If he can't be "elite" or "1st line" in other leagues by now, than I can't imagine him doing it in the NHL. HF for example has Sakic and Elias listed besides those two terms. Kostitsyn is so far away from either of them that I refused to put his name in the same sentence.
Other posts....
Bust- he's not a bust yet, but he's well on his way.
A player reputed to have that type of offensive ability should be producing, period. He should have more than 32 professional goals in 160+ games... he's a goalscorer, right? That's what he's supposed to be doing. He won't make the NHL for doing anything else.
If only it was as simple as that...yes Kostitsyn is an offensive player, but offensive players sometimes have to be surrounded by players who can get them the puck, you're always focusing on what a 21yr old hasn't done professionally instead of acknowledging what he
has done professionally...
Example: Since we're talking about him, Tomas Vanek...look at this past season for him, when he had icetime with offensive players, his production was good, when his play slipped in the second half (where he was even benched on some occasions and playing on the 4th line) his production stalled.
Same with Alexander Perezhogin, starts off the year great playing with Koivu and Kovalev was even at a PPG pace, he gets sick, misses a game, has a few off games then gets banished to the 4th line/AHL, the production stalls and even stops. Now conversely, Chris Higgins the first half of the season plays on the 3rd and even 4th line, there's barely any production, he gets promoted to the first line, bam! He finishes the second half as one of the top goal scorers
My point here is, Kostitsyn was never a finished product coming out of the draft, Habs fans mislead alot of people into thinking that the guy could step in right away and blow whatever league he played in, well, that wasn't the case.
He's improved every year since being drafted, how can you say he's on the verge of becoming a bust now? Doesn't make any sense and just shows you're looking at stats as your basis for argument...His AHL numbers don't standout, but he's also a developping 19-20-21 yr old playing on a offensively putrid AHL team, he managed to finish 4th in goal scoring his first year on the team (as a 19-20yr old) and finished 2nd in team scoring his second year, it's not a huge statistical increase, but it's an increase nonetheless, and when you factor in the talent surrounding him during that time, it's pretty good IMO.
I personally think he's going to reach the NHL no matter what ( I think that boom or bust label is one that fans who don't knowany better just regurgitate cause they don't know better) the real question is whether or not he can become that high octane winger (like Hossa or Elias for example) or whether he becomes some journeyman winger (like Dvorak or Czerkawski for example). And that, no one can answer yet, not even you.
Sorry Kostitsyn isn't shattering rookie records like Ovechkin or Crosby, but his progress is going at a slow but steady pace, and if you look at the Habs history with their prospects recently (Komisarek, Higgins, Plekanec, Perezhogin) it falls in line with what they've always done.
P.S.- btw, Kostitsyn did make the RSL as a 19 yr old, he only saw action in about 10 games or so, and in those only saw a few minutes, he was relegated to get more icetime.
and
Actually, Hossa had already put up a better season in the NHL than Kostitsyn did in the AHL last season by this stage.
The Kostitsyn's should have just had one kid we'd have a winner!
