Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
This. You can't just simmer in the minors forever because most of the mistakes players make when they do come up is because the speed, size, intensity, and smarts of NHLer has an adjustment period that is a lot longer than it is given credit for. Cali, you said Kulak was still making similar mistakes to the start of the year? Well Jake Muzzin was still making the same mistakes he made two years prior, before his emergence as one of the better D in the league. If you can't be patient in under 25 players who show the potential to adapt, then you'll never realize that potential.
If you look at Treliving's tenure, the Bollig, Setoguchi, Chiasson, Brouwer, Raymonds he has brought in simply haven't definitively done enough to keep prospects playing well, out of the lineup, other than "being veterans" and put on a pedestal solely for that reason.
Playing in the minors is a grind as it is, but knowing that you won't get a chance has to be absolutely draining, which I'm sure explains why Baertschi and Reinhart wanted out and why Poirier/Arnold and co have managed to produce less and less every year. It's not even a character or toughness thing, it's human nature to need a carrot in front of you. Optics matter to these kids.
Jankowski has clearly been the best player on the Heat all year and he barely got a full NHL game to show what he could do and was sent down without much of an opportunity. I don't know but a whole team that was pretty often outshooting opponents en route to dominating wins is suddenly looking like the AHL version of the 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres, and there's no McDavid that they're tanking for. Maybe it's just a co-incidence but I think a lot of our prospects have flat out quit. Which makes sense if the talent simply isn't there, but it was only a while ago where Poirier looked like he had all the tools to be a top six forward and Shinkaruk had a decent NHL stint of his own.
Reality is, this team isn't as young as we claim it is. The Leafs are a young team. The Flames? Our top line is carried by a polished veteran (Backlund). Our entire blue line right now has only one player younger than 27 (Hamilton, who is an early bloomer that made the NHL at age 19). Many teams ahead of us in the standings are younger on a whole - Columbus, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and their success is not by chance.
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I don't get your blueline quote you need to move the goal posts a bit because I see the following:
Hamilton 23
Brodie 26
Jokipakka 25
Wideman sucks we all get that and I don't know why GULUTZAN plays him so much but you seem to be blaming Treliving for that. Remember Wideman has a full c that was signed by our previous awful GM.
I don't think it is fair to blame Treliving for veterans being played that is the coaches call.
The Flames are a young team in the fact their top players for the most part are young. Brodie is 26, Hamilton 23, Gaudreau 23, Monahan 22, Bennett 20, Tkachuk 19. All but one of those players was drafted by the Flames.
Wideman and Engellend are 2 of the older players on the roster both 34 and both likely are gone over the summer and will be replaced by younger players.
I think the talk about gifting young players spots sounds very Oileresque. Wideman could eat popcorn every game and should more often but again that is on Gulutzan not Treliving.