A letter from Louis Leblanc (in french)
- Thread starter Whitesnake
- Start date
montreal
Go Habs Go
It was talked about a lot at the time, how unusual his development path was and how you really don't want to see a player play for so many different teams over several years and what impact it may of had on his development. It's a shame that he didn't just stay at Havard, might not have made the least bit difference but it would have been less pressure and he likely wouldn't have been rushed to the NHL at 20 since he would hopefully of still been at Havard.
Whatever the guy never got 30 points in the AHL season who cares. He can't even hack it in the AHL and supposed to believe he had some NHL future. This guy wasn't even as good as Agostino, Ghetto, or Hudon in the AHL and these 3 guys are barely NHLers. 97 points in 234 AHL games. Would you be excited for a player with that state line who isn't a grinding fighter?
Harry Kakalovich
Registered User
I never said he wasn't pretty good, I said he wasn't very good. His stats never projected him to be a sure-fire top 6 player. You're not really responding to what I wrote. I'll say it again - Louis Leblanc was never very good at any level since he left Midget AAA - in MAAA he was one of the best players in the league - he was never even close to that in the Q or in the AHL - I never saw him play in USHL or Harvard but his stats don't show him as being a phenomenal player in either league.
You seem to be saying he was pretty good, and I agree with that, but he was never ripping up a league like guys like Jakub Voracek or Claude Giroux, or Jonathan Drouin did.
So why do you say I don't know what I'm talking about? I mean I saw Leblanc play live in junior. He wasn't even really as good as Angelo Esposito, although you could argue either way on that one. I think it would be more accurate to say he was on a par with Angelo Esposito.
1909
Registered User
- Jul 6, 2016
- 20,705
- 11,308
1909
Registered User
- Jul 6, 2016
- 20,705
- 11,308
In Junior with Montreal, he had the best ppg, and had 100 minutes of penalty. He was very involved. The year before he had the most points in Harvard. And had the most points the year before for his ushl team....
Grate n Colorful Oz
Hutson Hawk
lol... weren't you doing exactly that by questioning Louis Leblanc's character, without knowing him?
So lemme get this straight, you find it insulting that I called you a pro-management type, when your posting history (I pay attention) is squarely that. Dude, who are you trying to kid here?
We all have bias btw. Myself included. It's part of our nature. Oh boo-hoo, I said you had bias, and I actually took the time and brought arguments that kinda give weight to what I'm saying....
Anyway, sorry if you were offended, but I hope that you'll forget about what was the least important part of my response to you, and what you might take out of it instead is understanding that what drives our ambitions and passions can't really be judged outright as you did, because all you had to work on is lack of confidence (omg, never even a young elite player has dealt with that, right?) and that somehow he went from hopeful to bust.
montreal
Go Habs Go
So why did Leblanc never get 30 pts in the AHL? Because he was called up to the NHL. They should never have rushed him to the NHL, he was on pace for 54 pts in the AHL at 20. That's better then Getto did at the same age, Agostino since he wasn't even in the AHL at 20, and only 3 pts behind Hudon's rookie year.
Leblanc was one of our best players in Hamilton in his rookie year, if he wasn't he wouldn't have been called up to the NHL.
Leblanc was very good in the USHL and NCAA on a bad team, I watched him play in both leagues. Did you watch him in those leagues?
Harry Kakalovich
Registered User
So what all of a sudden prospects are measured against the Harvard NCAA team? Come on. Danny Biega led the team the year after as a young defenceman and he had 30 points and he never became an NHLer either.
Jimmy Vesey put up years of 58 points and 46 points for Harvard. That's dominating a league, and Vesey is an NHLer now. Leblanc never put up those numbers.
Now if people want to argue "maybe he could have if..." well that becomes speculation and it's pointless or rather destined to be inconclusive because it's outside of reality. If you want to say "Leblanc looked OK at the time and I thought at the time he would turn into something than he did." I would agree - I thought so too.
But what I'm saying is he never did very well in any league after Midget AAA. He never dominated any league after Midget AAA. Maybe the USHL - I mean I really don't follow that league, but it doesn't look like it by the stat sheet. But after the Habs drafted him, he never put up the kind of points that said "this guy is definitely going to be an NHLer." Which is not to say he wasn't good, and I thought he would work out in some capacity, but that lack of top end skill combined with the fact that for whatever reason he wasn't happy playing a lesser role, meant that he quit hockey by age 25.
And after that? After his rookie year he played 8 NHL games. He played 203 more AHL games but never cracked 30 points in the league. He got 75 points. But yes lets give the 30 game sample size all the weight and ignore the other 200 games. I guess I should say DD was the best habs C since he had one 60 point season that one year and then MT came and ruined him LOL.
This is a what have you done for me lately league. If Domi didn't explode this year he would still be the joke player with 4 goals on a goalie.
