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Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent
I'll come back to accept your apologies when he turns out to be a player for us.
One could point out that the knocks are as flimsy as the point production given the sample size in the league.
People weren't nearly as critical on more highly touted prospects for being raw/unpolished in their first handful of games and gave much less scrutiny when they did show early production. Production is production, and I remember distinctly that he did more to earn his points on a couple of those plays than simply connect a pass.
The reason why I gave Huska flak at the time is because at the time we were hurting for offense (which improved down the stretch) and Kerins and Pelletier looked to have chemistry, but then the team immediately took both off the roster and the offense predictably dried up for a period of time after that.
Anyways, he was likely given notes and hopefully is getting the skating coaching he needs to close the remaining gap to becoming a regular player here. We'll see what happens.
But Kerins has been a late bloomer at a couple of levels now and found his way in the end so I wouldn't be surprised if it happens here as well. Not all players that make it have the same trajectories.
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How much did you watch him in the AHL?
People were also up in arms about Phillips not getting a proper opportunity, but if you watched him in the AHL you saw all the shortcomings that would stop him from succeeding in the NHL on full display. Wolf was the opposite.
Point production is a product of dozens of factors that happen on the ice. Things like speed, coverage, shot quality, etc, are a product of one factor: Kerin’s ability. Not sure how those things are equally flimsy.
Nobody is writing him off, but I’d maybe have watched him in the AHL first before penciling him in as a 60+ point forward after 5 NHL games. None of his shortcomings were things that suddenly appeared in the NHL. It was the same with Phillips, and yet too many were convinced the Flames were doing him dirty.
Doesn’t mean he can’t come into camp having addressed those issues. But let’s not pretend he didn’t have a ton of work to do.