Nail Yakupov - How did the scouts get it wrong too?

[Stoneman89]

Assists? But like I said before, he was second on the team in SOG yet only shooting at 3%.

How he finishes up the season with McDavid is going to be critical in determining his future here. He's making bottom six money and worst-case scenario is he becomes just that.

Lol. I doubt Yak is paid to pile up assists. His primary function would be to score goals, a lot of them should be coming from his ticket item, the one timer. Most of those assists were from McD doing great things with Yak and Pouliot. He just reminds me a lot of times like a chicken with his head cut off, skating like a demon all over the ice, but at the end of the day, really accomplishing very little. Very frustrating.

 

[Stoneman89]

I wouldn't call Yaks a bust. A bust is some one who is out of the NHL. Yaks is a NHL player. If 1 is a Bust and 5 Is a superstar Yaks is a 2. He is a disappointment, underachiever, but he is a NHL player. We just have to settle that he will be a 20 goal 45 point player.

If you're drafted 1st overall, and on a weak team, in your 4th year, you're still trying to crack the top 6, I'd say you're pretty close to a bust.

 

[Stoneman89]

Did you watch the game tonight? Yak made several good plays tonight. Multiple good chips, one touch passes, good on the boards, Setup Eberle with an excellent chance, Recoverd pucks, threw some hits. Scored another goal.

But most importantly played a very sensible and complete game.

I think the talk would be about his overall body of work, not one night's effort. Apparently his current coach agrees. And I don't think he was that great last night anyhow.

 

[LockDown21]

Just what we need. More Yak bashing.

 

[hawks889]

If you're drafted 1st overall, and on a weak team, in your 4th year, you're still trying to crack the top 6, I'd say you're pretty close to a bust.

Hes on the verge of being a bust, comparing other 1st overall picks, and most by year 3 or 4 have started to become stars. because he is a 1st overall, he has to be judged by a higher standard. Being an NHL player is not good enough, he must be an impact player.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Hes on the verge of being a bust, comparing other 1st overall picks, and most by year 3 or 4 have started to become stars. because he is a 1st overall, he has to be judged by a higher standard. Being an NHL player is not good enough, he must be an impact player.

Relative to other 1st overalls he's long been a bust.

Relative to his draft class, he stacks up pretty well.

 

[McShogun99]

He can't even beat out Teddy friggin Purcell for a top 6 spot. I want to see Yakupov succeed but he needs to be better.

 

[backhandsauce]

Hands of stone. Skates like the wind but always into problem areas. Has a good shot and finishes checks.

Yak has to get it together here soon.

 

[Tw0Shoes]

Lol. I doubt Yak is paid to pile up assists. His primary function would be to score goals, a lot of them should be coming from his ticket item, the one timer. Most of those assists were from McD doing great things with Yak and Pouliot. He just reminds me a lot of times like a chicken with his head cut off, skating like a demon all over the ice, but at the end of the day, really accomplishing very little. Very frustrating.

Who cares as long as the teams is scoring and he's contributing to that? Crosby was a worse player because he didn't score as many as Ovechkin?

 

[Stoneman89]

Who cares as long as the teams is scoring and he's contributing to that? Crosby was a worse player because he didn't score as many as Ovechkin?

It matters because he's playing with an incredible setup man and we were not scoring enough to win more games than we were losing.

 

[Up the Irons]

The organization didn't trade this pick because they wanted something shiny and flashy to sell the fans after finishing 29th overall the year before. That's why Tambellini and the scouting department was over ruled when they wanted to draft Murray first overall. This rebuild has never been about building a winning team. It's been about giving the fans a reason to buy tickets while they wait for the new arena to open. If this team was serious about building a winner they would have moved some of the excess forwards they have to try and balance the roster long before now.

I don't think they didn't want to build a winner, they simply miscalculated how to do it. They thought it would be easy to acquire decent Dmen. They thought the league was going towards a finesse game.

And, above all, they thought Gagner, Yak, Ebs and even RNH, were/are much better players then they actually were/are.

When u consider that those 4, smallish, non-physical forwards were supposed to be our top 6 core, is it any wonder they failured so colossally? It's hard to believe Lowe/MacT actually thought that was a forward core you could win multiply cups with. That core wouldn't win the Calder Cup.

If and when this team is ever a contender, I dare say 3, and maybe even all 4, of those forwards will be gone.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

It matters because he's playing with an incredible setup man and we were not scoring enough to win more games than we were losing.

honestly I think both Yak and Hall are better players when they do as little as possible.....and that the opposite is true for Ebs and Nuge.

Hall and Yak are really good athletes....they can get to pucks faster and make plays along the boards quicker/etc.

