What to do with Huberdeau?

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If you want to blame anyone for the current state of the team, blame Treliving as he's the architect of letting Johnny walk for nothing, Tkachuk trade, Hubedeau contract, Monahan trade, Kadri signing, etc. This is the team he built.

Amazes me the high regard Treliving gets, even being the GM in the center of the universe, you look at his body of work, he was not a good GM. HE might be the hardest working guy out there, doesn't translate to doing a good job. I really thought he couldnt do a worse move than giving up the draft picks for a very average Hamonic, but he clearly did

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I don't think he can be sent to the AHL unless he agreed to waive, at least not while he has a full NMC. In a few years, it becomes an m-NMC, so maybe then.

Not even then. It just means there's a few teams that he can be traded to. Still no movement to the minors.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

This is an option for sure as it's not often that star players get out of funks by playing less. I just don't think there's a quick fix here. I do believe in the offseason they probably have to look at signing Duclair to see if that can spark him. Maybe also do a lot of research on what type of center they can find that meshes with his game. It's clearly a difficult situation as I can't recall a productive player like this that has regressed so much, so fast. I don't think anyone in the NHL could have predicted he would fall this far at only 30 years of age.

I think there is definitely a psychological component. If it gets to the point that there is nothing left to take away, it becomes hard to motivate with the stick at that point. It might be time to break out the carrot. Like taking away a kid's Nintendo when he doesn't do his homework, but he needs to have a Nintendo first.

It's been mentioned a lot lately, how it can be difficult for coaches these days to motivate players who already have the bag. The main tool they have is ice-time, but once you have used that, then what?

Not a direct comparison to Huberdeau, but I think back to the St. Louis story in Tampa. For the first 20 games or so, he was not doing much and his contributions were inconsequential. He was complaining about ice-time, but Torts wasn't hearing it, and St. Louis started dogging it. Then out of the blue, Torts through him into a top line roll, and St. Louis said there was no way he was ever going to let it get to the low point again.

Maybe it could work with Huberdeau. Give him back all the ice-time he lost, and maybe he does whatever he needs to, to never fall back again.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by UKflames

I know that anything outside of the rink is normally off limits to discuss but i'm afraid i'm going to go there. Mods if this isn't allowed feel free to erase but i think it's worth discussing.



Huberdeau was/is a top NHL player, a regular point per game player, and yet since his move to Calgary, and the signing of that big contract, he has been a shadow of himself. I'm wodering if there is a big chunk of contract regret going on here, maybe from him, but mostly from his family. Did $10 million dollars make everything unicorns and rainbows but once the dust settles the thought of being in Calgary for 7 more years (i'm not putting Calgary down, I love Calgary, just talking from the families perspective) when you were in the sunshine of Florida, suddenly things aren't so rosy.



We all know that if things aren't great at home that they can effect your day to day work and life, and I think that is what is happening here. A player of his quality should be able to find someone on this team to gel with, but despite trying 3-4 different centres, numerous wingers, he is just not working with anyone. People say the problem is in his head, well if he is getting grief at home that would certainly be in your head, regardless what you try to do to play better.


I might be completly out to lunch here and Huberdeau has just fallen off a cliff skill wise and can no longer keep up with the game.Then again I might not.

If you are referring to his domestic situation, I'm not sure if he has one here in Calgary. Every team photo where it's wives/girlfriends at a players Christmas or Halloweeen party etc. that has been on their IG, etc. shows Huberdeau alone.

[iloveicedhockey]

I don't think anyone would argue he's playing well but I imagine it's highly unusual for a player to drop off so considerably, especially over the duration of a long contract like this. Saying that I'm still being optimistic that he'll turn it around. Could be misplaced though.

He's also not "stealing" from the team; such a ridiculous take. He's getting paid what the team were willing to pay him. There are no performance requirements attached to the amount he getting paid so that risk is on the flames.

