[GranteedEV]

Oh boy. I am a glutton for punishment. Here I go.

Originally Posted by Red

I don't understand this take. They went out of the way to sign this guy or that guy so the player is guaranteed this and that.

Who said anything about a "guarantee"? We're talking about a plan. If a team thinks a player has skill that can help them on the power play, it is a sensible outcome that they will play said player on the power play.

No guarantees. He is no different that Foo was last year. And Tre also went out of his way to sign him.

A 3 year pro who has already posted strong possession numbers in the NHL and elite production in the AHL every year signing a 1.25M x 2Y One-way contract, eligible for waivers.

A 0 year pro who had one breakout year as an amateur in the NCAA signing an ELC, exempt from waivers.

"No different" according to you.

Okay there. That's just disingenuous.

Czarnik will get some looks in different roles, but expecting him to be a fixture on PP is way too optimistic.

Czarnik will get looks in different roles, but expecting him to flame out and be a 13th forward or AHLer is way too pessimistic.

Let's wait for him to make the team first.

How many instances of players in the prime of their careers, on the first of a multi-year one-way NHL contract with salary greater than a "bury-able" salary, not making the teaming can you identify? It would take a massive misstep for the player to not make the team.

Originally Posted by Red

In the pre-season.

You are manufacturing details that were never stated. It was stated Czarnik would get an opportunity on the power play. It was not stated that would be in the preseason.

And although I am excited to see what he can do, there is a reason why he has 5 goals in the NHL at the age of 25.

And you can be assured that reason is far more complex than you appear willing to acknowledge. Hockey is not baseball or golf. There are many degrees of freedom that affect totals such as this, and that isn't something unique to Czarnik - it is something that applies to every player in the sport from Alex Ovechkin to Nolan Patrick. A statement such as that in the quote suggests a very rigid and flawed evaluation standard, one which the coaching staff, team management, players, and any sensible fan would scoff at as the entire basis of any argument.

Tre signed him so he must be gold.

No one said this, again you are manufacturing a pseudo-statement. Many here had already thought Czarnik "MIGHT" (read: not must) be gold BEFORE July 1st. You can count me in that group, in fact I might be one of the first mentions of the player on CP. Here is a post I made on JUNE 4th:

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Neal being a left shot seems like a tough fit given Ferland, Tkachuk, Monahan can do most of the same things offensively.

Ilya Kovalchuk, Austin Czarnik, Perron, Derek Ryan, Riley Nash, Tyler Bozak are the guys I'd hope are high on their radar. In that order.

Ironically we ended up with Neal, Czarnik, AND Ryan. There are reasons for that which have nothing to do with an appeal to authority - in fact if you know anything about my posting history I find appeals to authority an awful methodology for player evaluation. What I do think is that if the authority claims it will play a player in a given situation, I take their word for it. If they say "Mark Jankowski is an effective penalty killer" I expect Jankowski on the penalty kill. If they say "Troy Brouwer was signed because he is strong on both sides of special teams" I expect Troy Brouwer on special teams - even if I VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE with the claim.

Originally Posted by Red

Short and 160lbs
25 years old
5 carreer goals
Not signed by original team

Am I missing something?

To your criticisms:

- I don't put much if any stock into listed weights. What matters is winning puck battles and puck races, and hockeyDB cannot measure that in what is likely an inaccurate and dated weight listning.

- Being small is virtually irrelevant at this point. It's quietly becoming a small man's game, whether that's Brad Marchand, Cam Atkinson, Tyler Johnson, Brayden Point, Johnny Gaudreau, Artemi Panarin, Paul Byron, Conor Sheary, Yanni Gourde, Jonathan Marchessault, Viktor Arvidsson, Mats Zuccarello, Jared Spurgeon, Alex DeBrincat, or Brendan Gallagher. Even Sidney Crosby isn't the biggest body in the world and he's dominated the world for years. Teams have opened their eyes to the effectiveness of skill, and often the reason smaller players historically "didn't make it" was because they weren't given an opportunity to make it in the first place.

- It is not unheard of for 25 year olds to break out once they change teams, because they were put in limited roles on their previous team. This is especially true of smaller players who are often fighting biases against their size in the slotting process, causing their NHL debuts to be delayed relative to their effectiveness. Look no further than Martin St. Louis who was bought out solely for his size before being given an opportunity in the top six. That sort of thing does not happen to the same extent in today's NHL, but the biases do still exist to delay potential breakouts.

- I already addressed the five goal argument, which appears to be the crux of your entire position.

- His original team had no option to sign him, because they failed to meet the criteria to keep him an RFA. As an unrestricted free agent he elected not to sign with a team that had Bergeron, Pastrnak, Krejci, Backes, and Nash slotted ahead of him by default as far as RHS forwards go. It is not a case of a team letting him go because they gave up on him, in fact Bruins were said to have pitched him an offer which he refused.

So yes, you are missing quite a bit.