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Originally Posted by DazzlinDino
You make a good point in regards to development. About half way down the page on this link Craig Button talks about player development. How some NHL teams can fail the players and used an example of Dan Cleary. Not sure how to embed but it starts about half way down.
https://thehockeythinktank.com/2020/...r-development/ |
Good point. Dan Cleary is what I think Bennett has become and the dreams of a what he was when he was selected #4 overall need to be put to bed.
I think this is the quote you’re referring to.
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Les Jackson, assistant GM of the Dallas Stars and long time NHL exec once said “the NHL is as responsible for failing players as they are failing on their own.” It’s a sobering indictment of poor development at the minor pro level or, as Button told in a story he shared, one that can fall on the NHL team as well. Button followed that up with “if you take a player and you don’t help them develop or understand what their development needs are you are failing the player.” I interpret that as you don’t have the right teaching staff at the AHL level or you brought the player to the NHL too quick and skipped an important step.
The example Button used was Dan Cleary who finished his career as an important player in a Stanley Cup winning situation in Detroit. Cleary was drafted 13th overall by Chicago, failed there, went to Edmonton, failed there. He went to the Coyotes, not much happened and out of the lockout year he signed as a FA with Detroit. Detroit told him “your game is skating, puck possession, thinking and movement. Play that way here.”
Cleary later said Detroit was the first team that told him to play to his identity and helped him develop in that role. It took 4 teams for someone to tell him the right way to play and help him do it. So essentially, as Button said, “he was a bust until he wasn’t.” How many youth hockey players can you look with a layman’s eye at and say “they aren’t very good”. At 14-16, there are many current NHL players who would have been in that category that people would have tried to run out of good programs. The late bloomer.
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