If there's anything to take away from Schmaltz is that it's clear Arizona is getting him to commit parts of his game that didn't exist when he was in Chicago.
And those parts of his game are things Strome could take a lesson from.
I'm just wondering, and this is only speculation. When Panarin was with Kane he had this infatuation to pass first to Kane, same with Schmaltz but of course he can't do that because he's not here. Strome is doing the same thing many times, putting his focus on passing to Kane before anything. I don't blame a player that has this mindset but maybe it's a little overboard? I mean if you can get the puck to Kane magic does happen many a time.
These things remind me of the supposed reason why Phil Esposito was traded away from Hawks, my dad said that Bobby Hull told him "listen Phil, i want you to look for me and your job is to pass the puck to me and i will finish" Now honestly i have never heard if this is factual but my dad said back then everyone knew this to be the case regarding Bobby saying that to Phil. Guess Phil didn't like it and we know what happened, an awful trade that really cost this club and maybe some more cups?
The season after Gretzky left Oil especially during the pp an Oil player would carry it over the blueline and mass confusion happened. Foley & Tallon said because it was number 99 that would drive the play and carry the puck. A season or two after things changed and they figured it out and won another cup.
No i'm not comparing Schmaltz to Gretzky or Espo but he seems to be doing pretty good without Kane.
