It's more than poor defensive play isn't it? I thought it had to do with not being coachable and having attitude concerns.
It is. No one is going to go on record with an official article about it though. Its why you only ever hear bad interview with certain guys but what actually happened is never elaborated on.
Just look at Ho-Sang for example. All you heard was bad interview or over-confident. If those were the only 2 issues, he wouldn't have been put on multiple teams no draft lists. The real issue was he was late for practice, didn't listen to the coaches, got kicked out of billets houses and had to move in with a member on the coaching staff before they dumped him to Niagara. That's on top of pissing off Hockey Canada along with Jared McCann by basically being a dick to McDavid and trying to haze him at the U-17's (Which is why McCann also got the label "bad interview"). The thing is, no one is going to go on record saying these things to a published reporter for two reasons. They don't really gain much, and agents will raise a stink. People think his fall was based on just being a-typical and sounding ridiculous in that Steve Simmons column.
Tony D's stuff was documented because he was actually suspended for his anger-issues, but people just ignored the non-slur incidents of him losing control in Sarnia.