Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix
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.
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Tampa's strange scoring woes aside, Drouin is basically in the worst situation to break into the league. If he's drafted to literally almost any other team he gets 15 minutes a night. He just doesn't have that luxury on Tampa.
Killorn, Filpulla, Callahan are established NHL players who play at all ends of the ice. They're complete players. Drouin isn't knocking one of those guys out, unless he simply dominates. No one from the draft class has dominated to the extent that they would displace one of those players.
Namestikov was a PPG player in the AHL and is 24 years old. Again, he's just a completely different player. Seasoned. Drouin was never really going to displace him either. And after that is where Drouin is slotting in, at around 13 minutes a night between the 3rd and 4th lines. Drouin's battling with Marchessault and Brown and yeah he's been given a very short leash.
My riposte to you would be to name 5 teams that Drouin would have an even tougher time breaking into the top 9. Going to be difficult.