Byfield is the youngest player on the roster. Over 14 months younger than the next guy Kaliyev. With the way the roster is constructed he will play in the bottom six for the foreseeable future barring injuries.
Based on his forecast role and utilization, I don’t see how you can expect any kind of breakout production in the next 12-24 months. His immediate upside looks to me to be on par with Kaliyev. So next year QB pots around a dozen goals and Kaliyev puts in like 18.
Hoping for more than that is buying into the organization’s propaganda that the opening of the cup window is just around the corner and will be led by the fossils from the previous decade who are still here and getting over paid.
I’m not looking for production. I’m looking for signs that he’s actually a good player other than the random good plays he makes every other game that Trevor Moore does as well.
I’m not worried about production as much as I am worried with how lackluster he looks. He really needs to work on his strength and using his size but at the same time you don’t know how much that will change him as a player. Speed is something he has some of and adding weight to that might make him slower. Then at that point you only have his shot at 2nd overall pick when on draft day you saw the hockey skill on Stutzle being greater than his.
I hate thinking about it but when everything on the team is going wrong I really feel like that was just such a dumb pick.
We took a guy based on hope rather than taking a guy who had shown to be more skilled relatively easily. That’s what grinds at me. Management f***ing up with Turcotte and now likely took a lesser player purely on hope.
They took Turcotte for leadership so high and they took Byfield for size so high. That rubs me the wrong way.
People say oh Zegras wouldn’t be able to play like that on the Kings. And that’s true. But again Zegras on the Kings would make him the most talented player on the roster. The fact that people don’t have a problem with this is confusing to me