We're absolutely nowhere near being able to trade him or buy it out and those asking for that repeatedly are going to get pretty boring very fast. It's people's right to sh*t on him as much as they like, I guess, if that's how people want to support their team but so long as he's wearing the C and he still clearly GAF, then he'll have my support and I want him to do well.

[Flamesfan05]

Blah blah, huberdeau sucks, ok fine he sucks but so what?

Even the best players need good line mates. Johnny couldn’t perform without a GOOD Monahan and Tkachuk, McDavid with Drai, McKinnon with Rantenen, Bergeron had 2 good wingers

The only decent scorer on the Flames is Lindholm and I blame the problem more on Lindholm than Huberdeau

Conroy needs to get off his butt and get Huberdeau some real help or just sell everything and turn on tank mode

The wizard had destroyed the team so I don’t even want to blame Conroy

[UKflames]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

If you are referring to his domestic situation, I'm not sure if he has one here in Calgary. Every team photo where it's wives/girlfriends at a players Christmas or Halloweeen party etc. that has been on their IG, etc. shows Huberdeau alone.

Maybe having no family there is the problem, or are the family there but not happy about being there and not taking part. This could all play into the Huberdeau issues.

This is all speculation of course.

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Blah blah, huberdeau sucks, ok fine he sucks but so what?

Even the best players need good line mates. Johnny couldn’t perform without a GOOD Monahan and Tkachuk, McDavid with Drai, McKinnon with Rantenen, Bergeron had 2 good wingers

The only decent scorer on the Flames is Lindholm and I blame the problem more on Lindholm than Huberdeau

Conroy needs to get off his butt and get Huberdeau some real help or just sell everything and turn on tank mode

The wizard had destroyed the team so I don’t even want to blame Conroy

Zary seems to do ok with the same team, small sample size i know, but he is noticeable out there. more noticeable in 5 or 6 games than huberdeau has been in 90

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

If you are referring to his domestic situation, I'm not sure if he has one here in Calgary. Every team photo where it's wives/girlfriends at a players Christmas or Halloweeen party etc. that has been on their IG, etc. shows Huberdeau alone.

Maybe that's the problem. Management probably needs to start flying in models from Miami for Huby...

[Stanley]

This clearly all started when he got rid of his Lambo for a fkin F150.
Get the man his Lambo back!!

[Always Earned Never Given]

RDS always has a 60 minute condensed version of the game (no commercials and intermissions) for all Habs games here in Montreal.

So I checked it out and I mostly watched Huberdeau. He missed one pass, stick checked J. Anderson at the blue line to disrupt Habs O zone time, twice he was alone in front of his net (where were the D?) to cover, did not cheat as he was very responsible defensively and he had a few dishes but the players flubbed their shots (Shaggy).

Also after the game they had another show and in a segment they brought in Bob Hartley and asked him what he would do to get Huberdeau going. He said that there were two types of players. One's who need a kick in the a$$ to get going and others that need a pat in the back.

Thinks Huberdeau is the pat in the back type of guy.

He said that he would have played Huberdeau lots especially in Montreal. Compared him to an old car that to get it running like new you need to run it as much as possible.

Also that eat bread disallowed goal. Montreal touched the puck 5 times (twice they had possession with no pressure but made bad decisions)between the offside and the goal.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Always Earned Never Given

RDS always has a 60 minute condensed version of the game (no commercials and intermissions) for all Habs games here in Montreal.

So I checked it out and I mostly watched Huberdeau. He missed one pass, stick checked J. Anderson at the blue line to disrupt Habs O zone time, twice he was alone in front of his net (where were the D?) to cover, did not cheat as he was very responsible defensively and he had a few dishes but the players flubbed their shots (Shaggy).

Also after the game they had another show and in a segment they brought in Bob Hartley and asked him what he would do to get Huberdeau going. He said that there were two types of players. One's who need a kick in the a$$ to get going and others that need a pat in the back.

Thinks Huberdeau is the pat in the back type of guy.

