Cookie, your argument about where he plays in the lineup is really weak. If your team can't score, and you have a promising young player with "lots of skill" simple logic dictates that you would play him more in a scoring capacity to try to generate offense.
If that was the case, then Kadri would have been in the NHL asap instead of toiling away in the AHL. Coaches have to balance the short-term and long-term successes of their teams with the information and players they are given.
Your argument is weak because you can just extend it to say that the absence of him being put in a scoring capacity was simply due to the fact that the coach didn't think it was warranted, or that he really isn't a strong offensive player.
Coaches try to shelter their rookies for the sake of their development. It was obvious from the start of the season that the hottest thing in the desert was the tire fire this team was. Tippett did the smart thing in easing 19 year old Crouse into the lineup and gradually giving him PK duties. For a young, physically developing player, focusing more on tape and physical development is useful--that's one of the benefits of going the NCAA route.
Cookie, honestly these arguments are all weak. How can you just ignore the WJC in his draft year and then highlight what he did on his second wjc trip? It's because you know that in essentially every level he has played at, he has never been a true offensive catalyst. Of course you wouldn't bring that up, because it obliterates your "hes on crap teams" narrative that you are trying to spew.
In the first WJC, Crouse, Paul and Gauthier made up Canada's very successful fourth line. You're not expected to score tons in that scenario. However, as the next year shows, Crouse was able to produce when he was given minutes and quality linemates. In his second go-around, he was an assistant and was tied for second in scoring with Brayden Point behind only Marner and Strome.
Lets go on a walk down memory lane here with your boy.
Lets start with the AAA days. You would think that a huge offensive catalyst like this would be a major producer right? Wrong. He had around 1.9 ppg production there, which seems all well in good until you see that half the forwards on the team had around 1.5 ppg, and konecny held a nearly 2.5 ppg pace during that same time.
Are you using AAA production
and comparing him to Konecny? If we're going down that road, he outproduced Konecny in Midget so big whoop. But yeah, I guess he was so bad that he was only the 5th overall pick in the OHL draft. Right.
Next we move to the ohl where his draft year production is painfully average, as it is around .85 ppg, and only modestly improved in his d+1 year.
Context is important. His team was in the basement in goals production in his draft year--Spencer Watson was hurt and he was one of the few weapons on the team. The fact they were so successful the next year was due to the injection of talent: a full year of Watson, acquiring MDC and Descrocher helped Kingston change their system so they didn't have to grind out every game.
Next we move to the NHL where he basically has limited production.
At no point on this timeline does he warrant/garner the benefit of the doubt toward his offensive capabilities. The most likely scenario is that he was picked to early, and is going to quickly bust. You have no rationale basis to believe that he will be anything more than a joe colborne type player in terms of production, and I quite honestly think that even that is a bit of a reach for him.
You're looking at his rookie season on an anemic team and coming to that conclusion. Not every rookie season goes the way of the Marners and the Matthews of the world.
FWIW Crouse outscored Colborne this year. Isn't it weird how playing with good players is good for your stats and playing with not so good players is not so good for your stats? I think this holds especially true for "passengers" like Crouse.
Rofl so by that same logic yak and daigle weren't busts? Get that out of here. Top picks need to produce, it isn't good enough to just make the league and be a passenger. Mark my words, next year when crouse only has 20-28 points, you'll admit I was right. Dude is a total bust.
You're forgetting that he was the 11th pick, not first overall pick. And there's many instances of "passengers" being key players on very good lines and teams. The issue with your "production" argument is that the Coyotes have been a terrible offensive team ever since Whitney left. Last year, OEL was suffering from personal issues and wasn't himself, and Duclair took a nosedive in production. If things stay the same, Crouse is probably going to score around 20-28 points next year. Still wouldn't mean that he's a bust. But if he finds chemistry with the shiny new toy in Keller or with Dvorak and also gets to play more than 11min/game (which he should) he's gonna produce.
And please get off the floor: it's dirty.
but ill let it slide since you are a noobie around here so I won't dunk on you for the time being.
He played 4th line minutes and no PP.
"dude half that list hasn't played more than 7 NHL games, and a few of them have played zero".
