I think appealing to time is a non-argument. What we're doing here is discussing about optimization and gaining edges in development, production, performance, results etc.
Simply saying "they're young, the book isn't written yet" doesn't actually invest in anything. Are you pro or opposed to decision X made by the team? That's what sports talk really is. We discuss the games and the decisions made between the games.
@417
Man some folks are feeling triggered apparently lol.
I got no issues with critiquing a player’s game, that’s never been the issue.
I also think it’s reasonable to not put too much focus on the now, prospects after all, by nature, are about PROJECTING….
If we take the cases of Kotkaniemi or Slafkovsky…the projectability was/is obvious, but when one simply and exclusively focuses on the now and ignores context, well you get discussions like we’re having now.
When you’re talking about investing in something…investments aren’t always about immediate dividends, in fact they’re almost always about future dividends.
Are we as Habs fans or more importantly, is the team, willing to invest in players development when they’re 18-19, in order to reap the rewards that “should” come when those players are 23-24?
Can we start to understand that struggling at 18-19-20 is actually typical for most players and it doesn’t have to mean that they won’t ever find their games?