He said that he would have played Huberdeau lots especially in Montreal. Compared him to an old car that to get it running like new you need to run it as much as possible.

Also that eat bread disallowed goal. Montreal touched the puck 5 times (twice they had possession with no pressure but made bad decisions)between the offside and the goal.

As much as I dislike Hartley, he's probably right on this one. And since Hartley played favorites a lot, he's no doubt telling the truth about what he would do.

[SuperMatt18]

One thing with Huberdeau I wonder is if he changed his training at all to play a heavier game once he came to Calgary.

Visually to me he looks bigger than he ever did in Florida...but also looks slower.

I'd love to know what his actual playing weight was in Florida, compared to his two seasons in Calgary.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Amazes me the high regard Treliving gets, even being the GM in the center of the universe, you look at his body of work, he was not a good GM. HE might be the hardest working guy out there, doesn't translate to doing a good job. I really thought he couldnt do a worse move than giving up the draft picks for a very average Hamonic, but he clearly did

I agree that it is quite odd the love this guy received while here and in many ways, still seems to get.

Many brutal UFA signings and a few nice trades. His drafting will probably go down as above average, but he was also a really a horrific cap manager. He also bungled several coaching hires and failed at finding this team a capable starting goalie for years.

Signing Kadri after he should have learned from the Neal contract is non-sensical in hindsight and really, missing the mark on a guy like Huberdeau so badly is equally as brutal when the team should have known full well what kind of player they were getting and what kind of fit with the existing system he would be.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Always Earned Never Given

RDS always has a 60 minute condensed version of the game (no commercials and intermissions) for all Habs games here in Montreal.

So I checked it out and I mostly watched Huberdeau. He missed one pass, stick checked J. Anderson at the blue line to disrupt Habs O zone time, twice he was alone in front of his net (where were the D?) to cover, did not cheat as he was very responsible defensively and he had a few dishes but the players flubbed their shots (Shaggy).

Also after the game they had another show and in a segment they brought in Bob Hartley and asked him what he would do to get Huberdeau going. He said that there were two types of players. One's who need a kick in the a$$ to get going and others that need a pat in the back.

Thinks Huberdeau is the pat in the back type of guy.

He said that he would have played Huberdeau lots especially in Montreal. Compared him to an old car that to get it running like new you need to run it as much as possible.

Also that eat bread disallowed goal. Montreal touched the puck 5 times (twice they had possession with no pressure but made bad decisions)between the offside and the goal.

this is what drives me crazy...just let the linesman make the calls...if it is 3 feet offside like that one in the playoffs the league can call down or something. There are about 50 missed calls a game.

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

One thing with Huberdeau I wonder is if he changed his training at all to play a heavier game once he came to Calgary.

Visually to me he looks bigger than he ever did in Florida...but also looks slower.

I'd love to know what his actual playing weight was in Florida, compared to his two seasons in Calgary.

Huby Huby Hippo

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Stanley

This clearly all started when he got rid of his Lambo for a fkin F150.
Get the man his Lambo back!!

[HighLifeMan]

This is probably the worst it will get. He actually started the season decently well, but the the past 10 games have been abysmal. Ride it out and keep playing him.

It's 1000% between the ears at the moment. Some good fortune is bound to happen and that's likely what it will take. You have a player who simply doesn't want the puck on his stick at the moment which is a stark difference from the player we acquired initially. That swagger is gone, but his talent isn't.

This situation sort of reminds of when Brooks Koepka thought he couldn't hang with the best in the world anymore. At the highest levels it's a mental battle more than anything.

[D as in David]

While it isn't great for the team's performance, having a player so completely fall off his game with that contract at those dollars and number of years remaining, is quite the epic narrative. I think I'll be better off being fascinated by watching from the perspective of having a front-line view of a rare and monumental collapse.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Huby Huby Hippo

To be clear I don't think it's fat.

I think he looks more muscular and bigger, which could still slow you down a fair bit.