Quote:
Originally Posted by Manhattanboy
Can I ask why you are confident? What has he shown you this year that inspires confidence?
This is kind of a worst nightmare scenario. Most of us had heard of Huberdeau and were aware of his numbers but very few of us (I suspect) had really ever watched him play. We all got caught up in the hype. Hell, some media even wondered whether the Flames were actually better this year than last. Huberdeau was on the cover of Hockey News a while back with the tag line superstar in the making.
I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe he will come close to the hype.
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Because unless you're James Neal, players just don't forget how to play hockey. He's still in his prime as a PPG player, and I think the physical ability is still there, but he's obviously struggling to put up numbers under Sutter and with his current teammates.
Case in point: Sonny Milano did nothing in preseason but is still an NHLer with the right coaching and the right teammates.
Now, Sutter's likely not going anywhere anytime soon but if he's a good coach (and I think he's a good coach) he'll figure out how to unlock Huby. Getting the PP fixed will help out a lot (looking at you Muller). I just hope he doesn't lose confidence in the meantime because I think he does struggle a bit with that.
EDIT: I should add, my expectations are no longer him being a 115 point player. If he only scores 80-90 he'll still be overpaid but at least he'll be helping us win more hockey games.