Player Discussion Leon "Dr Drai" Draisaitl: The Next Episode

[CupofOil]

Nobody on the team was scoring in a few games after Xmas but its Drais fault while he was saddled with wingers like Strome and Khaira and the other top centers had better wingers to work with.

If drai is more inconsistent than Nuge how come he's produced in more games (even though he's played 4 less) and rarely goes long at all without getting on the board. Plus obviously that his per game production is much higher than Nuge, even in Nuges comeback year. Last year this convo isn't even happening.

I don't blame Drai for the PP and neither do you really. You're saying that in the moment. I think we both know the problem with the PP and he's wearing a suit on the bench.

Khaira has 8 goals. He scores goals when he's wide open. Last night he got the goal because Drai makes a squeeze at the point to keep the puck in, moves it to Pulju and theres a lot of open ice to work with at that point. The play doesn't occur, and the puck is going the other way if Drai doesn't make that play. But the same Khaira had gone 9 games without scoring a goal before that. He's sure not ready to replace Maroons production. Nor could you put Khaira on the topline. That isn't even feasible. He wouldn't have the stamina to play 5 games in a row up top.

The bolded applies to Maroon moreso than anybody, how many tap in goals has he had over the last 3 seasons? When was the last time Maroon scored a top shelf goal like the one Khaira did last game?
With that said, I'm a fan of Maroon but I'm just saying that none of the wingers can score unless it's either gifts from their skilled linemate or a garbage goal in front of the net, this isn't exclusive to Khaira.

Like Maroon, I think Khaira has some underrated skill but none of these guys can really create on their own or snipe pucks so I think all the centers are somewhat saddled with lower skilled wingers outside of Puljujarvi who is still raw in a lot of respects and he has played with all 3 centers at some point or another so it's hard to pinpoint which center has had more winger help, it's been a pretty equal winger distribution when the 3 centers were split.

 

[nabob]

Nuge gets injured and all of a sudden the usual suspects pull out their pitchforks. Pretty cowardly.

It's possible to support one player without putting down another, especially since they both play on the team you cheer for.

That said happy to see Drai looks over whatever was bugging him before the break, he definitely had that jump back in his game against the Canucks that had been missing for the last month or so. Also great to see how well that line worked together, all three of them create and demand a lot of space out there.

 

[Todd from Leduc]

Once Drai stopped hitting people's fists with his face he turned back into the ol Drai from the playoffs.

 

[Spawn]

McDavid really didn't look for Jesse much in a shooting position which IMO was kind of frustrating. It'll be interesting to see how the Drai/Pulju combo does against better teams and teams that are dialed in instead of coming off of a lengthy break.

This is completely an aside to the discussion, but man this kind of sentence bugs me lol. We've got the best player in the world, one of the most dynamic even strength puck distributors the league has seen in years in McDavid. But somehow it's the suggestion that he's the one who is looking off Puljujarvi when they were playing together and for some reason refused to get him the puck when Jesse was in a shooting position.

Seriously... what's more likely: One of the best players in the world (someone who passes to a fault at times) looking off their winger for whatever unknown reason; or a 19 year old kid wasn't getting into the right spots to get that shot off.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The bolded applies to Maroon moreso than anybody, how many tap in goals has he had over the last 3 seasons? When was the last time Maroon scored a top shelf goal like the one Khaira did last game?
With that said, I'm a fan of Maroon but I'm just saying that none of the wingers can score unless it's either gifts from their skilled linemate or a garbage goal in front of the net, this isn't exclusive to Khaira.

Like Maroon, I think Khaira has some underrated skill but none of these guys can really create on their own or snipe pucks so I think all the centers are somewhat saddled with lower skilled wingers outside of Puljujarvi who is still raw in a lot of respects and he has played with all 3 centers at some point or another so it's hard to pinpoint which center has had more winger help, it's been a pretty equal winger distribution when the 3 centers were split.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this statement is or if you've given it enough thought. The goal in hockey is to score goals. Maroon does that, consistently as anybody on the team, and they don't always ask how.

The DIFFERENCE is Maroon thinks the game much better, consistently, than anybody but Draisaitl that has played with McD. That Maroon can read so well off McD is what makes him a very good addition to that line. We don't NEED Maroon to run the offence. We have McD and Drai and he plays well with either.

