TheMoreYouKnow
Registered User
How did Pavel, Hank and Kronwall become winners? They played with winners and learned from them. As of now, I don't see singular stars that could reach the level of Hank or Pavel in this next wave of talent...at worst, they'll be an assemble cast. There's time for one or more of them to emerge.
The talk of trading Pavel is about as bad as talking about tanking. You can't trade players of his caliber away and his work ethic should be kept around for the young players to learn from. I'd want Hank and Pavel to teach them to win but I'd also want them to learn how to work hard and play a complete game.
I think that whole "learn to win" stuff, I don't think that really holds water or else the Isles would have been great through the 80s and 90s and the Habs would have stayed great forever.
It's a convenient explanation for why a Zetterberg or Datsyuk turned out great - but then it's a retroactive argument where we know they are great and look for reasons for it. They might simply have been much more talented than other teams thought.
Jir Hudler played on a team with Yzerman, Hull, Shanahan. Hell, Jason Williams, Boyd Devereaux and Matt Dandenault won a Cup with those guys..did those young players turn into guys who could carry a Cup winner as a result? Of course not, because you're either a good hockey player or you aren't. What seasoned champions did Toews and Kane learn to win from? Robert Lang?