Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
Maybe he's come to grips with the idea what being a 35 goal and 60 point player helps this team win more than him trying to get 60 assists. This team lacks goal scorers and he's the only guy who's hit 30 more than once.
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I think he's a guy whose East-West, pass first style worked great on the Panthers for the whole first half of his career, but it stopped being effective the moment he got here thanks to a combination of the type of system we have to play and the kinds of teams we play on a regular basis.
I saw a player who always had the effort there, but couldn't understand why what worked for so long didn't anymore. This year he approached it from the very beginning as needing to reinvent his game, and he's done that quite well. Steinberg was talking about how Huberdeau worked out like a maniac all summer and especially on getting faster, knowing he was going to try playing more of a power forward, North-South, drive the net style of game, instead of the pure playmaker he was in years past. Also his desire to be a complete two-way player for the first time in his career which I wouldn't have expected in a million years, but he's done quite well so far.
This is all still a work in progress for Huberdeau, but I'm shocked how well he's played this year and I can live with his contract with him working as hard as he has to change his game. I can't even think of another finesse playmaker who has completely reinvented their game in this manner. He even has a shoot first mentality which is jarring as well.