I'll link an article below in my response below, and he said it in context of wanting to help people, so he does sound like he has a good heart to help others.
However, not sure about how bad his "background" is:
" “Nothing’s been hard about my life. Nothing,” Ho-Sang says. "
I agree 100% on his personality being a factor here, and I think everyone agrees. I'm not sure how I was demeaning to him, it's true that he talks big and that he has not supported his big talk yet.
I was genuinely curious about the whole "do not trade list" thing and why Snow needed to defend the pick (sounds a little extreme for a junior player). Here's an article from 2014/2015, I actually thought it was a great read since it was a lot of him talking from his experience in juniors:
Sunday Big Read: Josh Ho-Sang vs. the world - Sportsnet.ca
And a few key points I thought were interesting:
At the very start of the article, the writer states that Ho-Sang is on his own off the ice, trailing behind his teammates. That he is the last one on the ice and the first off the ice. Two things here:
- He was not part of the group. Well, he was a new player in Niagara but still, did nobody try to include him? Did he just do his own things?
- Last on the ice/first off: Major red flag for any outsider suggesting a lack of work ethic, usually. But given what we know about his (lack of) integration with the team, it could also suggest that he was actively avoiding his teammates off the ice for some reason?
Then, the whole story about hockey canada excluding him. Weird to say the least, as he was an excellent offensive junior player at the time. But Hockey Canada has always been about "team first" and they don't lack talent (even at the Olympic level, selections such as Chris Kunitz over Martin St-Louis have been criticized for example). But then you get this pearl:
- As Ho-Sang tells it, the coaching staff blamed him for the loss. “They got mad at me and said I don’t play hockey properly, that if I don’t change my game I’m gonna end up playing in the coast [the ECHL],” Ho-Sang says. “It’s like, you guys are losers. You’re trying to blame the whole thing on me; you’re saying I’m uncoachable and all this stuff. And ever since then I haven’t been invited to a Hockey Canada camp. But you have the best team in the world on paper, and, what, we lost because of me?”
People can interpret it as they want, but it's kinda sad that this "ECHL" prediction is coming true. Also might explain the team Canada exclusions.
The article is also loaded with him talking of himself as the next superstar and how self-important he thinks he is - either that's a shit ton of confidence of straight up arrogance, but he never delivered even half of his extravagant promises.
Also, I have not seen him play in the juniors, but if the following is true, that's also a major red flag for any hockey team:
"There are nights when Ho-Sang tries to do too much, circling around the neutral zone with the puck on his stick for 15, 20, sometimes 30 seconds as he waits for the defence to make a mistake."
Surprisingly, the final quote is Ho-Sang admitting some fault and humility:
" I’ve definitely been tough to coach. But I’m definitely getting easier. I’m working on it. It’s patience. And it’s frustration. It’s tough adjusting. I’m trying to play a more complete game, be a more complete hockey player. We’ll see what happens next.”
Idk if he tried to conform to the Islander's vision, and him not being "rewarded" tilted him and he got pissed at management, but I think it's clear reading this article as to why NHL teams don't want to deal with him. Drama is one of the thing NHL teams want to avoid like plague, and his personality is just conductive to endless drama (again, from what I could glean in this article). Sounds like he has good human values, but it also sounds like he tries too hard to become a one-man show in a team sport.
Once again, I'm not trying to be demeaning to him. I just think it's a little far-fetch when I see people question where the off-ice red flags are, where they are so many on full display. Nevermind what's potentially being said behind closed doors. My impression is that if he plays the game the "right way", both on and off the ice, he'll get a second chance in the NHL.
I'm sorry for the long-winded response, I got carried away.
