Young centres like him and Monahan need lots of patience. Its a tough position to learn at the nhl level and it seems like they peak later than wingers.
His positioning and faceoff skills need work and he has been undisciplined. As a result he is not getting the icetime and his production has tailed off. Once he got dropped from the 2nd powerplay unit for Frolik his scoring chances basically halved.
All that said, I don't see a lot of reason to worry. He is still a very good skater and has good puck handling skills and a solid shot. He still has a fairly slight build as a lot do at his age and I think will fill out. I think he will be a solid second line centre at his peak at worst.
|