Development

[Darkon]

Seeing as it is the dog days of summer and the Lucic/Neal talk seems to have died down a bit, I figured I would ask for some help in understanding DEVELOPMENT.
I hear this so often "player A" wasn't developed properly, while "Player B" is finding success and was obviously developed properly! Well what does proper development look like?
I suppose this is really coming from looking at a player like Puljujarvi.
CP posters mostly say Puljujarvi is as dumb as a brick but could still be developed by another team because the Oilers suck at development.
Oiler fans seem, currently, to be a mixed bag of "Puljujarvi sucks and is a dumb hockey player, but the Oilers org completely screwed him over and failed to develop him properly" or "Puljujarvi is still awesome and the Oilers org and Puljujarvi's agent, completely screwed him and mismanaged and failed to develop him properly".
I guess I am asking those who are smarter than me and have higher hockey intellect and experience to please help me understand better this strange, seemingly inaccurate science of hockey development? How does a team properly develop from draft to contributing team member? and what are some of the steps/checkpoints along the way?

[SeanCharles]

- Keeping tabs on how they are developing physically (shape they are in, are they eating healthy)
- Sit down with them and run them through some video of areas in their game that they can improve
- provide them with any assistance they may need (for example bringing in translators for the Russian players at development camp or with Parsons provide him with mental health support)
- Send skills coaches to touch base with them on a regular basis and spend some time on the ice with them

It's basically just keeping an eye on how they are maturing, giving them the tools to be sucessful professional athletes, providing support if they have any issues to work on and maintaining a level of communication with them so they know you care about them.

[GranteedEV]

ice time ice time ice time.

If you're not giving a U23 player 17+ minutes a night, with players who can nudge them forward, in all situations you project them to play, you are playing them in the wrong league.

Of course the video sessions and coaching aspects are a no brainer. But if a player isn't playing, and with players who can cover their inevitible warts, it's all futile.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

ice time ice time ice time.

If you're not giving a U23 player 17+ minutes a night, with players who can nudge them forward, in all situations you project them to play, you are playing them in the wrong league.

Datsyuk was getting 13 minutes a night when he was 23. Sean Couturier saw 14 minutes a night when he was a teenager.

17 minutes is actually a huge amount for rookie forwards. B. Tkachuk got 16 minutes last year, significant more than his brother got in his rookie season. Art Ross winning Benn was getting 14 minutes as a rookie.

I'd hate to see how good these players would have been if they were developed properly...

Hayes, Marchand, Hoffman, Tkachuks, Benn, DeBrincat, Ennis, Nylander, Larkin, Dubois, Skinner, Aho, Sam Reinhart, Connor, and Marner all saw under 17 minutes in their rookie seasons recently.

[activeStick]

Nobody here knows the detailed workings of any team's philosophy around prospect development, so I personally don't buy into the notion when fans say that 'x team is bad at development, but y team is good'.

There's a lot of luck that goes into whether or not a prospect has success and it doesn't come down to only the drafting team's development program.

A common thing you'll hear about the Oilers is that they are poor at development because they rush their picks into the NHL immediately after being drafted. While I love hating the Oilers as much as the next guy, sometimes, prospects simply don't work out or reach their potential. Sam Bennett is an example of someone who saw zero time in the AHL and despite the staff believing he didn't need time there, it might seem like he did. Gaudreau, Monahan and Tkachuk are all examples however, of prospects that didn't need any time in the AHL and all did very well in their first NHL season.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

One thing that fans often under look or underrate is psychology.

Confidence is key in being able to perform in many different areas of life including sports.

Puljujarvi is an example of a player who was arguably rushed. When a player jumps to a higher level before they are ready they can struggle. As they struggle they lose confidence. As you lose confidence you stop trusting your skill.

Puljujarvi was widely known to have poor English heading into the draft. One area the Oilers were apparently incompetent in was helping Puljujarvi learn English. Knowing the language of your coach and teammates is quite obviously useful.

Here in Calgary we have Bennett as another example of a player who struggled and lost offensive confidence. Should he ever regain it we could have quite the player.

Sometimes good development is as simple as not rushing players. Letting them learn to dominate each level before moving on. If Bennett had spent a year dominating the minors he might not have ever lost confidence.

[Darkon]

So follow-up question - What percentage of a players development would you say is the "teams" responsibility? and how much is really on the player?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Darkon

So follow-up question - What percentage of a players development would you say is the "teams" responsibility? and how much is really on the player?

I’d say it’s more heavily on the player. They are the ones who have to put in the work in practise to improve, in the offseason to improve and gain strength. It’s not like a great development coach can polish a turd of a player into a gold nugget. But a player can fight his way up to the NHL through determination and hard work even despite playing in a system of a team not know for fantastic development.

Obviously it’s not 100% on the player.

I would view it this way. Organizations can put their youngsters in positions to succeed, excel, gain confidence and improve. Or they put them in situations where them struggling and losing confidence is likely. The Oilers did not put Puljujarvi in the best situation to succeed as they rushed him and didn’t teach him English.

On the other hand we have the example of Dube. The coaches here felt the 4th line was the place he had earned but they also knew that playing him in that role would likely only stunt his development and confidence. So it was a strong developmental decision to let Dube play half the year in the AHL, succeed, gain confidence. Now he’s more confident coming into this fall than he would’ve been had the Flames kept him as a 4th liner all year.