Working hard is not the issue with Letang and never has been. Less is more for him. Less. Is. More.
I agree, and it's the same issue with Despres, Pouliot and most young players, especially Dmen. That's why we see ups and downs with various players, sophomore slumps, etc.
I think we all know what Kris Letang's issues are, but the difference is the level of patience and perspective that people have about him improving on that. In my mind, I have zero doubt that Kris will get things figured out and improve his game, just like Paul Martin and other players have done before him. Some people, OTOH, think that just because it's been 30 interspersed games with various partners, that he should be slain or traded and that he is beyond improvement (or are putting their own self-assessed arbitrary limits on how much he can improve and tie it to his cap hit, without taking into account the changing salary cap and economic projections), and thus determining he's not worth being here.
As I've said with similar circumstances before: we are NOT actually in a position at this point where Letang's salary is actually causing us a problem in terms of opportunity cost and having to forego adding another player. We simply extended a very good, young and sought-after Dman at market value, giving us a great asset to keep or trade. People are acting and stating that Letang is/has actually gotten in the way of/prevented us from acquiring high-end wingers or whatever, when in reality that is false. Letang was on this team when we went after Parise and Suter. And if we had gotten a high-priced player and needed to open up some cap room, I would sooner have moved an Orpik or Jokinen or other players before dumping Kris or what: letting him leave as a UFA?
I'm not pointing these latter statements all at you. I'm just saying there is no sense of perspective and a lot of people putting carts before horses on this issue; and an absolute lack of patience and jumping to conclusions about this player and the idea that his game is beyond repair/improvement, or even the idea that relatively unproven commodities like Despres or Pouliot can just step right in and bring what Kris does when he's playing well.