I think his biggest problem is that he needs better line mates. He needs at least one good winger to play with.
He had a good year. I don’t know if I would say great. I think he needs more consistency. He has games where’s he’s a beast and games where he’s ok. Not worried about him but he needs some help.
We need a player at least as good as Nuge to play with Drai. Or to play with McDavid to see if Drai and Nuge can click. Or to play with Nuge when McDavid and Drai inevitably see some more time together next year.
It's too much to ask the 3rd guy of Nuge/Drai/McDavid have to carry whatever garbo they had to play with when they weren't playing with one of the other two. McDavid could maybe do it, but he clearly benefits playing with a skilled guy on his wing.
Man if Draisaitl can't carry his own line just another egg on Chia's face. Could have gotten Drai signed at 7 milllion if he had waited. Instead we have another guy who is getting paid more than 1 million more than what he can deliver. Don't get me wrong I love the guy but if people are complaining he needs talent on his wing to succeed, he shouldn't be the 11th highest cap hit in the league.
Bottom line: If you can't drive the play on your own, you shouldn't be the 11th highest cap hit in the league. I am sure Drivesaitl and who ever else is bouncing on it will make all the excuse in the world for Drai. But hell if you are the 11th highest cap in the league than there are no excuses you go out there and produce results and Drai hasn't done that to justify his cap hit. I don't want to be another fan that drives a talented player out of town, as far as I am concerned this season was a write off, but it is on Drai's shoulders to make up for it over the next 7 seasons.
True, however he likely knew that there'd be repercussions to him signing such a deal. It wouldn't have been an issue if Looch and Sekera didn't fall off of cliffs this season.
Looch needs to come back better period. Jesse and Yamamoto need to come back better as well.
I think wingers are just gonna be a problem for a while, we're just gonna have to accept that. We've just gutted that position and it will take a few years to rebuild it now.
Not unlike how it was in Pittsburgh after Sid and Malkin signed their deals IIRC.
Change this thread title to "Leon Draisatl - Waiting for his next vacation and the season to end"
What a putrid last half.
I remember him and his clan sitting at a diner table in Sweden posting a pic when he signed his extension. Congrats guys. Congrats!
He set up 10 players for gimmies? Are serious? Last game Puljujarvi set him up for a tap in and he muffed it. You wouldn't even acknowledge that it was a good scoring chance.You think? Drai made 10 stellar setups today to players in gimme scoring range. Not one finished. Not one.
The ONLY setups he got the whole game were on the PP, in which he scored. Then he showcased his punishing skill annihilating a puck on a slapper into the high corner in the shootout. That puck was practically set on fire. I think Drai might have put a whole season of anger into that puck. If that went through the net it would probably break the glass. That hard a shot. Just a cannon.
This guy is a scoring beast and he plays over half a season with AHL level talent. He's a player that can get 50 or more assists in a year and he's playing yet another game with two guys that have 1 measly ****ing goal in their last 34 games combined. Think about that.
What are the chances of Drai getting production EV?
They were always a solid team though, they were largely besieged by injuries (Crosby's concussions and Malkin missed a lot of games too) and MAF totally crapping the bed in the playoffs for several years in a row.
But they still made the playoffs with ease.
Malkin + Crosby is just a ridiculous 1-2 punch too, it would be like us having McDavid + McDavid 2. Leon is good, but he's definitely a good deal below Malkin who is basically McDavid tier himself.
We can't get by with that same formula. We could've had a similar end result with four players (McDavid + RNH on line 1, Hall + Draisaitl on line 2), but we threw that away.
Draisaitl produced offensively about as much as I expected at the beginning of the season. He desperately needs some talent on his wing.
So if we didn't burn his first ELC year for no reason, how much does Drai sign at the end of this season for 8 years? 7.5?
Man if Draisaitl can't carry his own line just another egg on Chia's face. Could have gotten Drai signed at 7 milllion if he had waited. Instead we have another guy who is getting paid more than 1 million more than what he can deliver. Don't get me wrong I love the guy but if people are complaining he needs talent on his wing to succeed, he shouldn't be the 11th highest cap hit in the league.
Bottom line: If you can't drive the play on your own, you shouldn't be the 11th highest cap hit in the league. I am sure Drivesaitl and who ever else is bouncing on it will make all the excuse in the world for Drai. But hell if you are the 11th highest cap in the league than there are no excuses you go out there and produce results and Drai hasn't done that to justify his cap hit. I don't want to be another fan that drives a talented player out of town, as far as I am concerned this season was a write off, but it is on Drai's shoulders to make up for it over the next 7 seasons.
I would agree that he hit the minimum expectations if he was to be centering his whole line all season. But he wasn't, he played a lot with McDavid. Maybe my expectations were too high for him after what he showed on his own in the playoffs. Maybe that performance was a little overblown.
Was nice to see him finish the season with a better game after putting in a bunch of meh performances in the last couple of weeks. That clapper to close it out was a beauty.
He set up 10 players for gimmies? Are serious? Last game Puljujarvi set him up for a tap in and he muffed it. You wouldn't even acknowledge that it was a good scoring chance.
Maybe most of your posts are pure satire now Replacement and I just don't quite get the humor.
The problem has to do with who the players are. In the playoffs last season Drai was playing with Lucic and Slepychev. That line really clicked. For some inane reason the team hardly ever went with it again. Draisaitl all season has 56mins with Slepychev and around 30mins with Slep and Lucic together. It was hardly ever revisited. Its mysterious why not. That line played a real hard game, supported puck possession, and really had a tendency to tilt the ice. Pulju does not support possession well. He has immense difficulty handling the puck. Khaira is decent but he isn't as skilled as Slepychev has shown.
McLellan seemed interested in really limiting Sleps chances this season to get good minutes, or minutes at all. I have no idea why. It seems to me after last years playoffs that is a line you would go back to.