Quote:
Originally Posted by MattyC
Well, like I said before, Burke has only been here a few months and seems to suggest the only time he's seen of him was when he was in junior (while watching another prospect), and his impression from the last couple months. Yes he is and has been a GM in the league for a long time, but that doesn't mean he knows specific details about our prospects before getting here. He was asked a question about Baertschi and responded with what he know's. "I don't know" is a perfectly fine response. People want to give a context of "I dunnnoooooo..." but really Burke doesn't actually know. He knows what he's seen thus far and for him to not be overly impressed seems pretty logical to me.
I have no problem waiting through the trials of dealing with young players, and people can debate how to deal with them all they want, but I think to suggest that they haven't brought up these issues with Baertschi perosnally before it was mentioned here is off the mark. And again, he was asked a direct question to evaluate Baertschi at this point. If you were new to an organization and have been watching the camp, would you be impressed with Baertschi? I wouldn't. He said he is immensley skilled but has a lot to learn about the rest of the game. Is that an unfair comment?
I want the kid to do well and succeed, but he won't do that with the effort level he's been giving thus far this season. It's been especially dissapointing given what we had seen from him in terms of work ethic before.
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I have a few issues with this analysis
First, he referenced what he's seen, but to suggest the President of Hockey Operations hasn't had a full briefing on the teams top prospect is also off the mark.
Second, who had suggested they haven't told him first? I have little doubt they did. Does that make a public shaming justified? He used pretty clear language to suggest Baertschi is lazy and doesn't care about what the coaches would obviously expect of him. Again, this only makes sense of the kid isn't listening or Burke trying to be intentionally controversial (the latter has much more history to prove it true). Otherwise, what purpose does this serve? Why wouldn't the prudent and professional course of keeping it between management and player be the right one?
Third, Burke never mentioned the preseason as the time frame. He was asked about what he thought of Sven Baertschi, not his preseason.