Is it time to admit Drouin is a bust ?

[Cursed Lemon]

No, you are wrong about that. You have created a version of a 'bust' to fit your 'Drouin is a bust' idea.

Points do matter. He gets those. And he's still in the NHL, and will be in the future. That's not a bust.

You are asking, how much of a disappointment has Drouin been? And that answer is a pretty big one.

I'm pretty sure the definition of a "bust" is "a pretty big disappointment".

 

[sr edler]

Drouin looks like a lost high school kid from the 90s with that fluffy haircut and soft finesse game. He needs to cut his hair and goon it up Max Domi style.

 

[sandysan]

No, you are wrong about that. You have created a version of a 'bust' to fit your 'Drouin is a bust' idea.

Points do matter. He gets those. And he's still in the NHL, and will be in the future. That's not a bust.

You are asking, how much of a disappointment has Drouin been? And that answer is a pretty big one.

he gets points because he is GIVEN PP opportunities he doesn't deserve AND when he stinks out loud, julien will shuffle lines in hopes that it gets him going. what does it do ? it kills the new line that he is a part of. he's an anchor on every line he's part of.

So long as he keeps getting assignements he doesn't derserve, he will put up points. but so would anyone else, that's riding coattails and has little, if anything to do with him.

if he gets demoted from a 1/2 to a 3, what aspects of his game leads you to believe he can play a bottom six role ? because there are none.

Yakupov was shipped out of edmonton because the oilers realised that for a top six player, they had better choices. In a bottom six role, all of his supposed talents did not help him. As soon as montreal realises we have better options on the first two lines at wing then drouin, he's circling the bowl and is gonna become a bust because no one, and I mean no one, looks at jonathan drouin and thinks " there's a guy who can play bottom 6"

not good enough for top six, can't play bottom six leads to bustville. if he's not on that path right now, he's very much path proximal. If he can't stop doing the things from junior that dont work in the nhl, you think he reinvents his game as a defensively responsible 200 foot player with a little sandpaper and grit ?

har de har har

 

[204hockey]

guy laflemme no heart

 

[DictatorTots427]

He's the Andrew Wiggins of the NHL. All the talent in the world, but no drive to become better. Still a productive player but there will always be a question of what could've been.

 

[Chipdagger]

This is the problem with montreal. Bergevin talks about attitude and character then goes out and trades for a guy who quit on his team cause he didn't want to earn his ice time. If his name was Mike Smith from Saskatchewan no way bergevin would have made that deal.

 

[Korpse]

I just want to take a moment to remind people there was an alarming number of fans who thought Drouin should have been picked before Mackinnion.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Based solely on career production up to this point in time, here's where Drouin ranks among those in his draft year (forwards only):

MacKinnon - 401
Monahan - 363
Barkov - 343
Lindholm - 266
Horvat - 222
Domi - 206
Drouin - 193

A player like Jake Guentzel is also less than 40 points behind him, in 100+ less games.

 

[Intangir]

Drouin had a pretty good season at first, then stopped producing and came up way short of the expectations when the going got rough and defenses started paying extra attention to him. This lack of production made one thing clear to me and that is that his position as an NHLer is that of a passenger, ala Pacioretty. He is simply just not one to drive a team into the playoffs, but someone who can be a pretty good secondary offensive option on a great team.

Now, if you want to call Drouin a bust because of his past draft status, despite him managing to score 50 points, be my guest and do it but I wouldn't though. He is a pretty flawed player, one that isn't consistent at all, but he still has offensive talent and tools that could see him post pretty strong numbers if he ever figures it all out (though I'm not holding my breath for it at this point).

In the end, he is a 50+points a year guy, with the potential to hit 60+ with a better powerplay, not one that you can build a team around, but still a pretty good player despite his warts and lack of consistency. The hate people have on him is partly justified by his soft play, but also quite overblown.

 

[Leafs87]

Edmonton should try to buy low on him. I think he could look great on McDavid’s wing.

He’s definitely not a bust though lol. In what world is 50 points is a bust? He’s at least better than half the forwards in this league.

And if he doesn’t work out Edmonton’s got another horrible contract to worry about

 

[sandysan]

Drouin had a pretty good season at first, then stopped producing and came up way short of the expectations when the going got rough and defenses started paying extra attention to him. This lack of production made one thing clear to me and that is that his position as an NHLer is that of a passenger, ala Pacioretty. He is simply just not one to drive a team into the playoffs, but someone who can be a pretty good secondary offensive option on a great team.

Now, if you want to call Drouin a bust because of his past draft status, despite him managing to score 50 points, be my guest and do it but I wouldn't though. He is a pretty flawed player, one that isn't consistent at all, but he still has offensive talent and tools that could see him post pretty strong numbers if he ever figures it all out (though I'm not holding my breath for it at this point).

In the end, he is a 50+points a year guy, with the potential to hit 60+ with a better powerplay, not one that you can build a team around, but still a pretty good player despite his warts and lack of consistency. The hate people have on him is partly justified by his soft play, but also quite overblown.

