Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Understood. I'm not going to argue, and that's easy because honestly, there is nothing to argue about. Making any sorts of long-term assessments of a player who has not yet played in 40 games, and who just turned 21-years-old is ridiculous. It's practically axiomatic.
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Yep. I admit that I've never been as bullish on Sven as some fans here have but I think he can be a top 6 NHL forward. I believe the Oilers approach of letting the kids play with no accountability is why their top players have had their growth stunted so I'm okay with Sven being held accountable.
However I do have a little gripe which is less about Sven and more about how Hartley seems to have tiered expectations for certain players like Baertschi, Horak, Smith, Backlund, Jones, etc. Horak under Brent in his first season played 61 games and didn't look out of place most nights. In two seasons under Hartley he can't even get in the lineup. Meanwhile guys like Galiardi who IMO has been just going through the motions never lose their role and Jackman to me is no longer a full time NHL player. Heck even Jones has been ho hum. Just seems to me that some players seem to escape his wrath while others can do no right. Maybe I am reading too much into this but I don't want to waste these rebuilding years with no accountability for players that aren't part of the long term plans. I would like to see some of these other guys take their turn in the pressbox for poor play like Galiardi last night with that poor giveaway and poor overall play.