("quicker/etc.")

Nuge and Ebs are smart and need to figure out how to beat systems or matchups and beat players one-on-one/etc.

The Oilers are terrible at getting players to play to their advantages.....everyone has to do everything or bust.....realize ALL of your potential...or BUST....

We need to start incorporating specialists.....not that Hall isn't capable of going wordlbeater but that happens sparingly.

 

[GMofOilers]

I won't comment on the type of player Yak is. Many on here know my worries about him after year 2 here.

Count me as a person who seen Yak live in juniors and he impressed the hell out of me so I can see why scouts raved about him. I seen the same dam things!

Time and space in the NHL is the difference. A nano second makes a big difference. Athletes depend on muscle memory from hours of repetitive practice. Why hasn't this happened for Nail? I'm not going to speculate cause I don't know.

People love blaming Eakins but at this point a lot of the blame has to be on Nail himself. It's up to him to become the player he wants to be. It's like that for every player in the league.

As per Clone question why did scouts get it so wrong. You have to assume these young kids can adjust to the time and space like 90% of them do. Becoming more obvious every year Nails brain can't process fast enough. He does have the skills IMO.

Kyle Turris is the last hyped player that was a sure fire Sakic/Yzerman that I remember the scouts getting it totally wrong on. Scouts did rave about his hockey IQ iirc and good on him for carving out a career. Maybe that's the difference, hockey IQ? Or maybe we should just keep blaming Eakins?

 

[Up the Irons]

I won't comment on the type of player Yak is. Many on here know my worries about him after year 2 here.

Count me as a person who seen Yak live in juniors and he impressed the hell out of me so I can see why scouts raved about him. I seen the same dam things!

Time and space in the NHL is the difference. A nano second makes a big difference. Athletes depend on muscle memory from hours of repetitive practice. Why hasn't this happened for Nail? I'm not going to speculate cause I don't know.

People love blaming Eakins but at this point a lot of the blame has to be on Nail himself. It's up to him to become the player he wants to be. It's like that for every player in the league.

As per Clone question why did scouts get it so wrong. You have to assume these young kids can adjust to the time and space like 90% of them do. Becoming more obvious every year Nails brain can't process fast enough. He does have the skills IMO.

Kyle Turris is the last hyped player that was a sure fire Sakic/Yzerman that I remember the scouts getting it totally wrong on. Scouts did rave about his hockey IQ iirc and good on him for carving out a career. Maybe that's the difference, hockey IQ? Or maybe we should just keep blaming Eakins?

It's difficult to pinpoint any one reason why Yak was so elite at Junior, yet barely NHL calibre as a top 6 forward. But, I'm with you on Eakins; the time for blaming anyone other than the player has passed.

 

[Replacement*]

It's difficult to pinpoint any one reason why Yak was so elite at Junior, yet barely NHL calibre as a top 6 forward. But, I'm with you on Eakins; the time for blaming anyone other than the player has passed.

Is it really?

And why selectively with this player?

Yak has had a grand total of 27GP to figure it out post Eakins.

Also, Yak gets far less minutes than other players and a look at his stats should probably involve consideration.

For instance Yak has 399mins played this season. He has 4G 10A 14pts in that toi. An appreciable amount of his minutes have also been bottomsix

Conversely a player like Nuge, who has had several seasons to figure it out has played way more than twice the minutes Yak has, 912mins, and has 8G 22A 30pts despite getting a lot better linemates than Yak on the whole and has had ZERO bottomsix minutes.

Even if we look at EV play alone Yak has 3G in less than half the minutes Nuge took to score 6.

Whats the diff?

Nuge gets better linemates.

So wheres the thread castigating Nuge and wondering about bust? just saying

 

[molsonmuscle360]

Hasn't he been playing exactly what should be wanted out of a player of his skill set since he got back from injury? 2 goals in 4 games, and a larger percentage of his shifts he has pushed for offence, taken more shots, and seems to be taking more of a quick shot approach then a jump around with the puck approach. And everyone is still on him.

 

[Philly85*]

Hasn't he been playing exactly what should be wanted out of a player of his skill set since he got back from injury? 2 goals in 4 games, and a larger percentage of his shifts he has pushed for offence, taken more shots, and seems to be taking more of a quick shot approach then a jump around with the puck approach. And everyone is still on him.

it's why they should trade him. The guy has been put through the ringer here, hasn't fit well at all since day 1, with fans or the media. Get him outta here, I'm okay with it, I don't even care what for.

 

[Still DRAI]

So wheres the thread castigating Nuge and wondering about bust? just saying

There's been posts like this in every GDT lately, and this viewpoint is equally as wrong as the "Yak has already achieved what little success he ever will and will only get worse" viewpoint.

