BigG44
Registered User
- Jul 12, 2007
- 24,127
- 1,579
Yeah the other two have definitely shown better defense in the AHL I'll give them that. Its not like Oleksiak was terrible defensively down there though. I agree youd like to see the guy put his head down and work his ass off but at the same time i can see a certain level of frustration being hard to shake while the franchise seems to be so terrible at handling the young d situation. I still feel like he and Johns have 2nd pair upside while nemeth could top out on as a solid bottom pair guy.
It does seem like Nuke has bought into his own hype too much. While we could use a winger it might be better for his future if he stayed over there for awhile. I dont know if I can envision him having a great relationship with Hitch at this point.
For me, Oleksiak had his attitude before Ruff got here, and he wasn't mishandled until 2015-16, two full seasons after the one you're referring too. Now, Nieuwy blew a year of his ELC and waivers by playing him at all in 2012-13 which was a bungle, but as far as playing time and screwing him around, that didn't happen until 2015-16.
Instead of building on a really solid 2012-13, he didn't seem as engaged in 13-14, and being the first call up the next year, he coasted more than he competed in 14-15 in the AHL. He just never seemed to be playing at the same level as his peers IMO, but you absolutely saw flashes which kept me thinking he could turn a corner if it was an attitude issue.
He got a raw deal, just like Nemeth, the last two years, but he average over 70 games all three of the years I'm talking about, and he didn't get better as you would have hoped. Nemeth dealt with injuries a lot of those years which didn't allow him to always stick out either, but when he was in games, I feel like he consistently played well.