no need to worry.. theyre older more experience, and they have spent years in the AHL polishing their game. Stone and Hoffman at 19 wouldnt survive in the NHL. and they had to work on HUGE HUGE chunks in their game to prepare for it. i think they are both benefitting from lazars style of play, they dont need to worry about much, except going out their a playing their game...
Lazar kind of reminds me of a shorter zetterberg, less mitts though. but just the way teammates feed off him
agree no need to worry, but here's a thing....
yes stone and hoffman had to
really work on deficiencies in the ahl for years. strength, skating, defense/play without the puck, consistency, etc. They have both shown huge improvements. most apparent is stone's skating.
Now because lazar doesn't show those deficiencies to the same degree preventing him from contributing at this level, is there less pressure on him now to improve from
his starting point(19)/base level?
I know he will be working hard to improve overall, but will he be pushed
as hard(by others and himself) as hoffman and stone were? Do players like him miss out on some levels of improvement from their base level because they are already capable of handling themselves in the NHL?
I'm going to guess this happens more in other organizations compared to ottawa. I'm pretty confident ottawa knows what they are doing when it comes to developing.
How good would lazar be in 3-4 years if he shows the same amount of improvements as those two? And is that reasonable to expect?