that wasn't really receptive to coaching.

I don't even think he said it was one of the worst. I'm pretty sure he said it was THE Worst.

As for the coaching, I can buy into the argument of a coach holding a player back, but that does not ruin an nhl career in itself, because a player of yakupov's profile will get other chances with other coaches, and he got those chances.

He just wasn't very good.

 

[majormajor]

Do the people blaming Eakins actually think Yak would be a good player in the NHL today if not for Eakins? It seems we all understand the obvious flaws in this player and he has shown no sign of coachability / adaptability at any level.

I didn't like Eakins when he was Oilers coach but looking back on it he is probably just the fall guy here.

 

[MessierII]

Do the people blaming Eakins actually think Yak would be a good player in the NHL today if not for Eakins? It seems we all understand the obvious flaws in this player and he has shown no sign of coachability / adaptability at any level.

I didn't like Eakins when he was Oilers coach but looking back on it he is probably just the fall guy here.

I don’t think good. Yakupov was never going to pan out but with the right coach early I do believe he would be a one dimensional 20 goal scorer on a bad team somewhere.

 

[Soundwave]

There were kinda warning signs even in his rookie season, he went long stretches without scoring, and then racked up a bunch of points in games towards the end of the year to beef up the stat line, think he scored a hat trick against a Canucks team that was resting a bunch of regulars in the final game of the season for example.

 

[TaLoN]

Find it hard to believe that if he had so bad hockey iq that scouts would make him #1 pick

They were wowed by his physical skills. They figured the head part could be taught...a competent coach might've done just that. He didn't get a competent coach.

 

[ZenOil]

Tough to say if first season wasn't a fluke or not. Eakins didn't help.

 

[Captain Controversy]

Yakupovs career suffered because of

A) poor organization (should have been playing down on the farm to learn how to in a system)
B) Coaching Change (Dallas Eakins didn't utilize Yakupov properly)
C) Yakupov didn't take strides to improve his game. To be fair, it felt like none of the oilers did at the time.

Ralph Krueger had yakupov used on the power play. When used on a line, it was with Gagner(prime Gagner) which helped yaks game.