Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

[McDeepika]

I don't think it is simply a problem of being skinny.

He was skinny in his rookie year, but he was constantly owning guys in the corners. I remember him having his way with guys like Morrow and Duchene. He was so good with his angles that year. Seemed like he could steal the puck off of anybody.

I don't see that same player anymore. Probably due to the injuries I would imagine. He should be fine moving forward. I don't worry about him like I do Eberle/Yakupov.

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

I don't think it is simply a problem of being skinny.

He was skinny in his rookie year, but he was constantly owning guys in the corners. I remember him having his way with guys like Morrow and Duchene. He was so good with his angles that year. Seemed like he could steal the puck off of anybody.

I don't see that same player anymore. Probably due to the injuries I would imagine. He should be fine moving forward. I don't worry about him like I do Eberle/Yakupov.

Again was most of his time in his rookie season spent against top competition? What was his competition in his rookie season versus now? These guys he was owning we're they Sedins, Kopitars, etc? Or we're they 2/3/4th liners?

Was he up against coaching who probably regarded him as much of a factor early on? Is he the focus of teams more now than before?


Saying he isn't producing at a superior pace is a bit strange to me is all. I'd like to know all these details above before I start sounding the alarm on a guy who has played 1.8 seasons worth of games.

He isn't a dumb player and I think he will become a pretty good 2 way C and I am certainly not giving up on him after 132 games, where a good portion of them were playing injured. He's on pace for like 62 points currently, I mean if he had 1 very good game where he got 3 or 4 points he'd be on pace for around 70 points and I think people would complain less.

It's also not like he's playing with defensively responsible people around him. It'll get better I think.

 

[Seedling]

In the last few games before Gordon got injured Eakins was starting to shelter RNH. But before that he had RNH going head to head against the other teams top lines and he was getting burnt hard. Playing him 25 minutes a night in his first few games back, Eakins burnt the kid out early.

When is Gordon set to come back? I know he makes the rest of the team better and takes the tough assignments. Right now is really what I was referring to in my post (should have been more clear)

Honestly, RNH has shown he does have the capability play against opposing teams' top lines... he just needs to do it for 7/8 minutes instead of 15. We need to send him, Eberle, Gagner, and J Schultz to Gary Roberts over the summer.

Completely agree. It should not be optional.

 

[Crabapple]

RNH hit 100 career points tonight, in 132 nhl games. Good start for the kid hopefully he can continue to improve, and stay healthy

 

[Spawn]

Figure I'd bump the thread since I think some more discussion on RNH is due at this point.

Started the thread 16 games into his season. He had 12 points in those 16 games and was -12. At the time he was on pace for 20 goals and 60 points in 80 games. For various reasons many said they weren't yet concerned.

In his last 50 games here is his stat line:

11 goals 21 assists 32 points. (17 goal 51 point pace based on 80 games)

In comparison, everyones favourite whipping boy Sam Gagner in that same stretch has

7 goals 23 assists 30 points in 49 games.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has now had more than enough time to have his shoulder fully heal and get up to 100%. He is in yet another prolonged goalscoring slump which is something that has plagued him all the way since juniors. Instead of getting stronger as the season has gone on he has seemingly regressed. Frankly at this point he will be lucky to match the offensive output he had in 62 games in his rookie season in 80 games this year.

Anyone else getting as concerned as I have been for nearly the entire season? Or are people still confident in his ability to lead this team as a #1 center?

 

[Pablo Aimar]

Figure I'd bump the thread since I think some more discussion on RNH is due at this point.

Started the thread 16 games into his season. He had 12 points in those 16 games and was -12. At the time he was on pace for 20 goals and 60 points in 80 games. For various reasons many said they weren't yet concerned.

In his last 50 games here is his stat line:

11 goals 21 assists 32 points. (17 goal 51 point pace based on 80 games)

In comparison, everyones favourite whipping boy Sam Gagner in that same stretch has

7 goals 23 assists 30 points in 49 games.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has now had more than enough time to have his shoulder fully heal and get up to 100%. He is in yet another prolonged goalscoring slump which is something that has plagued him all the way since juniors. Instead of getting stronger as the season has gone on he has seemingly regressed. Frankly at this point he will be lucky to match the offensive output he had in 62 games in his rookie season in 80 games this year.