Look, seriously, could anybody even imagine Khaira at this point playing a regular stint with McD? He would blow 5 scoring opportunities in a row like he commonly does with Drai and the forks would be out already. With Khaira what you have is a player trying to put together some kind of finished product. He's not nearly there. Hopefully he does the things consistently to get to be more effective but Maroon IS that finished product. If Khaira did everything possible to be the best player he could be he would only approach what we already have in Maroon.

To wit, here are the difficulties thus far with Khaira's game.

1)Stamina to carry his big body at the pace required and the 200 ft game required. At this point this is a limited minutes player. Start giving him too much and any extra shifts you are giving him are not high energy shifts. Theres a common fallback with him where he doesn't hit, doesn't use his body and at times caught watching the play.

2)Anticipation. Partly covered above. As much as Khaira occasionally gets it and heads to the right area in seeing a play develop theres lots of times where he doesn't anticipate right. Where say Draisaitl is expecting he will do one thing and he does another. He's working on this but I think he has some problems with recognizing in the moment opportunity. Some of this could just become rote, like if drai has the puck work yourself to the net, have your stick ready for a tap in (something Maroon does very well)

3)Experience. Simple. In order to have Khaira get to the level we would want him to takes years of NHL experience. Yet what I almost always see from this team in regards to middle of the road prospects is they spend 3 yrs developing a player only to get rid of them and then its starting over again. Around the league countless depth players playing valuable roles that the Oilers essentially raised for some other team. So that a team like the Oilers needs to identify from the start whether Khaira is good enough, or has enough value and either develop that player or decide that they require better.. This is no knock on Khaira specifically, but the top centers on this club are not well served in this particular development process. Because we are on MCD time clock now. Thus Maroon making so much more sense for this team than waiting for Khaira to get it.

Now finally, and sorry for the long post, my knock is not with Khaira, its with an org that is not setting the winger table NOW and in fact has bared that cupboard. So that we need over players heads results from players we are trying to develop. I think we're trying to develop too many players simultaneously, and also a lot of the successful teams in the league opt instead for finished products like Neal, Perron etc. Ironically Perron would be very good here right now.

 

[oXo Cube]

Nuge gets injured and all of a sudden the usual suspects pull out their pitchforks. Pretty cowardly.

It's possible to support one player without putting down another, especially since they both play on the team you cheer for.

That said happy to see Drai looks over whatever was bugging him before the break, he definitely had that jump back in his game against the Canucks that had been missing for the last month or so. Also great to see how well that line worked together, all three of them create and demand a lot of space out there.

There really hasn't been a lot of RNH hate this season, and that of course is for good reason even if he was cold leading up to the injury.

There has been a LOT of Draisaitl hate this season, and that's asinine because he is 3 times the player RNH is so it's not surprising that a fair number of posters would draw a line in the sand on that point.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'm going to bow out here because I really like Drai and don't want to come across as bashing him. I'll leave with my final point being that I think that he can be even better than he has been so far this season and I hope to see that from him going forward.

heh, its all good, I had already bowed out and gone to bed.

 

[Drivesaitl]

This is completely an aside to the discussion, but man this kind of sentence bugs me lol. We've got the best player in the world, one of the most dynamic even strength puck distributors the league has seen in years in McDavid. But somehow it's the suggestion that he's the one who is looking off Puljujarvi when they were playing together and for some reason refused to get him the puck when Jesse was in a shooting position.

Seriously... what's more likely: One of the best players in the world (someone who passes to a fault at times) looking off their winger for whatever unknown reason; or a 19 year old kid wasn't getting into the right spots to get that shot off.

Yep. The problem I've seen as far as Pulju is he's still putting it together, still figuring out where to be, to anticipate and be there for where the play is going to be, not where it is now. It takes time. Also Pulju is somewhat clumsy. He has a little bit of the do 3 things at once that we've seen before here. You can literally spot him trying to figure out which way to go. At times he's an offside generating demon. At other times it syncs, he's reading instinctually, and its all happening. But this player can still go 8 games in a row with not much happening. I like the player, but we need more consistency from him.

It certainly isn't McDavid's fault Pulju is not always reading plays. He does sometimes.