 

[Replacement*]

There's been posts like this in every GDT lately, and this viewpoint is equally as wrong as the "Yak has already achieved what little success he ever will and will only get worse" viewpoint.

Well that's the bingo.

This thread is patently ridiculous. A similar thread on RNH would be similarly ridiculous.

That was my point.

 

[molsonmuscle360]

it's why they should trade him. The guy has been put through the ringer here, hasn't fit well at all since day 1, with fans or the media. Get him outta here, I'm okay with it, I don't even care what for.

Or hey, here's a novel idea. How about Oilers fans stop finding one or two players on the team every year that they need to blame absolutely everything on? Oh, Nillson wanders out of his net and makes a stupid play...Must be Yak's fault. Lander makes lazy back checks and leaves an open man that scores? Justin Schultz!

And a large number of fans love Yak. Sure some people just want him out of here, for good reasons (hasn't lived up to his hype), bad reasons (playing the style everyone knows he will play), and disgusting reasons (Russian, Muslim, etc).

In the last 4 games Yak has led the team in scoring opportunities, playing mostly with guys like Letestu and Lander. What if last nights late line changing was preparing us for Yak/McDavid/Eberle? Yak could easily get 12 goals in the last 20 games with those guys.

 

[McTedi]

Well that's the bingo.

This thread is patently ridiculous. A similar thread on RNH would be similarly ridiculous.

That was my point.

Different players and situations though. I think a lot of people root for Yak because he plays so expressively and even in interviews is quite candid (which often hurts him as well) so any criticism is met with an army of defendants. I don't think scouts were wrong but the jump to the NHL is huge and not everyones game can translate into success. And in Yak's case I think the jury is still out, I'd personally like to see one more go around with McD. It would be nice if someone could put RNH's hockey sense and IQ into Yak because I think that is what he lacks the most

 

[McTedi]

Or hey, here's a novel idea. How about Oilers fans stop finding one or two players on the team every year that they need to blame absolutely everything on? Oh, Nillson wanders out of his net and makes a stupid play...Must be Yak's fault. Lander makes lazy back checks and leaves an open man that scores? Justin Schultz!

And a large number of fans love Yak. Sure some people just want him out of here, for good reasons (hasn't lived up to his hype), bad reasons (playing the style everyone knows he will play), and disgusting reasons (Russian, Muslim, etc).

In the last 4 games Yak has led the team in scoring opportunities, playing mostly with guys like Letestu and Lander. What if last nights late line changing was preparing us for Yak/McDavid/Eberle? Yak could easily get 12 goals in the last 20 games with those guys.

The russian factor isn't necessarily race or religion though, it's the fact that if a player doesn't like his situation they can go back home and play, and for fairly good money as well. So when I see a bias against Russian born players most times that is the cause. If it's for the reasons you mentioned then yes, I agree it is quite disgusting.

 

[Oi'll say!]

Yakupov had two seasons of Eakins during his formative years. No Oiler fwds or defensemen progressed even a tiny bit while Eakins was here.

 

[frag2]

Is it really?

And why selectively with this player?

Yak has had a grand total of 27GP to figure it out post Eakins.

Also, Yak gets far less minutes than other players and a look at his stats should probably involve consideration.

For instance Yak has 399mins played this season. He has 4G 10A 14pts in that toi. An appreciable amount of his minutes have also been bottomsix

Conversely a player like Nuge, who has had several seasons to figure it out has played way more than twice the minutes Yak has, 912mins, and has 8G 22A 30pts despite getting a lot better linemates than Yak on the whole and has had ZERO bottomsix minutes.

Even if we look at EV play alone Yak has 3G in less than half the minutes Nuge took to score 6.

Whats the diff?

Nuge gets better linemates.

So wheres the thread castigating Nuge and wondering about bust? just saying

I think the thing with Yak is you give him the minutes, he doesn't know what to do with most of it. And since our D is so weak, he'll be left trying to play defense and we know how that'll turn out. Nuge is arguably "better" but that's likely because he can read the game better than Yak.

That said, Nuge is also a disappointment considering what he has to work with relative to Yak. All them glory minutes and still average to below average impact.

If only someone can fuse Nuge's brains with Yak's physical abilities and drive.

 

[OilTastic]

the Oilers got burned to a certain extent with RNH and sure as hell have with Nail in that what we really needed were impact players and what we got were support players with the both of them. thing is it was either Nuge or d-man Adam Larsson as well as either Nail or d-man Ryan Murray and neither Larsson or Murray have set the world on fire themselves, so i don't believe we would have even been a better team if this scenario had played out .