You want to give me an ETA on when " if he figures it out" might occur.

Does a Leopard know when he's gonna lose his spots?

The hate for drouin is, in my mind, 100 percent justified. Despite the fact that it is transparently clear that what worked in junior will not work in the nhl, he has shown himself to be either unwilling or incapable of changing.

Players with huge liabilities ( and let's not pretend that drouin isn't one) who do not change have but two choices. Produce at a level that the benefits outweighs the liabilities OR get used to riding the bus or looking at mls listings in countries far and wide.

If he changed he could stick. He's never shown any indication that he can.

 

[GOilers88]

Bust is subjective, but in my view you are a bust if you perform well below the expectation of someone drafted in your draft slot. I added the comparison to 3rd overall picks after him to my original post, but I was more comparing him to the average 3rd pick than those drafted after him.

The problem with this is everyone expects every top 5 18 year old to step into the NHL and be a game changer or else theyre simply a bust. Most of these kids arent given the benefit of the doubt that at 18, 19 and 20 years old that they are still kids.

"HE'S GOT NO HEART, HE DOESNT WANT IT HES LAZY AND A BUST LETS f***IN RIP THIS KID GOOD TO SHOW WE'RE PASSIONATE FANS!"

For every bonafide superstar, theres 15 other guys in the league who, while less talented, are still as important as that superstar to the overall success of the team. I dont care if some people have decided that a top 5 pick has to be a superstar like its a rule, it doesnt make someome a bust.

Sam Bennett is a great example of this around here. Kid is a f***in beauty and plays an important role on the 2nd best team in the league but everyone rips on him. The kid that couldnt do a pullup is the f***in jam on his team, go figure. Who cares how high of a pick was used on him if he became a cog in the wheel, honestly. I dont think Calgary would complain.

 

[HuGo Sham]

he''s a streaky top 6 winger. to say a bust is idiotic. his production went down when they pulled him off of domi's line. he needs a C to literally drag him into battle. it's unfortunate but that's his finesse game. He's not a puck winner, he likes to dangle and dish. he wasn't defensively responsible enough for claude to play with Domi - lehkonen replaced him, and tatar/danault/gallagher was a top 5 possession line in the whole league. he was left with kotkaniemi who's not an elite C yet. Not making excuses for him, but he needs to play with a C with jam.

He would have probably accumulated more points on PP - but habs missed both pacioretty and galchenyuk's shot

 

[Nsjohnson]

I'm pretty sure the definition of a "bust" is "a pretty big disappointment".

But are you 100% sure?

 

[LGB]

The problem with this is everyone expects every top 5 18 year old to step into the NHL and be a game changer or else theyre simply a bust. Most of these kids arent given the benefit of the doubt that at 18, 19 and 20 years old that they are still kids.

"HE'S GOT NO HEART, HE DOESNT WANT IT HES LAZY AND A BUST LETS ****IN RIP THIS KID GOOD TO SHOW WE'RE PASSIONATE FANS!"

I don't see bust as being a personal indictment on a player. Just a guy that was drafted way too high. The first part of what you said isn't at all applicable to Drouin considering he's 24, but I agree it's unfair to call guys 20 and under busts.

 

[GrandmaCookie]

Get your stats straight.

Last 28 games. 4 goals 11assists.

If you want to bash him. Do your homework

He has 1 goal in his last 25 games.

How about that. That's still inusltingly, puke-inducing awful.

 

[HabsQC]

It is time to review our definition of bust

 

[Cats2TheCup]

Would he be better with MacKinnon than Landeskog is?

 

[Blitzkrug]

52 points in 81 games? Which is right in line with his short career average.

That isn't a bust in the slightest. Sure he's not the savior Tampa thought they drafted or Montreal thought they were trading for but at that scoring clip he's still a bonafide top 6 forward

 

[OVrocks]

Not yet, give him 5 more years to adjust to the NHL.

 

[Michoulicious]

No, because he is not a bust.

 

[TT1]

Maybe we can trade him to Edmonton, there's still hope . McDavid needs a winger!

 

[llamateizer]

He has 1 goal in his last 25 games.

How about that. That's still inusltingly, puke-inducing awful.

Aho has 0 goal in his last 13 games. He must be a bust too.

 

[Frenchy]

Drouin is not a bust , he's gonna bounce back next year no doubt in my mind. He was good in his first 50-60 game but it went downhill in his last 20. Let's turn things arround a little , let say that his first 20 games of the season were so-so and that he was able to get his shit togetter for the last 60 games , what would everybody say ? People would probably say that he started slow but he was able to bounce back, over Drouin had a good season , better than expected.

I'm not worried at all he will have a good season next year and he's certainly not a bust.

 

[Price is Wright]

I get the feeling one day Montreal will ship him out and he'll play for a skilled centre and just rip it up. People said he looked great with Domi offensively and don't really understand why they were broken up.

I would love to see him somewhere like Carolina with Aho.