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Originally Posted by polak
Being 4th 5th, 6th, 7th on a team with 5 playoff team calibre forwards in cherry picked stats isn't a feat. How many times did you watch a game last season and thought "Wow Ferland played well" or "Ferland made a difference".
Even leading the team in hits isn't impressive. Who else that played a significant amount of games on this team throws hits? Bollig and Engelland?
If Michael Ferland and his 4 goals is who we are counting on to be a contributor for this team then look out because barring a massive turnaround this season the guy is fringe and I wouldn't be surprised if he's not in the league next season.
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Agreed. I love Ferland but he was a major disappointment last season. So what if he was 4-7th in whatever advanced stat on a bottom 5 team? Congratu-f'ing-lations. A couple months earlier he was a major force in the playoffs and IMO that the kind of player he needs to be to be effective. Last season he failed the eye test in a big way. I mean common,
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being fourth among this team`s forwards in 5vs5 assists per 60 (third now that Colborne's gone) -- a higher assist rate than Frolik and Monahan.
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That's a cherry picked stat if I ever saw one. A higher assist rate then Frolik or Monahan?? Yeah, Ferland's 14 assists in 71 games are certainly more "impressive'' then Monahan's 36 assist total.
I think one of the worst things to happen to him last season was Conroy coming out and saying that Ferland had the potential to score 20 goals and be a top 6 forward. It was quite a bold statement and IMO really set him up for failure. Sure we'd all love for him to be a point producing power forward. But unless he comes out like gangbusters this season and shows he can be exactly that, he's like you said, a fringe guy who might not be in the league much longer.
And major kudos to Treliving for not giving into his agent's demand last season for a major pay raise after his playoff run.