Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Darryl once called Johnny, "our best checker", and in many ways he was right. JG was so good at those little stick lifts, and picking guys' pockets on the fly. I think that the one quality that kept JG going was his "slippery-ness"- his edges and agility are some of the best I've ever seen, and it prevents opponents from catching him clean, or stealing the puck off of him. Well, that and the fact he had skill and IQ out of this world- I don't think it's fair to compare Phillips to him at all. If Johnny were in the AHL at the same age as Phillips is now, he would probably have over 2 points per game.
Seeing the difference between 5'9" Pelletier in the NHL, and 5'7" Phillips shows me why there is negative bias towards MP- he's closer to Czarnik than he is to Gaudreau.
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Could not disagree more. Phillips needed a little more icetime and time with higher skilled players. He would have been fine in the NHL if he wasn’t playing 6 minutes a night with Lewis and Ritchie.
The difference between the farm and NHL these days has narrowed significantly. It isn’t Darryl’s NHL where there was a wider gap between the AHL and NHL. The NHL these days is driven younger with the salary cap and kids are emerging as high impact players earlier in their career. Also, they are far more motivated than floating vets on guaranteed contracts. There’s a stark difference between a person
trying to work for millions of dollars and a person who
already has made millions of dollars.
If Phillips had Pelletier’s opportunity I don’t think you’d see much differentiation in production or performance. Pelletier has more icetime, better line mates and more opportunity and the real difference comes down to coaches preferences.
To me, the real disappointment of Sutter this year is his abandonment of the merit system. It’s the only way to motivate players. Many on this site don’t view effort as a major issue with this current group but I think it is. So many times you’ll see many vets mail it in, and the reality is that they’ve all made their big contracts. Young guys need way more chances. Then when they stumble sit them and rotate in the vets, who have pride on the line and will be eager to prove doubters wrong. Gifting vets icetime because they “won cups” and “are champions” or some other non-understandable nonsense flies in the face of human psychology and common sense. Yeah, the kid who wants millions will work harder than the kid who has it, when the true nominal difference in their speed and skill amounts to 0.00000001%, the effort is the differentiator.