Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
And this is why these advanced stats mean so very little at times. People use them to justify players that simply are not good enough to be playing though. (And no Im not saying you are doing this, but it happens with great regularity)
Over the course of the last 2 years and amongst forwards who played as many or more games than him, he ranks 60th of 63 in offensive production. Against all players of any amount of games...220th overall.
I mean who cares if he "drives the play", if there is nothing to show for it?
Just based on his last year and a half, we can expect 19-31 goals if he plays every game in the next 4 seasons.
This is a horrendous player with a worse contract that is almost impossible to get out from under.
I get he brings the most serious snarl in the game as a part of his game, and I LOVE that part of things but here is the rub...he isnt good enough to play enough to use that snarl to any sort of advantage.
This was BT being so desperate to address the missing toughness on the team, he was willing to over look the much more important factors of the player he was bringing in. All in hopes of changing the teams fortunes in a playoff series that it may or may not be part of come next April.
I hope that some of the enthusiasm he reportedly has from this deal and a change of scenery suddenly sees him remember how to play the game again, but I'm sure as hell not holding my breath on it. Especially when it looks like he will be playing with Ryan and Bennett...two other guys that are lacking to varying degrees in production totals themselves.
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Couldn't disagree more.
These metrics are hard to fake. You can't coach them to look good. Players either get out played or they don't when they're on the ice.
A player that gets out played has to be hidden.
A player that doesn't can move up and down the roster and do his part in keeping the puck moving downhill instead of uphill.
Nobody is thinking Lucic is a 20 goal scorer this season, but if both players don't get top six minutes (Neal and Lucic), the latter if clearly better at contributing to the back and forth hockey in the bottom six without creating a tire fire.
The playoff series against Colorado was clear ... Neal and Jankowski couldn't hold their own at all five on five.
Lucic's numbers say he can, which makes him a better fit on the bottom six.
As a guy that coached hockey for years .... I CARE that a line that isn't producing isn't getting mopped up. Let me third line hold the other team in check and the top six will take care of goal scoring.
There is no spin needed in numbers that suggest Lucic can play both ways despite his offence drying up. That gives him two tricks instead of one ... holding his own five on five, and being scary when warranted. Neal was a one trick pony unlikely to ever get said trick out of the barn.