Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
I still maintain that is was a good pick. Yakupov was the consensus #1 OA pick that year and was a beast in junior. I see his failure in the NHL more to do with poor player development and the Oilers falling into the trap of drafting a Russian who didn't want to go back to junior or play in the minors, so they rushed him. Both the player and the Oilers were to blame there. If they would have brought him up the right way, I think it would have been a different story with him.
I remember telling telling my Oiler fan friend that they should trade the pick as it was their third 1st OA in a row and they would be better off getting a known commodity rather than a risky Russian, keeping in mind that the KHL was really swinging for the fences at that time.
A less insecure team would have sent him back to Sarnia or let him stew in Russia until he was actually read for the NHL.
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Yeah if the Oilers had a properly run organization, with veteran players to bring a guy like him along and properly respect the game, and mainly, not having an executive who meddled with the players above the coaches and told all those top picks that the team rules and coaches rules didn't quite apply to them (thus why they didn't have trustworthy vets) because they needed to let their skill shine through, Yakupov would've been fine, even if he never went back to junior.
Besides that, he had Kruger for a year, then Lowe thought he was smarter than everyone else again and fired him to get Eakins the next...and less then two years later it was Todd Nelson for 20 games.
Nevermind all the other back room stuff that Lowe pulled. This was a team that didn't get Poolparty an interpreter or English lessons for 2 years.
Yakupov, Hall and RNH and Eberle had to figure out life in the NHL on their own as 19 and 20 year old kids because of the lack of proper organizational development (which bordered in developmental negligence) for top junior players.
Hell, who knows how Draisital would've fared in his development had McDavid not come along the next year. Dr Drai had 9 points in 37 games in his rookie year when he was thrown out to the lions like Hall and Yakupov were.