Leblanc couldn't produce in the AHL. If it makes everyone feel better to blame Sly then blame Sly. I will even say the guy wasn't a good coach and probably not a good fit for Leblanc, but another coach is going to turn him from 75 points in 203 games to 150 points in 203 games, ya I doubt it.
I bet the injury was more serious then he let on and it really hurt his game and he couldn't play the same way he could in JR and that first season and his career took a nose dive. Also he never bulked up. Its okay to not hit the gym against kids, but against pros and adults you can't do that. He didn't need to be Mister Universe but at least get tree trunk legs and build your core.
1909
Registered User
- Jul 6, 2016
- 20,705
- 11,308
He might not be a "top-end" talent, but he has enough talent to play regular third line at NHL level, at center or RW. His development went bad, especially at AHL level, and the fact that he was called back way too soon by the Habs. Remember DLR or McCarron ?
1909
Registered User
- Jul 6, 2016
- 20,705
- 11,308
Leblanc was producing well in his 1st season at AHL level under Clément Jodoin. His second run under Sly turned sour.
Warning signs are important and is a valid argument. Are you saying that McCarron poor skating was not a warning sign at the draft and was not important? Of course it is/was, and many stated that at the time he was drafted. It is one of the major reasons he is not in the NHL and will most likely never stick in the NHL. Do you think MTL has tried to help him improve that aspect, of course they have. Does KHL Sherbak have skill, yes, but he is missing something that prevents him staying in the league and many stated he was a high risk pick at the time. Im sure MTL tried to work with him to get over whatever they felt was holding him back. It is in their best interest to do so. NHL is a business and teams (including MTL) work with their prospects to get better but there is a time when they cut bait because the next batch of youth have arrived. The whole not treated fair crap is pure BS. We heard years of how Galchenyuk was treated poorly or mismanaged, just more BS. He went to Ari and they figured out in 9 games he could not play center, its called work ethic and Hockey IQ which he severely lacks.
Second, the damaged thing is such a joke and is amusing. A major part of a players development is on the player. LL spent 3 years in the MTL system and could not make the jump. Are you saying the team did nothing to try to help him improve? Of course they did. It did not work out. Plenty of players persevere. IE - Desharnais was un-drafted and toiled in the ECHL and went on to play over 400 games. Martin St Louis was told he was to small to play in the NHL by the Flames and went on to become a hall of famer. Alex Burrows, Tim Thomas, Mike Condon, Dan Girardi, all went on to have great careers despite all the obstacles they faced. They are just a few but I could go on and on. If he was "damaged" than it was his fragility that kept him from becoming a NHLer. The NHL is a business and if a guy can't handle adversity than they don't last.
He, Tinordi, McCarron, KHL Sherbak were all bad picks with major warning signs during their draft year. The bigger problem is that MTL chose to draft them.
Yes he had a decnet 30 games. What about the rest of his AHL tenure? Why is his first 30 games given so much more weight then the rest of his career?
Anyways to much arguing over a guy who sucked in the AHL. Lets just continue on with the victim mentality and blame it all on Sly, the player had no agency or control. Once he meet Sly all that talent boom vanished and gone.
Sly was a bad coach, but Louis was a bad professional hockey player, match made in heaven.
WeThreeKings
Habs cup - its in the BAG
He's about to be traded, again, and was decidedly not protected to keep Jordie Benn around. If that's where your career is, I'm certainly not calling him a first round success story.
Andrei79
Registered User
- Jan 25, 2013
- 15,293
- 27,333
I kind of wish he went more into what parts of busting were his responsibility. What I took from his text is he sees himself as someone who was "so promising", a hard worker, who sees himself as an NHL GM one day who had some tough times because of circumstances outside of his control. Ok...
Whats interesting though is he changed teams in Europe three times within a year. What happened there ? Hes had an atypical path even for a first round bust.
1909
Registered User
- Jul 6, 2016
- 20,705
- 11,308
After having tasted the NHL (too early), I am guessing many young players are falling in the same trap than Leblanc. If he would have had a coach like Bouchard, I think he could had been motivated to work his ass off at AHL level and get better prepared for NHL.
Harry Kakalovich
Registered User
I would argue I was stating a fact because he quit hockey at age 25. I don't dislike LL. I just find it weird that people would try to blame anyone for LL's choices. But I'm not insulting LL, I'm just saying he quit, for whatever reason I'm not sure.
And I don't find it insulting that you think of me as a type, I think that you are just being close-minded in trying to think of people as one way or the other, rather than looking at people's opinions outside of that filter.
And if you had brought more arguments and made points, that would have been more interesting. Your main point, as I take it, is that a lack of drive to have a hockey career does not mean that a person lacks drive in other things. And I agreed with you so I qualified my statement.
But I don't see how that lands to your final point which you are saying here, about confidence. I'm actually not sure what that point is. It sounds like you mean that LL could have succeeded if he had more confidence. It is possible to argue that, but I'm not a fan of dipping too much into speculation. What I can say is that based on what happened, LL made a choice to discontinue hockey to pursue other avenues, and that prior to doing that, he did not show enough to merit an NHL job.
