Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn
I thought the problem with Bouw was coaching? From what I understand, he does exactly what the coach tells him. Under Sutter he was supposed to play back. Hartley got better production out of him by allowing him to play to his strengths. He must have some talent, he was selected to be on one of the greatest hockey teams ever selected after all.
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He absolutely has some talent. I'm sure part of his problem here was coaching, how he was used, and just simply there was not a good enough playing partner for him to maximise his abilities or one that was a good fit for him.
But a huge part of the problem was him. Flames wanted him to be a leader and a difference maker, an elite D-man the way the likes of Keith, Weber and now Gio are. What we got was a nice compliment piece, someone who can ride shotgun very effectively to an elite D-man and compliment there game (problem being we didn't have said player for him). This is the role he currently plays in St.Louis and played for Team Canada.
We certainly didn't have the cap space or the luxury for him to turn out not to be the leading man we thought we were getting, St. Louis and Team Canada did.