What to do with Huberdeau?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Huberdeau set up ~3 grade A chances last night (B+ at worst). No one is finishing. He's playing significantly better the last few games than earlier in the month, the points just aren't coming.

Yep, this is perfect. Sharangovich is the exact type of player that Huberdeau excels with, and Huberdeau's metric and eye test show he's playing well and getting chances.

He surprises with sneaky passes, problem is it's our own players that get surprised the most.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL

You know expectations and goalposts for Huberdeau have moved dramatically when you're now considering a 0-point game with a few scoring chance set-ups a great success.

Can you imagine if/when he scores another goal? The players will all be crying in celebration like the last one.

[Goriders]

Can anyone think of comparable contract situations in sports. Where a teams highest paid player preformed so poorly.

I guess Gaudreau would be one from the NHL. Guessing there would be pitchers in baseball or QBs in the NFL.

But I doubt there would be many this extreme

[AustinL_NHL]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Can you imagine if/when he scores another goal? The players will all be crying in celebration like the last one.

The fans at the Dome should give him a golf clap next time he scores at home

[Flamesfan05]

Originally Posted by MissTeeks

10 and 88 switched at practice today.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1740431593431593445

Thank you

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL

The fans at the Dome should give him a golf clap next time he scores at home

Hahahahahaah, wouldn't that be sooooooooooo funny. OMG, lol!

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL

The fans at the Dome should give him a golf clap next time he scores at home

Maybe we need one of those "Did Scott Gomez score?" counters.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL

You know expectations and goalposts for Huberdeau have moved dramatically when you're now considering a 0-point game with a few scoring chance set-ups a great success.

Who called it a great success?

I don't think anyone is happy with his performance. He's an offense first player who has put up a bagel for an entire month. That's awful.

But certainly you can also see where he's creating and there's just no finish.

Bingo's stats on the gap between expected and actual goals with him on the ice is telling.

No one is happy. But that doesn't mean that we can't look deeper at what's happening.

Again has anyone called it a great success? If not - then why color the argument that way?

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Can anyone think of comparable contract situations in sports. Where a teams highest paid player preformed so poorly.

I guess Gaudreau would be one from the NHL. Guessing there would be pitchers in baseball or QBs in the NFL.

But I doubt there would be many this extreme

There's some really bad contracts in the NBA.
Davis Bertans is making $17M per season and averaging <4 PPG.

That's just one example. The NBA has some TERRIBLE contracts.

[Spurs]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Can anyone think of comparable contract situations in sports. Where a teams highest paid player preformed so poorly.

I guess Gaudreau would be one from the NHL. Guessing there would be pitchers in baseball or QBs in the NFL.

But I doubt there would be many this extreme

Deshaun Watson

Although he has some off field issues that hubredeau doesn't have.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Huberdeau set up ~3 grade A chances last night (B+ at worst). No one is finishing. He's playing significantly better the last few games than earlier in the month, the points just aren't coming.

Huberdeau has been setting up great chances since he got here. No one is ever there. It's like they don't practice taking passes from Huberdeau at all. They bring in a great offensive piece on a huge contract and then don't get the team to play around that piece.

BTW I'm not giving Huberdeau a pass here either. He's also making a bunch of awful passes to no one.

[Jaydee]

5 years ago today Dallas' owner blasted Benn and Seguin in the media. Wish our owner had the balls to do that to Huberdeauc

[Ferarri]

Originally Posted by blankall

Huberdeau has been setting up great chances since he got here. No one is ever there. It's like they don't practice taking passes from Huberdeau at all. They bring in a great offensive piece on a huge contract and then don't get the team to play around that piece.

BTW I'm not giving Huberdeau a pass here either. He's also making a bunch of awful passes to no one.

This is such a bunch of bs. Don’t practice taking passes from him…right. Great offensive piece who’s been utterly useless? This argument that he’s so good but others fail around him needs to die.

[FlamesAddiction]

Most of Huberdeau's passes get picked off or hit opposing players in traffic. You could have 1987 Wayne Gretzky on the ice and it wouldn't matter if the puck isn't reaching him.

It's up to Huberdeau to find guys on the ice.

[monkeyman]

Perhaps this was already discussed in the GDT yesterday, but why didn't Huska throw Huberdeau out with Zary and Kadri after that one dynamic shift? Zary has to be one of the most creative, intelligent players on this team and he and Huberdeau seemed to click. I think Pospisil would complement the Backlund line as well so it seemed like a miss by the coach.

[Badgers Nose]

What to do with Huby?

Buy a #10 jersey. Put on an happy face. Accept the situation, grin and bear it.

The problem is not line mates. It’s 100% between Huby’s ears.

[Hack&Lube]

Maybe Pelletier can come back and be our savior.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

What to do with Huby?

Buy a #10 jersey. Put on an happy face. Accept the situation, grin and bear it.

