Hunter Gathers
The Crown
I think this was a classic case of an organization not understanding the player they drafted. He was extremely young, in a non french speaking environment and needed time to make ALL of those adjustments. I think Atlanta management layed a big egg with making a quick decision on this player. How you discard a 20 year old 1st round pick 3-4 months into his 1st pro season is amazing. The little I saw of him he impressed the hell out of me. This was an outright steal for Sather & Co. Anytime you can ship out a 3rd-4th line UFA for a 1st round pick is gold. It has been written in NY that if the NYRs did not make the trade to move up that year he was the player they were going to select.
Agreed. From the reports we heard of him from scouring the net, he was never able to make the adjustment but he never really had people around him to help him. Sort of left by the wayside to figure it all out himself.
Not only not understanding him, but a really bad job by the minor league team in handling him as well.