 

[Spawn]

Yep. The problem I've seen as far as Pulju is he's still putting it together, still figuring out where to be, to anticipate and be there for where the play is going to be, not where it is now. It takes time. Also Pulju is somewhat clumsy. He has a little bit of the do 3 things at once that we've seen before here. You can literally spot him trying to figure out which way to go. At times he's an offside generating demon. At other times it syncs, he's reading instinctually, and its all happening. But this player can still go 8 games in a row with not much happening. I like the player, but we need more consistency from him.

It certainly isn't McDavid's fault Pulju is not always reading plays. He does sometimes.

It’s not even meant as a criticism to pulju either. I think it can probably be difficult to play with a guy like McDavid who does everything at such an accelerated pace that if you aren’t constantly reading the play and ready the play is going to pass you by. (It’s incidentally why I think maroon should be a priority to keep.) But it’s certainly not a case of McDavid looking off him.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Nuge gets injured and all of a sudden the usual suspects pull out their pitchforks. Pretty cowardly.

It's possible to support one player without putting down another, especially since they both play on the team you cheer for.

That said happy to see Drai looks over whatever was bugging him before the break, he definitely had that jump back in his game against the Canucks that had been missing for the last month or so. Also great to see how well that line worked together, all three of them create and demand a lot of space out there.

Its this kind of comment that probably garners response. Either you simply aren't aware of the results, haven't even looked it up, or you are attempting to say stuff like this as pretend truths. Drai certainly hasn't had jump missing for a month. Plus I'm not sure what you are factoring in there or whether its a convenient point to make given the team has recently had a week off and also had the Xmas break.

In anycase there appears to be a suggestion there, entirely inaccurate, that Drai had lacked jump for a month. Maybe go back to the games and see. Interestingly in the month that you think Drai lacked jump he had 4G 9A 13pts in 12GP. So that your perception does not necessarily match the results that actually occurred. I find this a lot on this board that people make comments on Drai needing to find his game while he's on. Not you, but in one instance not long ago I had to remind people that Drai had 10pts in last 6GP and was certainly not off his game or "doing nothing" as the posters suggested. For some reason Drais actually accomplishments tend not to get noted in this board. Pulju scores the first goal in 9 games and he's god and 2 pages of comments on it on the GDT. Drais scores and theres maybe 3 posts. you hardly even know it happened from GDT.. Drai scores and its "well about time"...

ps I'm not going to respond to your other comment because it serves no purpose. Anybody here is allowed to speak about any players. If you disagree with something stated just clarify it.

 

[Drivesaitl]

It’s not even meant as a criticism to pulju either. I think it can probably be difficult to play with a guy like McDavid who does everything at such an accelerated pace that if you aren’t constantly reading the play and ready the play is going to pass you by. (It’s incidentally why I think maroon should be a priority to keep.) But it’s certainly not a case of McDavid looking off him.

The thing is its hard for anybody to play with McD and not feel a little like you are shorting the line. This has obviously impacted even Eberle and Lucic. its not easy to play with McD because bright spot lights are on. Eberle even voiced it. You miss chances and you feel like you're screwing up. But once that goes its hard to get the confidence back.

This is the funny thing I have trouble comprehending. Maroon works well with McD and the commentary tends to be its only because of McD. But that Lucic or Eberle struggle in the same assignment should indicate that Maroon is doing something special there where others have struggled. That he's a good piece moving forward.

I can't see teams lining up to pay over 4M for Maroon. I think around the league a lot of teams would like him, but not necessarily on first line. So in that way Maroon wouldn't be worth 4M to another team because they wouldn't be getting the most out of him. In the McD configuration we are getting the most out of Maroon.

 

[GameChanger]

It’s not even meant as a criticism to pulju either. I think it can probably be difficult to play with a guy like McDavid who does everything at such an accelerated pace that if you aren’t constantly reading the play and ready the play is going to pass you by. (It’s incidentally why I think maroon should be a priority to keep.) But it’s certainly not a case of McDavid looking off him.

Yes, hopefully one day Pulju will be playing his best hockey consistently. I don't mean to downplay Drai (who I think is a terrific player at his best) but it's fair to remember he's also had some tougher times on McDavid's line this year and on the other hand Jesse had a strech of good games, too.