The problem is not line mates. It’s 100% between Huby’s ears.

It's a lot of the issue I'm sure. I also think he's had many setups not converted. But at the end of the day, your answer is the right one - it has to be. There's no magical solution and for sure the silly "terminate his cintract" posts are just nonsense.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Well, baby steps. He made a number of great passes last game. I also didn't notice him being a turnover machine last night either. That's two positive steps forward.


If you can trade him for anything at all, you trade him. Until then, you just hope for more steps forward at this point than steps backward. I still think the next 'window' in which we can hope for a big change out of Huberdeau's game is after a series of trades happen, this team is out of the playoff picture completely, and Huberdeau gets two brand new linemates plus whatever flexibility in the system Huska can dream up to try and get him productive again. For now, I just see Backlund and Coleman sheltering him for now, and in the meantime, Huberdeau can hopefully continue to rebuild his game.


I certainly saw positive things from him last night without as many negatives. I won't expect a positive game every night - at least not right away - but hopefully these positive nights happen more often than the negative ones. That's how he will start moving forward again.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by blankall

I'd say if anything we've seen the return of the offensive specialist. The kind of player that is allowed to focus on what they do best, scoring, and neglect other parts of their game. There are plenty of, often undersized, gifted offensive players getting 70%+ O zone starts, who likely can barely identify their own defensive zone.

There are also more than just run and gun and two way coaching styles available. Successful teams have good offensive plays and play to their players strengths. That can mean any number of styles: slowing down the game, cycling, fast breaks, bombs from the slot, etc... At the end of the day you do need some kind of game plan and playmaking ability.

The Flames seem to have no game plan. It's like they just don't practice certain basic offensive plays. The trouble goes way beyond Huberdeau. You don't get one of the all time worst power plays because just one player isn't performing. That signifies you have zero upper end offensive ability and playmaking.

The players that are succeeding, Coleman, the Kadri line, Sharangovich, are doing so by working hard and slamming pucks at the net. That's great and all, but you need that plus the solid offensive plays to win.

It's not just Huberdeau that's underperforming. Lindholm and Mangiapane suck too. Basically anyone that relies on anything beyond simple jam to get points is going to suck on this team. Sharangovich may be an exception, but his game is all about and elite shot, not any kind of playmaking.

No, I don’t agree with the idea of the offensive specialist, to me that’s a PP specialist. If you want to play in today’s game, you have to be effective at even strength, which means you can’t be a liability out there like a Nail Yakupov.

In terms of style of play, yes you’re right, there are different styles available. But from what I saw from him in Florida, Huberdeau excelled specifically when the games opened up which also requires the other team to open themselves up as well. Not a lot of teams are willing to do that as often these days because it leaves themselves vulnerable for a counter attack. So that means games will naturally be tighter checking, So you’ll have to be able to make plays under duress, you have to able to read and react and make quick plays.

That’s where Huberdeau has gotten into trouble IMO, when he’s under duress, he tends to rush and make poor decisions. You’ll see him revert back to his Florida days from time to time making the odd spinning pass, but it just ends up being intercepted because tight checking games just aren’t as wide open. He has to be able to stay composed, read and react, take what the defense gives you and make the right play instead of forcing difficult passes through sticks and bodies just because it’s easier. Sometimes it might also involve taking a hit to the make the play and that might be something he needs to incorporate more often.

I also wouldn’t say that those guys you mentioned are just having success by just slamming pucks at the night. That’s not really fair for guys like Zary and Sharangovich who are younger players having to adjust to new situations or even a new league and yet are thriving. Why is it that a rookie like Zary able to thrive in this situation/system while a seasoned veteran like Huberdeau cannot?

It’s also not fair because most of these players thrived under the previous coaching staff and system that won their division the season prior. Almost 90% of that 50 win team was brought back and yet it was Huberdeau who ended up sticking out like a sore thumb all of last season.

So many posters here were 100% convinced that Darryl was the root cause to Huberdeau’s problems. With Darryl and Muller gone, the same problems persist despite a new coach and new systems. Explain to me how Huberdeau is doing even worse this season with his kryptonite gone? Explain to me how he gets benched in the 3rd and the team comes back to win the game without him?

I just don’t understand how the blame can continue to circulate everyone else that’s around him when the answer is so obvious at this point. I’ll also say this which won’t be popular, but everyone on this team works their tails off to help this team. The constant blame his linemates and coaching staff schtick isn’t going to help Huberdeau’s current standing in that dressing room. I don’t know if the players or team staff read these comments or not, but all it takes is one connected friend, one family member, one spouse and if it’s being relayed back to me that I’m the one that can’t handle a simple pass, can’t finish, have no offensive creativity and etc. I would start to sour on that $10M + teammate who out earns me by a long shot and sits 11th in team scoring. So I think people should cool it with the blame everyone else schtick before #10 is alienated by everyone in that locker room.