Also curious as to if he’s improved this season. Nothing eye popping statistically but seems to be having a decent season . Anyone can comment on his recent play?
Not much. Grinder type of winger without any great skills. Could potentially be a fourth liner in the NHL. He could be drafted, but he's the worst player on the team, in my opinion. That doesn't mean he's a bad player either. On many junior teams he'd be the best player or one of the best.
He's getting a bigger role this season, but I find that the NTDP in recent seasons tends to try to push the lesser players on the team into bigger roles in their U18 seasons because they want everyone to be drafted. I think this strategy sets a bad example. I'm even a fan of some of these lower line players like Snuggerud and Spicer, but seeing the PP run in a way where they are trying to set up Snuggerud for one timers, a player that shouldn't even be on the PP, is blatant in the strategy.
These guys all know what they signed up for. It's a competitive team, and the best guys should be playing the most. They are trying to win games, even though it's a development program. I'm not going to say I know what happened with Fleming, but to me thats a great example of some of the coaching I haven't liked the last few years. Maybe there was a separate issue there, but clearly the kid was more talented than numerous guys getting better ice-time, line-mates, situations than him for over a year. You can't put that all on the kid. There needs to be some accountability for why a player like that is leaving having been a fourth liner/13F for two years, while the grinders are getting PP time to help their draft positions. People can laugh at what
@GeorgeLeafer12 has said about the coaching, but in a way he's right. It's been really sub-standard in recent seasons. The padding of stats for players like Hejduk is part of the problem, in my opinion.