Anyone else getting as concerned as I have been for nearly the entire season? Or are people still confident in his ability to lead this team as a #1 center?

I don't think this guy is never going to put up big numbers at even strength. He will be a power play specialist. The power play sucks this year = his numbers are down. If this team hopes to make the playoffs next year (lol) they need to replace Gagner with someone who can take the tough minutes at centre and let RNH play against easier competition.

I am also hesitant to throw any of these guys under the bus until they have a year under a competent coach. Krueger sucked and Eakins is even worse.

 

[LTIR]

meh he is breaking Blad!! stay cold o Nuge... save your scoring for next season..

Nuge had 4 hits and was 73% on the dot tonight.. His seemed a lot more slick before and had an extra gear when he was a rookie... Looks like he is doing too much now or has been figured out by the dmen and goalies.

Our skilled players are too easy to neutralize it seems... especially on the road.

 

[BleedingOil]

The kid is 20 years old and is learning the game. He had no offseason training and is clearly fatigued. Were you really expecting him to dominate this year?

 

[Spawn]

The kid is 20 years old and is learning the game. He had no offseason training and is clearly fatigued. Were you really expecting him to dominate this year?

I was hoping that he wouldn't be trending to be the worst forward picked first overall in 15 years (next to Yakupov of course).

Players picked where he was picked are expected to be stars in this league, and relatively quickly. There is a long history of forwards getting picked first overall and becoming stars very early in their careers. RNH isn't even close.

 

[Karsa Orlong]

This week, pretty sure it was Stuaffer that said Nuge has gained 9 lbs since the start of the season and has been training hard to add size through the season, and it might be affecting his play somewhat.

 

[gofafeads]

I was hoping that he wouldn't be trending to be the worst forward picked first overall in 15 years (next to Yakupov of course).

Can we wait until at least next year before we ride him off? he has only really played 2 full seasons (168 games) with all his injuries. He has the most hockey sense of all the kids and sees the ice extremely well, his head is always up swivelling to find an open man. I think he just needs to hit his groove and be over his injuries. Just look at taylor hall and how not having injuries has benefitted him.

 

[gofafeads]

This week, pretty sure it was Stuaffer that said Nuge has gained 9 lbs since the start of the season and has been training hard to add size through the season, and it might be affecting his play somewhat.

Do you have the link? If he gained weight during the season that would be great but I really doubt it. He would have to eat a lot of food to just keep the weight he has right now let alone gain weight in the right form which is muscle mass. The way players are, they loose so many calories during the season just with all the practice, games, warm-ups, and post game cool downs (when they ride the stationary bikes). I remember watching at the 2010 draft when hall and seguin were talking to daniel briere he said he had to decrease the stiffness in his stick as the season went on because he lost strength.

 

[Karsa Orlong]

Do you have the link? If he gained weight during the season that would be great but I really doubt it. He would have to eat a lot of food to just keep the weight he has right now let alone gain weight in the right form which is muscle mass. The way players are, they loose so many calories during the season just with all the practice, games, warm-ups, and post game cool downs (when they ride the stationary bikes). I remember watching at the 2010 draft when hall and seguin were talking to daniel briere he said he had to decrease the stiffness in his stick as the season went on because he lost strength.

I heard it live, it was one of the episodes this week, might have even been today. I listen to sports radio nonstop at work so it all just kind of blends in lol.

 

[BoHorvatFan]

He's going to be a star just wait. Henrik sedin was putting up 30 points at his age, he will put up a 100 point season at some point. He's still a kid, he looks like a kid and needs some patience!

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

He's going to be a star just wait. Henrik sedin was putting up 30 points at his age, he will put up a 100 point season at some point. He's still a kid, he looks like a kid and needs some patience!

And the Oilers have done just a flatout awful job developing him. If it wasn't for Yakupov he'd be the most mismanaged first overall in recent memory.

