Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteMoss
I think you have to ignore his salary in both directions when making a decision. You don't give him 1st line minutes and PP1 time because he makes $10.5M and you also don't scratch him and play Walker Duehr because he's not living up to his contract.
Even at his reduced performance - its impossible to find 7/8 forwards on this team who should be on the PP over him.
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I didn't reference his salary in my post, I mentioned his play. Ice time should be earned, currently he is not and has not for over 100 games now earned top tier minutes, or PP time.
I get all the reasons they have tried to get him going, nothing seems to work, he has no on ice chemistry with anyone on this team, outside of Pelletier that I have seen. I don't think this organization should be going out and spending assets to get someone that "may" make him better, even if that player has played well with him in the past. If in the process of trading away UFA's you can get that piece back then ok. Specifically targeting it and giving away anything more then a 7th round pick is too much.
I also never said scratch him, I said reduce his minutes. start by playing him 10-12 minutes, re-enforce the good things he does in that 10-12 minutes. If/when he plays better that 10-12 minutes can increase. I guess if that 10-12 minutes doesn't go well you reduce further and further eventually scratching.
If this org is moving towards a retool/rebuild, I don't actually think Huberdeau's contract will be a hinderance for a few years at least, So I am not really concerned about that.
I will say on the money front, I believe anyone that is making 10.5 mil should be making the players around him better. Not having to cycle through the whole organization to find 1 person with Chemistry. Then have that organization looking to spend assets to bring in someone else I may have chemistry with is just crazy talk.
I want him to play better, I want to enjoy watching him play, I want to see him win with the Flames. His play has just convinced me that he is closer to a 2 Million dollar player then a 10 million dollar player. If he manages to turn it down, I will be happy, although I feel like the odds of that are the same as me winning the lottery.