Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkon
So follow-up question - What percentage of a players development would you say is the "teams" responsibility? and how much is really on the player?
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I’d say it’s more heavily on the player. They are the ones who have to put in the work in practise to improve, in the offseason to improve and gain strength. It’s not like a great development coach can polish a turd of a player into a gold nugget. But a player can fight his way up to the NHL through determination and hard work even despite playing in a system of a team not know for fantastic development.
Obviously it’s not 100% on the player.
I would view it this way. Organizations can put their youngsters in positions to succeed, excel, gain confidence and improve. Or they put them in situations where them struggling and losing confidence is likely. The Oilers did not put Puljujarvi in the best situation to succeed as they rushed him and didn’t teach him English.
On the other hand we have the example of Dube. The coaches here felt the 4th line was the place he had earned but they also knew that playing him in that role would likely only stunt his development and confidence. So it was a strong developmental decision to let Dube play half the year in the AHL, succeed, gain confidence. Now he’s more confident coming into this fall than he would’ve been had the Flames kept him as a 4th liner all year.