Confirmed Signing with Link: F Josh Ho-Sang to the KHL

lawrence

Registered User
May 19, 2012
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I couldn't care less about any of the garbage you said, all I know is to the eye test and to the stat test he should have been given more playing time than he received, and unless I find out some other underlying reason why he was basically black-balled from the team, I am going to speculate what that reason is, and he did not sign with a KHL team yet as far as anything made public, it sounds like he is just "linked" to it

which is not a big enough picture. Also the reason why he might have signed a KHL contract yet is because their season is has come to a stop due to covid 19.
 

Shocker

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Dec 20, 2019
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Josh doesn't need to worry about his life, he has at least one knight in a shining armor.
 

Unbiased Fan

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May 24, 2019
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Nobody said he had a bad attitude because he was black. One troll brought race into this to make people react (and it worked), but Ho-Sang has had "Attitude" problems since he entered the NHL. He's not the first, not the last. Plenty of players get labelled as such because the NHL likes the "politically correct".

It's pretty incredible that no team claimed him on waivers, but hey if he can prove he has it in him in the KHL, maybe a team will take a chance.
I don’t think he has a bad attitude he’s just confident
 

Bronson

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Apr 5, 2007
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He didn't play a game suitable for the NHL. I'm sure he'll be more effective on a bigger rink in the KHL.
 

CanuckistanFlyerfan

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May 10, 2005
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I'll link an article below in my response below, and he said it in context of wanting to help people, so he does sound like he has a good heart to help others. However, not sure about how bad his "background" is:
" “Nothing’s been hard about my life. Nothing,” Ho-Sang says. "



I agree 100% on his personality being a factor here, and I think everyone agrees. I'm not sure how I was demeaning to him, it's true that he talks big and that he has not supported his big talk yet.

I was genuinely curious about the whole "do not trade list" thing and why Snow needed to defend the pick (sounds a little extreme for a junior player). Here's an article from 2014/2015, I actually thought it was a great read since it was a lot of him talking from his experience in juniors: Sunday Big Read: Josh Ho-Sang vs. the world - Sportsnet.ca

And a few key points I thought were interesting:

At the very start of the article, the writer states that Ho-Sang is on his own off the ice, trailing behind his teammates. That he is the last one on the ice and the first off the ice. Two things here:
  • He was not part of the group. Well, he was a new player in Niagara but still, did nobody try to include him? Did he just do his own things?
  • Last on the ice/first off: Major red flag for any outsider suggesting a lack of work ethic, usually. But given what we know about his (lack of) integration with the team, it could also suggest that he was actively avoiding his teammates off the ice for some reason?
Then, the whole story about hockey canada excluding him. Weird to say the least, as he was an excellent offensive junior player at the time. But Hockey Canada has always been about "team first" and they don't lack talent (even at the Olympic level, selections such as Chris Kunitz over Martin St-Louis have been criticized for example). But then you get this pearl:
  • As Ho-Sang tells it, the coaching staff blamed him for the loss. “They got mad at me and said I don’t play hockey properly, that if I don’t change my game I’m gonna end up playing in the coast [the ECHL],” Ho-Sang says. “It’s like, you guys are losers. You’re trying to blame the whole thing on me; you’re saying I’m uncoachable and all this stuff. And ever since then I haven’t been invited to a Hockey Canada camp. But you have the best team in the world on paper, and, what, we lost because of me?”
People can interpret it as they want, but it's kinda sad that this "ECHL" prediction is coming true. Also might explain the team Canada exclusions.

The article is also loaded with him talking of himself as the next superstar and how self-important he thinks he is - either that's a shit ton of confidence of straight up arrogance, but he never delivered even half of his extravagant promises.

Also, I have not seen him play in the juniors, but if the following is true, that's also a major red flag for any hockey team:

"There are nights when Ho-Sang tries to do too much, circling around the neutral zone with the puck on his stick for 15, 20, sometimes 30 seconds as he waits for the defence to make a mistake."

Surprisingly, the final quote is Ho-Sang admitting some fault and humility:

" I’ve definitely been tough to coach. But I’m definitely getting easier. I’m working on it. It’s patience. And it’s frustration. It’s tough adjusting. I’m trying to play a more complete game, be a more complete hockey player. We’ll see what happens next.”

Idk if he tried to conform to the Islander's vision, and him not being "rewarded" tilted him and he got pissed at management, but I think it's clear reading this article as to why NHL teams don't want to deal with him. Drama is one of the thing NHL teams want to avoid like plague, and his personality is just conductive to endless drama (again, from what I could glean in this article). Sounds like he has good human values, but it also sounds like he tries too hard to become a one-man show in a team sport.



