How could you, its been 16 games for Lafrieniere, what the heck is he waiting for lol. Fox hasn't hit a softmore slump like most do, Kakko looks worlds better, Miller has been impressive, Chytil way better, Lindgren went from being an AHL player to a top 4 dman, Buchnevich has become a real hockey player. I can understand an argument for other things but developing complete hockey players isn't a something thats an issue for this staff. If you want an explanation for Lafrieniere vs Stutzle point totals, one went to world juniors the other didn't, it was a mistake to have him sitting for 10 months.
I'm not crediting David Quinn with Adam Fox the second coming of Brian Leetch for not having a sophomore slump. Miller has looked great since day 1 as did Fox. They came to us as complete players. It's great that they're doing well and good on Quinn for giving them tons of minutes but I am looking for improvements especially with the forwards. We're set on defense. It also took Martin to get this defense in order after 4 terrible years with Ruff. Quinn admitted to the fact that it was a fire drill his first 2 years prior to Martin. I'll give him partial credit for the progress of Lindgren, Fox, Miller, etc.
Going onto his 3rd year, none of our forwards has broken out. Chytil and Kakko look great and I'm excited but at the end of the day, talent this good and in a rebuild, we need 40+ point production at some point. So far none of our forwards have cracked 30 points in a full 82 game season. Flashes of talent is not enough. These two players are supposed to be our future. Ideally I'd like one of our Gauthier, Lemieux, Howden, Andersson 2nd tier forwards to have cemented a role as a middle 6 player putting up 30+ points but so far, nothing. In fact Lemmy and Howden in their 3rd year are on pace to finish the same or worse than both of their prior years. Static. zero growth. Their on ice attributes are identical as well. Kakko was frustrated at the end of last year and stopped trying to be creative under Quinn's "don't do this, don't do that" coaching. Andersson and Kravstov were rubbed the wrong way in their short stint under Quinn. Let's face it, Chytil improving is like 50% the fact that he's grown into a man's body. Quinn gets only partial credit for that. If he puts up say 60 point pace by the end of the season, I'll give Quinn full credit but flashes of talent isn't enough.
I'm not looking for the hockey version of Disney's on ice spectacle: Genghis Khan, the Greatest Conquest of Mankind's History on skates but so far out of the forwards that have had a chance to take a step in our rebuild under Quinn: Lemieux, Howden, Gauthier, Kakko, Lafreniere, Chytil, Andersson, Kravstov, so far we've peaked with "wow, our 2nd overall pick has legs and he's really using 'em!"
