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Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty
Another good point, but Monahan has averaged 20 minutes a night in the last two games and on a team that is sorely lacking offense the expectations for him are starting to rise. It's one thing to come in with no pressure and score 6 goals, and it's completely another when a team that is lacking offensive power to rely on you, which I'd suggest compares to the Oilers.
Physically he has seemed larger and more prepared than some of the smaller Oilers prospects, but he's only going to get focused on more as the year progresses. Nothing wrong with another year in Junior to peak.
What are the negatives to sending him down? He's going to dominate in junior, and have a chance to perfect his game. When have you heard of a player that gets sent down and stops caring because it's "too easy"?
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The Flames are not sorely lacking in offense. If Monahan is struggling we have Cammy, Hudler, Stempniak, Jones, Glencross, Stajan, all guys who have and can put up decent points. Hudler and Stempniak are off to good starts, Cammy and Jones have both missed the majority of the opening part of the season but have looked good in their limited time. Stajan was arguably the teams best player last year. Glencross is inconsistent, but he will get his points. The Oilers youngsters were supplimented with even more youngsters not realizing that developing a two-way game (required of most if not all forwards) generally takes more time to shore up, but none of them have been given that chance because they kept getting driven into the ground and driven past by NHL calibre players. Monahan already has the two-way game.
And to the second point, plenty of examples I would think, two off the top of my head are Getzlaf (got a lot of flack for his lack of effort in his last year of junior), and Colten Teubert who I got to see completely turn it off post-draft first hand as I knew someone on the Pats at the time. In fact I remember saying to the player I know that if Teubert thought his NHL team wasn't keeping a close eye on that he was out of his mind and he won't be in the NHL if that's the way he's going to push. And low and behold, has the guy played a single NHL game?