Thoughts on player usage with Vigneault? A lot of our concerns with GG were the odd player usage and favoring veterans, which a lot of people mentioned occurred in Van and even NYR:
https://www.defendingbigd.com/2018/4...-hitchcock-nhl
Quote:
In Vancouver, his general treatment of young talent with the Canucks — considered questionable in the waning years — followed him to New York.
In a story that will sound eerily familiar to Stars fans, Vigneault scratched high-ceiling defensemen like Anthony DeAngelo and Neal Pionk over preferred veterans, even though Pionk would end the season on the top pairing with Marc Staal, and DeAngelo finally broke into the lineup before an ankle injury cut his season short in March. Then there’s the story of Pavel Buchnevich. By all accounts, his ability to produce (although very good) was not proportional to his ice time, and New York suffered as a result — and not just because he was scratched for Tanner Glass.
Scratching players like Buchnevich for Glass, and placing obstinate trust in defense pairings that weren’t getting it done over pairs that did is exactly the kind of thing Nill should be wary of. And not just because New York’s average rank in expected goals percentage during the last four seasons was 22nd.
There’s also the “not being on the same page as the GM” component. After New York signed Brendan Smith, Vigneault healthy scratched him twice. Smith would subsequently get sent down to the AHL. Healthy scratches can serve a purpose, and none of this is to absolve Smith of guilt (who legitimately struggled). However, that doesn’t explain the Keith Yandle situation; a player who performed well as a trade deadline boost, but immediately received third pairing minutes, and second unit power play time despite scoring more on the man advantage than the two defensemen in front of him.
There’s also the issue of “stats packages.” Vigneault had his own statistics in New York, and whatever they were, they didn’t correlate with efficiency. If you’re hearing an echo, it’s Ken Hitchcock’s synergy stats and extended zone time he used to justify Devin Shore as the “most versatile player on the team.”
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Although his record speaks for itself. I'm curious on the public opinion as I've read about it back when he was in Van but not really much in NY.