Take care - I'm not offended or anything. Cheers!
- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,875
- 151,086
I'm truly impressed how Leblanc's self-serving droppings have garnered 15 pages worth of discussion.
Burke the Legend
Registered User
- Feb 22, 2012
- 8,317
- 2,850
The thread had great timing during a 5 day break in the Habs' schedule !
And he only played like 15 games during his time in Europe. I guess his heart wasn't into it by then.
His mistake was being pushed around by the Org and not staying in NCAA. I get the pressure coming from the org, but a lot of NCAA players do their time, and many even re enter free agency. TBH shows me a weakness in his character. Its tough when you think you might have millions on the line from the NHL to push back, but it would of probably been better for him to stay in Harvard.
Also think that injury hurt him a lot more than he will let on. Everyone pretty much agrees he wasn't the same player after that first season.
He got a lot farther than 99.9% of people and he must of made a few Hundred thousands from his ELC.
Ya I can see that his motivation was gone. And who knows what his GF was telling him, we saw here tweets. Imagine having someone in your ear telling you that you are being screwed and underused all the time, its going to change your attitude too.
Good chance for us to engage in our second favorite sport, pro-MB vs anti-MB LOL.
montreal
Go Habs Go
prospects are looked at based on how they improve/progress. So when an 18 year old leads his team in goals, points, gets named Ivy League rookie of the year it shows he's on a good path and doing well. Just as it did in the USHL were he was the rookie in the league. But it proves my point, you offered an opinion on his play in the USHL and then say you don't even follow the league so how do you know what his numbers mean in context if you don't know the league that well? I don't mean to point the finger at you per say, since it's been something that clearly has gone on at HF since the start. It's just something that frustrates the heck of me since I put in so much time watching these kids in these leagues.
What Leblanc did was impressive, again it's not just the numbers you have to understand, it's the context. There are 60 teams in the NCAA Div I, how many have 18 year olds (and I use the WJC/AHL rules for age) lead their team in goals and points? Add to that it was a very young team and a terrible one. Now in no way does this mean he's going to be a good NHLer, all it means is he's on the right path but you still need more progress.
You bring up Vesey's numbers, he was 21 when he put up those numbers, huge difference as the average age in the NCAA is usually around 21.5 so for an 18 year old especially one that lacks physical maturity like Leblanc did, it's impressive that he could put up the goals and points against kids several years older then him. If Vesey put those numbers up at 18 (which he wasn't even in the NCAA yet) that would be most impressive. Biega was 19 when he led his team and certainly impressive but just because he led his team in scoring at a Sophomore doesn't mean he would be an NHLer just as Leblanc leading his team at 18 would. It's what they do after that but it shows things are headed in the right direction.
I just don't agree with your post at all, he was very impressive in the USHL, NCAA, and Hamilton at 20. He was on pace for one of the best seasons any Hab prospect has had at 20 in the last 15-20 years. But even then it doesn't mean he would be a good NHLer, Hudon had a better 20 year old season and we don't know if he'll ever get back on track in the NHL or not. But it's certainly a great sign and shows he's making the progress you want.
Of course tons of prospects just fail for various reasons, Leblanc maybe just peaked, it could have been the injuries, his confidence could have been wrecked and he never got it back, he didn't progress physically as he should have, it could be all of the above and more. We don't know but things were imo most certainly headed in the right direction, you don't get Rookie of the year and not be doing a very good job. He played well for Team Canada and while that's not the be all end all, it least is a good sign. He was easily one of our best players in Hamilton at 20, I follow the AHL very closely more then any other league and it's certainly a great sign. Then he got injured and things just went south in a hurry after that. I don't agree with how he was used, I thought it was stupid to take one of your best players and push him down to the 3rd line and off the PP when you have one of the worst teams and PPs in the league and you replace him with no talent grinders.
Clearly things went south and no one knows why. He was doing very well up until then. It could have been the injury who knows. What we do know, for those that watched him, he was doing very well in the AHL and the Habs called him up. Then lots of changes happened, new GM, NHL Head Coach, AHL coaching staff and then he gets a bad ankle injury. So one year he was headed in the right direction, the next he looked like a shell of himself. We don't know why and I've said 100s of times it's likely everyone involved shares some form of the blame.
There's so many reasons as to why someone doesn't make it. Imo for some kids when they lose their confidence it can be very hard to get back and that's no matter how good they are. Other times kids just peak at a certain age, there are tons of other reasons so we can never really know what happened to him or any other prospect.
Look at Shinkaruk, at 17 he scored 49 goals in the dub and this year he's on pace for less then 10 goals and likely on his way out of the AHL to one of the Euro leagues. I don't know what happened to him for things to look so promising to not even being a good 3rd liner in the AHL. Clearly with the Tigers he was good enough.
