Quote:
Originally Posted by Niemo
To our beloved insiders: any legs to the ‘weak’ rumours of CGY and Isles talks of Pageau + Asset to us? Or Huberdeau trade talks?
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FWIW I haven't heard anything on either of these. With that said its been very quiet. I will ask specifically about Pageau, but I don't see a fit personally.
Huberdeau isn't going anywhere, at least not until some sort of resurgence and an 80+ point season at the very least. What is clear is both the player and the team are not happy with the production. I know he was getting blasted for his comments about the system etc, but he wasn't wrong.
He came from Florida who played as the most offensively aggressive team in the NHL. They played a very heavy east/west system where creativity and passing was key, which go figure fits very well into Jonathan's strengths. Just go back and watch his 110+ point season highlights, almost 90% of the offensive generation was east/west passing.
He came into Calgary and was forced into a more defensively focused system, focusing strictly on north/south aggression which removes the creativity and replaces it with high shot generation and hopefully rebounds while maintaining a strict focus on reduced chances.
Simply put, his game doesn't translate into that kind of system which is very evident. Unfortunately if the Flames continue to go down this road of north/south dump and chase then I don't see him getting back to his old ways, he needs to be allowed to generate those cross ice east/west puck movement and play way more open and aggressive offensively.
He didn't forget how to play hockey, I know we all like to dump on him because he's sucked here and there's no sugar coating it. But he's also not playing the type of hockey he's played his whole career. You have to let your offensive threats play to their strengths, which is why we saw the Jonny-Lindholm-Tkachuk line thrive the final year under Darryl because he let them play east /west and use the creativity.