Quote:
Originally Posted by AFireInside
I'm just not sure what anyone is expecting. He's a playmaker playing with players who aren't really goal scorers. He makes multiple nice passes every game to guys who aren't shooters.
He makes bad plays too but if his linemates were finishing more often people would ignore those mistakes like they are currently doing with Kadri.
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Just a quick reminder that the worst seasons of his career were the 4 years he played with Jagr and Barkov (plus the season and a half here in YYC). The best seasons his career were the one season he played mostly with Norquist and Wennberg, and the one season he played entirely with Bennett and Duclair.
That's why he looks better here with Backlund and Coleman than he does with Lindholm/Kadri/Mangiapane/Sharkie/etc. He's a complimentary perimeter player. He needs to play with a puckhound and a cleanup guy. Someone who will take care of getting the puck away from the other team and crash their way to the net, and someone else who will take care of depositing rebounds and backchecking.
The problem is that it's better when the puckhound is the center (Bennett) and the clean up is on the far opposite wing (Duclair)... and it also didn't hurt that both Bennett and Duclair are substantial upgrades offensively over Backlund and Coleman.