I have to be careful with my words, but sometimes I've felt a part of the problem in finding suitable wingers for McDavid has been at least partly in himself. As we know he's a world class player, but he's had some not that good games, too, and he does have some areas where he can improve. And that's a good thing actually, as we're not even close to seeing his (or Pulju's or Drai's) limits.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Yes, hopefully one day Pulju will be playing his best hockey consistently. I don't mean to downplay Drai (who I think is a terrific player at his best) but it's fair to remember he's also had some tougher times on McDavid's line this year and on the other hand Jesse had a strech of good games, too.

I have to be careful with my words, but sometimes I've felt a part of the problem in finding suitable wingers for McDavid has been at least partly in himself. As we know he's a world class player, but he's had some not that good games, too, and he does have some areas where he can improve. And that's a good thing actually, as we're not even close to seeing his (or Pulju's or Drai's) limits.

McD in time needs to diversify his game. To change it up. To stop and go, to use his edges to create separation. He has all these gifts. But for some reason the NHL game has conditioned him to think that blazing speed around the wing is his bread and butter. He's trying to beat people wide with speed so often, instead of cutting in, or stopping, and creating separation and waiting for a play to develop. It could be because where the Oilers are at this year, and the pressure McD feels, but he's sometimes guilty of impatience and trying to make a play too quickly. Drai does this too with throw away passes some of which are poor percentage but some of which work.

These are all young players with elite skill that will get it. But it takes time for them to find more things working in the NHL game. Drai pulled a full Malkin fake just the other night. Moved in, moved out, in one instant turned a nothing play into an open shot and almost scored. Things like that, players learn can work at this stage. They have the skills to change it up. Players can bit a bit superstitious about what has worked and keep going to that well.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

This is completely an aside to the discussion, but man this kind of sentence bugs me lol. We've got the best player in the world, one of the most dynamic even strength puck distributors the league has seen in years in McDavid. But somehow it's the suggestion that he's the one who is looking off Puljujarvi when they were playing together and for some reason refused to get him the puck when Jesse was in a shooting position.

Seriously... what's more likely: One of the best players in the world (someone who passes to a fault at times) looking off their winger for whatever unknown reason; or a 19 year old kid wasn't getting into the right spots to get that shot off.

I think that it was a little bit of both tbh. There were a number of times that I saw Jesse somewhat open and instead Connor got the puck to old reliable Looch.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

McD in time needs to diversify his game. To change it up. To stop and go, to use his edges to create separation. He has all these gifts. But for some reason the NHL game has conditioned him to think that blazing speed around the wing is his bread and butter. He's trying to beat people wide with speed so often, instead of cutting in, or stopping, and creating separation and waiting for a play to develop. It could be because where the Oilers are at this year, and the pressure McD feels, but he's sometimes guilty of impatience and trying to make a play too quickly. Drai does this too with throw away passes some of which are poor percentage but some of which work.

These are all young players with elite skill that will get it. But it takes time for them to find more things working in the NHL game. Drai pulled a full Malkin fake just the other night. Moved in, moved out, in one instant turned a nothing play into an open shot and almost scored. Things like that, players learn can work at this stage. They have the skills to change it up. Players can bit a bit superstitious about what has worked and keep going to that well.

That was a beauty play. One day I hope that Connor diversifies his game a bit because he would be unstoppable.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I think that it was a little bit of both tbh. There were a number of times that I saw Jesse somewhat open and instead Connor got the puck to old reliable Looch.

I know this wasn't in response to me but whats your take on Lucic presently. He really seems to be struggling out there at times. Not sure if its pain or what it is. I know with his medical condition his back can be contorted more or less and I'm wondering how much this is bothering him. 9 goals and really snakebit considering the players he's played with and the PP usage. He started out good, had a good stint before Xmas, but he's struggled a lot too.

I really wish he would just have his blade in set position for tip ins. His reaction time isn't fast enough for the McD or Drai passes he gets. It helps if you have the blade set and helps the passer too. Lucic is missing the one timer tip ins a lot.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I know this wasn't in response to me but whats your take on Lucic presently. He really seems to be struggling out there at times. Not sure if its pain or what it is. I know with his medical condition his back can be contorted more or less and I'm wondering how much this is bothering him. 9 goals and really snakebit considering the players he's played with and the PP usage. He started out good, had a good stint before Xmas, but he's struggled a lot too.

I really wish he would just have his blade in set position for tip ins. His reaction time isn't fast enough for the McD or Drai passes he gets. It helps if you have the blade set and helps the passer too. Lucic is missing the one timer tip ins a lot.

