Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolven
That doesn't sound right at all. From what I remember there was a disagreement between the coach and management in how to deploy Stamkos in his rookie year but not because anyone thought he was awful.
I believe the coach's stance was that he wanted to restrict Stamkos and keep him playing sheltered minutes and taking a game off entirely every once in a while in order to protect the young star player. Management on the other hand wanted Stamkos front and center and fully in the spotlight since they were promoting him so heavily.
I actually thought Stamkos was an example of how to correctly bring a rookie star player into the NHL as opposed to the Oiler mentality of immediately giving the young players more minutes than they can handle and risking injury by matching up rookies versus men.
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Sorry, you're right. What I meant was that Melrose stated he wasn't ready and didn't deserve minutes. And those minutes he did get weren't with guys that could feed him the puck. Bad word choice on my part.
Stamkos' production only went up with increased minutes and role after Melrose was fired, so I don't really understand the difference between that and the Oilers approach. The sheltered minutes for Stamkos did little, seeing as the improvement came with a sudden change in responsibility and not a gradual progression. I don't know if he scores 50 the next year without the confidence he gained by scoring at a PPG clip without Melrose.