Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
I feel like this needs repeating.
Drouin's not having a problem breaking into the NHL. He's having a problem breaking into probably the deepest forward corps in the league as a 20 year old.
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Is that the same top forward group that has Filppula, Killorn, Namestinkov, Callahan and Brown in the top 9?
Those 5 players have combined for 24 goals and 50 assists in 194 games and all are in the top 9 in ATOI (if you take Drouin out). I realize there's a couple of highly paid vets in there, but if it were me and Drouin was that good, I would be pushing one of the many underachievers down the lineup to make room for him. Drouin should represent the future, whereas most of the aforementioned five players likely won't even be in the league by the time Drouin hits his prime. It's not like any of those players are helping the team win now either, so that's not an argument.
This is either a case of 'Drouin's not good enough' or 'the coach is being unfair' IMO. I can't say for certain because I don't watch the games. To say that the forward group is too good is stretching it. If it's the first one though, I would be very concerned if I was Yzerman.