Once again, I'm not trying to be demeaning to him. I just think it's a little far-fetch when I see people question where the off-ice red flags are, where they are so many on full display. Nevermind what's potentially being said behind closed doors. My impression is that if he plays the game the "right way", both on and off the ice, he'll get a second chance in the NHL.

I'm sorry for the long-winded response, I got carried away.


Nice post. It's clear the guy has talent. It's also clear he has issues. People that say they aren't being fair to him... while he's had the same problems following him around from junior through the NHL and he's now 24...not a teenager anymore...I don't know what to say. I highly doubt the OHL/Hockey Canada/the entire NHL all got together and decided to black ball poor JHS for no reason at all.
 
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Stuzchuk

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Mar 25, 2009
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you know when Ottawa with a VERY depleted roster dont even pick you up and you want to play hockey, another league it is

good luck to him in the KHL though
 

Bood12

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Oct 12, 2016
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'he is treated unfairly'

next clip is him taking the puck from his blue line into the defensive zone where turns over the puck behind his own net.
oh my god, a rookie who's positives far outweigh his negatives as that clip proves made him a mistake, do they have hockey in Australia? that is where Ho-Sang should play, Russia is to close
 

Porter Stoutheart

We Got Wood
Jun 14, 2017
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The world does not lack for hockey players. I think it's just something that becomes evident to most kids earlier on, say whenever they try out for a junior team at 16 or whatever. Even at lower tiers in junior, the onus is on the player to WANT to be on the team, to do everything they can to conform to the team's blueprint. And that's just how it is in hockey. Most kids get it and fall into line and understand that's the path to success. And most people wear a suit and tie to a job interview, etc.

A very very few individuals are such rock stars that they can get away with non-conformity if they happen to land in just the right situation at just the right time. So maybe it's understandable that some few slip through the cracks and don't develop an appreciation for what's expected from them. But no team is going to go out of their way for very long to accommodate those cases. There's a new boatload of draft picks coming in every year, there are more than enough hockey players available to any team at any level, and the vast majority of them are eager to conform to every request their team makes. I doubt Ho-Sang is a bad person in any way. Maybe he just missed the boat somewhere along the way in terms of understanding how hockey works. The NHL doesn't care, there are always new prospects on the horizon.

It'll probably be good for him to step outside the box for a little while in the KHL and see some more of the world as he continues to mature. The more he sees just how tiny a fish he is and how huge the ocean is for hockey in the world, the better it should be for him. And if he still loves the game enough and perseveres with it, no reason he can't come back at some point if things go well for him.
 

Anaheim4ever

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Jun 15, 2017
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Kunlun made a point to recruit many Canadian/American players of Asian descent last season, presumably driven by PR/optics to entice a new fanbase to tune in. Brandon Yip, Tyler Wong, Spencer Foo, Jason Fram, Brayden Jaw, Mikael Tam were all recruited for the inaugural season.
Is Paul Kariya their coach ?
 

Super Hans

Stats Evangelist
Oct 9, 2016
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Kunlun made a point to recruit many Canadian/American players of Asian descent last season, presumably driven by PR/optics to entice a new fanbase to tune in. Brandon Yip, Tyler Wong, Spencer Foo, Jason Fram, Brayden Jaw, Mikael Tam were all recruited for the inaugural season.
Don't think that was the answer they were looking for; great job taking the bait and leaving the hook empty.
 

Taluss

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Jul 28, 2018
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I didn’t realize he was on waivers... Duclair worked out well. I’d give him a shot as well. Wish we picked him up
 

varano

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Jun 27, 2013
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as an Islander fan I can't say I am opposed to seeing this , but I wouldn't be surprised if he never gets a shot again given how the NHL is


you know nothing about him
Do you think you're smarter than the 30+ teams that want nothing to do with him? Give your head a shake. He f***ing sucks. He's not even a career AHLer putting up 50 points. He sucks more than that.
 

Korpse

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oh my god, a rookie who's positives far outweigh his negatives as that clip proves made him a mistake, do they have hockey in Australia? that is where Ho-Sang should play, Russia is to close

That's not a mistake. It's something that I can guarantee he has been repeatedly told by coach after coach to stop doing. That's the type of play people are referring to when they say he isn't playing willing to play a team game. The trying to deke through multiple opponents after recovering a puck in the defensive zone, doesn't fly with any coach. That's not being held to a higher standard or being treated unfairly.
 

Diamonddog01

Diamond in the rough
Jul 18, 2007
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