I see much of the same that you are seeing. Something is off with him right now. I don't recall the last time that I felt that he had a good game by his standards. I hope that Drai and Puljujarvi can drag him back into playing well if they continue to click.

 

[Drivesaitl]

That was a beauty play. One day I hope that Connor diversifies his game a bit because he would be unstoppable.

Yep. McD has the best edges in the business. Can literally stop on a dime. But its almost as if he forgets to use that to create separation. His mobility is great in any direction, has excellent first stride acceleration and can do Gretzky if he likes. But he's preferred being a dragster. I think even for McGod its confidence in doing other things takes a bit of time. So that he's using the things that have worked a lot. But hes' being scouted and so at some point needs to change it up.

I do believe he's unstoppable as any player and will be if he isn't already.

 

[CupofOil]

I'm not sure what the purpose of this statement is or if you've given it enough thought. The goal in hockey is to score goals. Maroon does that, consistently as anybody on the team, and they don't always ask how.

The DIFFERENCE is Maroon thinks the game much better, consistently, than anybody but Draisaitl that has played with McD. That Maroon can read so well off McD is what makes him a very good addition to that line. We don't NEED Maroon to run the offence. We have McD and Drai and he plays well with either.

Look, seriously, could anybody even imagine Khaira at this point playing a regular stint with McD? He would blow 5 scoring opportunities in a row like he commonly does with Drai and the forks would be out already. With Khaira what you have is a player trying to put together some kind of finished product. He's not nearly there. Hopefully he does the things consistently to get to be more effective but Maroon IS that finished product. If Khaira did everything possible to be the best player he could be he would only approach what we already have in Maroon.

To wit, here are the difficulties thus far with Khaira's game.

1)Stamina to carry his big body at the pace required and the 200 ft game required. At this point this is a limited minutes player. Start giving him too much and any extra shifts you are giving him are not high energy shifts. Theres a common fallback with him where he doesn't hit, doesn't use his body and at times caught watching the play.

2)Anticipation. Partly covered above. As much as Khaira occasionally gets it and heads to the right area in seeing a play develop theres lots of times where he doesn't anticipate right. Where say Draisaitl is expecting he will do one thing and he does another. He's working on this but I think he has some problems with recognizing in the moment opportunity. Some of this could just become rote, like if drai has the puck work yourself to the net, have your stick ready for a tap in (something Maroon does very well)

3)Experience. Simple. In order to have Khaira get to the level we would want him to takes years of NHL experience. Yet what I almost always see from this team in regards to middle of the road prospects is they spend 3 yrs developing a player only to get rid of them and then its starting over again. Around the league countless depth players playing valuable roles that the Oilers essentially raised for some other team. So that a team like the Oilers needs to identify from the start whether Khaira is good enough, or has enough value and either develop that player or decide that they require better.. This is no knock on Khaira specifically, but the top centers on this club are not well served in this particular development process. Because we are on MCD time clock now. Thus Maroon making so much more sense for this team than waiting for Khaira to get it.

Now finally, and sorry for the long post, my knock is not with Khaira, its with an org that is not setting the winger table NOW and in fact has bared that cupboard. So that we need over players heads results from players we are trying to develop. I think we're trying to develop too many players simultaneously, and also a lot of the successful teams in the league opt instead for finished products like Neal, Perron etc. Ironically Perron would be very good here right now.

You were questioning Khaira's contributions by saying that he only scores when he's open yet compliment Maroon for his goal scoring prowess when in reality, a lot of his goals are open opportunities because of work done by McDavid.

I agree with a lot of your other points especially in regards to Maroon's anticipation skills and experience but those same inconsistencies that you apply to Khaira apply to Maroon as well. There have been plenty of games this season (especially when he was paired with Nuge) when he completely disappeared, didn't engage physically, didn't crash the net (by his own self admission) and waning effort level so my point is that this isn't an issue with all of their big wingers, not just Khaira but such is life with big guys who you rarely see a consistent effort night in and night out from power forward types.

This is why I have an issue with extending Maroon. Can we afford to have a left side full of average to below average skating big men for the next 3+ years? On the other hand, it might not be so easy to replace Maroon's production and find somebody who is compatible with McDavid so it's a double edged sword of sorts. I think the Oilers need somebody with more speed and natural goal scoring ability on the left side and re-signing Maroon kind of stifles that opportunity. There's just too much of the same right now.

