Quote:
Originally Posted by Igottago
How? He's 30, not 40. Guys don't drop off a cliff physically, at least that drastically at 30. If he could skate 2 years ago he's not going to be unable to now.
The likely truth is, he was never that good. There was a system, or structure in Florida that somehow allowed him to flourish while other teams had to deal with the real threat of Barkov and other players. Huberdeau collected points in a perfectly catered situation for him. Suddenly when you make him a franchise player, he's not up to the task. He has likely never been a number one franchise player or the type of player that opposing teams had to prepare for. the Flames got duped into making him one, to catastrophic results.
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I think you’re right in saying that he probably was never as good as Treliving thought he was. IIRC, around the time the big contract was signed, there was a post (or several) from a Florida fan who was warning that Huberdeau really wasn’t as good as that 115 point season made him appear. The poster laid out a fair amount of detail backing up his assessment.