Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
McDavid is underperforming compared to Crosby. If that's his real ceiling the Oilers are screwing up his development. Its just is floor is Art Ross contender that doesn't play defense.
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The thing about developing a player is that it is not solely about performance.
A player is one part of a team. Part of their development as a player is how they connect with, play with, and relate to teammates.
That is what the veteran presence did for Crosby early in his career. It helped to reinforce and instil healthy professionalism, and reciprocal conscious behavioural respect between him and his teammates.
Crosby wasn't tasked with putting the team on his back as a 20-year-old in order to win a game. By proxy, his efforts wouldn't unintendedly devalue his teammate's effort either.
It is self-evident that a player like Zak Kassian (for example) could feel like his role doesn't matter (which it doesn't most nights) because if he doesn't have a great game, it usually isn't the difference between winning and losing.
If McDavid doesn't have a great game it is the difference between winning and losing for them.
This is the burden of having a great player without a great supporting cast.
It can make team building more complex because responsibility can become disproportionally dispersed, in the case of the Oilers... grossly disproportionated.
If a situation like this is not properly and consciously managed by the coaching staff and the team, it ultimately becomes unconsciously managed by individuals.
It can lead to players feeling like they have diminished value, obfuscating their own responsibility and feeding poor relatedness between players. This can hurt team building, negatively impacting player performance and team performance.
Again... this is the professionalism that veterans can actively or passively mentor in others by how they conduct themselves.
Oilers management either doesn't understand that all of this is happening and has happened... or they are desperately trying to figure out how to replace a crumbling foundation under what they have constructed... or both.