 

[nabob]

Its this kind of comment that probably garners response. Either you simply aren't aware of the results, haven't even looked it up, or you are attempting to say stuff like this as pretend truths. Drai certainly hasn't had jump missing for a month. Plus I'm not sure what you are factoring in there or whether its a convenient point to make given the team has recently had a week off and also had the Xmas break.

In anycase there appears to be a suggestion there, entirely inaccurate, that Drai had lacked jump for a month. Maybe go back to the games and see. Interestingly in the month that you think Drai lacked jump he had 4G 9A 13pts in 12GP. So that your perception does not necessarily match the results that actually occurred. I find this a lot on this board that people make comments on Drai needing to find his game while he's on. Not you, but in one instance not long ago I had to remind people that Drai had 10pts in last 6GP and was certainly not off his game or "doing nothing" as the posters suggested. For some reason Drais actually accomplishments tend not to get noted in this board. Pulju scores the first goal in 9 games and he's god and 2 pages of comments on it on the GDT. Drais scores and theres maybe 3 posts. you hardly even know it happened from GDT.. Drai scores and its "well about time"...

ps I'm not going to respond to your other comment because it serves no purpose. Anybody here is allowed to speak about any players. If you disagree with something stated just clarify it.

Drai was getting points yes. But anyone, even you, his biggest fan, can admit that he was lacking the jump he had last game. He was falling into bad habits and had a lot of bad turnovers where he failed to execute simple plays.

For the record I'm perfectly happy with his play this year. I expect a bit of inconsistency and the odd off game from him still. I really don't get the need for so many in the media to constantly be on his case. They're probably looking at his contract and comparing it to Schefiele and Seguin and others that were signed years ago. Drai will only get better as well IMO as it takes bigger guys a bit more time to fully develop. He showed in the playoffs that he can dominate at the highest level, he's gonna be worth every penny of that deal.

 

[nabob]

There really hasn't been a lot of RNH hate this season, and that of course is for good reason even if he was cold leading up to the injury.

There has been a LOT of Draisaitl hate this season, and that's asinine because he is 3 times the player RNH is so it's not surprising that a fair number of posters would draw a line in the sand on that point.

RNH was probably the most hated player here this offseason. Just sad how a few certain posters have used his injury to dump on him, when they were quiet all year. My previous post addresses Drai and the unreasonable amount of heat he's gotten. Drawing the line in the sand is cool, needing to dump on another player is stupid.

 

[sepHF]

There really hasn't been a lot of RNH hate this season, and that of course is for good reason even if he was cold leading up to the injury.

There has been a LOT of Draisaitl hate this season, and that's asinine because he is 3 times the player RNH is so it's not surprising that a fair number of posters would draw a line in the sand on that point.

The Draisaitl hate is a little much, but to be fair it kinda comes with the territory when you're one of the highest paid players in the entire league

 

[oXo Cube]

The Draisaitl hate is a little much, but to be fair it kinda comes with the territory when you're one of the highest paid players in the entire league

I'm not sure this is a fair point in the context of this discussion given that we are half way through the RNH contract and this is the very first season he has played to anywhere near a level that makes it a worthwhile investment. That never stopped him from being a fan favorite on this board.

Me thinks that this board just can't live without a whipping boy and for some reason it always loves to pick from a short list of the teams best players.

 

[sepHF]

I'm not sure this is a fair point in the context of this discussion given that we are half way through the RNH contract and this is the very first season he has played to anywhere near a level that makes it a worthwhile investment. That never stopped him from being a fan favorite on this board.

Me thinks that this board just can't live without a whipping boy and for some reason it always loves to pick from a short list of the teams best players.

yeah I see what you're saying. I think with Drai it's a little different because he has the 10th biggest contract in the entire NHL and is along side players like Crosby and Stamkos

 

[nabob]

I'm not sure this is a fair point in the context of this discussion given that we are half way through the RNH contract and this is the very first season he has played to anywhere near a level that makes it a worthwhile investment. That never stopped him from being a fan favorite on this board.

Me thinks that this board just can't live without a whipping boy and for some reason it always loves to pick from a short list of the teams best players.

Or the most ragged on player on this board.

Totally agree with the last part, Connor has a bad period and there's pitchforks out in some GTDs.