Honestly, it’s been quite disappointing to see how little Huberdeau has profited playing with Backlund and Coleman. At this point, I think the only person that can save Huberdeau is Danielle Fujita. Jonathan is going to have to do some serious work on his skating fundamentals and techniques.
Quite simply put, he needs to pick up his damn pace. It’s what Darryl was harping on him last season and it still rings true today. The opposition has picked up on it and their strategy to swarm Huberdeau and pressure him into turnovers is working.
I find that he struggles with even the most basic of hockey fundamentals like footwork, turning, crossovers, shuffling, edgework, accelerating, accepting passes, body positioning and etc. It’s almost like he’s so focused on just executing the basics that he doesn’t have enough time to focus on making actual plays which often result in panicky turnovers and less optimal plays.
I also don’t think his hands get talked about enough. It’s actually kind of shocking how bad Huberdeau’s hands can be which I know is a helluva thing to say about a guy who has the career highlight reel he has and the all time LW assist record. But in my opinion, it’s true, the puck fumbles on his stick lot, his passes wobble all the time, pucks constantly miss his stick and etc. Everything he does looks telegraphed and labored and he just doesn’t seem to have the deft touch that other elite playmakers have.
So all of these things I mentioned I believe combine to really hamper the pace of his game. I think it’s a good thing that it’s more so physical rather than his processor. I think his hockey sense, IQ and vision are more than quick enough to play at the NHL pace. It’s just his fundamentals that need work and I think if he can find a way to increase his efficiency then that should help elevate every other aspect of his game resulting in more positive plays and less panicky decisions/turnovers and etc.
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