What it means is that LaRose has better chemistry with Eric Staal than the likes of Anthony Stewart, Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu. The period of time when we went through 4 coaches coincides with a period of time where we very consistently shed talent to the point that a guy who was a healthy scratch in his absolute prime (22-24) makes our top line as a veteran.
We put him there because there was no one else. Not because he had special talents hidden to fans that only coaches could see.
Also, Tlusty>>>>>LaRose.
So much this.
We went from a forward group that had: Eric Staal, Cory Stillman, Eric Cole, Rod Brind'Amour, Ray Whitney, Justin Williams, Doug Weight, Mark Recchi, Matt Cullen, Josef Vasicek, Andrew Ladd (rookie), Chad LaRose, Kevyn Adams, and Craig Adams
To a forward group that had: Eric Staal, Sergei Samsonov, Erik Cole, Jussi Jokinen, Tuomo Ruutu, Chad LaRose, Brandon Sutter, Jeff Skinner (rookie), Jiri Tlusty (pre-prime), Patrick Dwyer, Ryan Carter, and Troy Bodie
In a stretch of 5 years. That was the last year the Canes even truly sniffed the playoffs (not sure how to count what was the immolation of the 12-13 season).
It's not to bash Chad for being Chad, he wasn't nearly as bad as what people here made him out to be (though I'm a noted Chad defender), but more a matter of what he came to represent. He went from being in that 12-14 mix among his forwards far more from attrition to free agency and retirements then he did through his own increase in production which went from .27PPG in a 4th line role (in an admittedly high scoring season) to .38PPG in a top 6 role. Chad being Chad in a 3rd or especially a 4th line role is not a problem, the problem is the outright lack of production and development of the names that were drafted or brought in that were expected to allow guys like Chad to play a more suitable role:
Patrick O'Sullivan, Zac Dalpe, Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, Patrick Eaves, Jeff Hamilton, Trevor Letowski, Anson Carter
Those names are basically all well-mocked among Canes fans at this point and for good reason. Boychuk is basically the only one left that has ANY kind of hope of having something resembling an NHL career of some sort. The fact that Chad came to represent the organizations failures on this front more then anything is what drove people nuts IMO.