Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
This.
This x 10.
I honestly think we might have ruined Sven by trying to make him into a two-way player. We made him focus too much on defense and his offense seemed to take a hit from it. Even in the preseason it looked like he was trying too hard to be a defensive forward, throwing his body around and stuff. I personally don't think that is his game. Why does he need to be forced to play that way? Players like that are a dime a dozen.
I would have let him develop his offense and then teach the defense once he was scoring at a level that would keep him in the NHL.
I'd take Yakupov over Sven 10 times out of 10 at this point. You can't force players to completely change their game.
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I don't think it's possible to ruin a player by teaching them a 200ft game. Guy's don't magically loose their talents just because they learn to back check in the right lanes and position themselves properly in their own zone. It's the positioning in your own zone that leads to strong breakouts, good puck support and strong zone entries. So strong play in the defensive and neutral zones should eventually help you in the offensive zone. Backlund and Byron are prime examples of this.
Players can't score game winners every night but by playing a 200ft game and positioning themselves properly throughout the night it gives those playing around them a better chance to contribute to a win. 1 or 2 bad turnovers is the difference between winning and loosing on many nights. How often do you see Schultz, eberle, yak, make horrible defensive plays that directly lead to goals? Surely far more often than they score.
Sven is still a talented offensive player and I hope he fills a role in our top 9 down the road. Expecting him to be a 1st line winger probably wasn't realistic when you look at that draft year. Nuge was #1 and certainly hasn't looked like a 1st line centre to this point(although he's still young I think he tops out as a good #2 on a playoff team).
Anyways, I wasn't trying to directly compare Sven to Yak and OV. I was just citing them as 2 NHLers that always go for the goal regardless of the cost to their team. One way players don't help teams win in today's NHL. They get exploited