He'll be fine. If he was with any other team, he'd already be on his way.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Still not even close to worried about him. This season has been a complete write-off for pretty much the whole team. His rehab was much shorter than Hall's as well so there's a good chance that he's still not 100%. Then he took a pair of knee on knees early in the season and was getting a ton of minutes to boot. Kid needs to be better, hopefully he'll be healthy at the end of the season and he can work hard in the offseason to get back on track.

 

[Zaddy]

It's promising that he's putting on weight. Hopefully he'll come out the gates firing next season. Have to wait a while longer before we scream bust on this one.

 

[thadd]

I'm kinda willing to consider this season a wash. Our top players start too many shifts in their own zone and end up exhausted by the time they get into the offensive zone. I think that at least 60% of this problem is because of our crappy d-men.

I'm willing to buy into the idea that Hopkins is tired. He plays way too many minutes for someone who's coming off of shoulder surgery and constantly trying to put on more weight.

Another point to pay attention to his is line-mates at times. I think having him with Hall and Yak or Eberle and Perron is OK, but I don't like any of the other combinations.

That's right. I don't want to see Hall-Hopkins-Eberle. I don't think Hall's style of play suits Hopkins very well. At least not this year. I like Hall and Yak together because they've got blazing speed and they work their ***** off in a similar fashion.

Perron and Eberle go well together because they're effective players from thinking things out really well. Perron is chippy and causes a lot of distractions and that makes him good for Ebs in my mind.

 

[OilerTyler]

Doesn't seem like that long ago that myself and a couple others were getting grilled for suggesting that we wait and see how Nuge plays this season before giving him a huge long term contract.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Not concerned about Nuge at all at this point he had some cold streaks in junior too, he'll bounce back soon enough. He really needs to go hard this off-season though he should get himself one of the best personal trainers he can find along with a nutritionist and possibly a personal chef and a masseuse to aid in muscle recovery, if your making $6 million you shouldn't be afraid to spend a bit extra to get yourself up to that next level.

 

[Gone]

Is he worth 6 million per?

 

[Replacement*]

Its fine to be not worried I guess but a real concern at this point is how much this player is seen to not be generating anything in the absence of Hall.

I'm sure in response to this I'll be seeing 5 hackneyed posts detailing a quantum analysis of how RNH is somehow better without Hall and that Hall sucks potato chips when not playing with Nuge...

Except that nothing could be more evident that Nuge is requiring Halls size, jump, physical ability, speed, and go to the net game to generate much. Theres complete games where were seeing this line not even generate scoring chances.

I'll add of course if Yak and Eberle are paired with another young center and that line is having trouble producing the tar and pitchforks are out in abundance.

In other threads some video of Nuge was presented from his rookie season which was shocking in that it showed Nuge making moves, fakes, etc that I'm rarely seeing from him this year or last. As if the confidence and swagger is all gone.
I worry too that the presence of half assing it vets like Horc and Hemmer pulled a number on this players drive. That the "this is enough effort" approach taught him to cut some corners. So now rather than battling hard we see a player that looks at the opposition and figures its too hard, Oilers don't have a chance, and some going through the motions. Well, weve seen a lot of going through the motions.

 

[Hoogaar23]

Think the Avs would trade Landeskog and Mackinnon for Yak and RNH?

I'm not ready to ship him off or anything just yet, but like Replacement says, just look at the difference in confidence and swagger from his rookie year - to me, it's a pretty stark contrast.

 

[gofafeads]

Its fine to be not worried I guess but a real concern at this point is how much this player is seen to not be generating anything in the absence of Hall.

I'm sure in response to this I'll be seeing 5 hackneyed posts detailing a quantum analysis of how RNH is somehow better without Hall and that Hall sucks potato chips when not playing with Nuge...

Except that nothing could be more evident that Nuge is requiring Halls size, jump, physical ability, speed, and go to the net game to generate much. Theres complete games where were seeing this line not even generate scoring chances.

I'll add of course if Yak and Eberle are paired with another young center and that line is having trouble producing the tar and pitchforks are out in abundance.

Who cares if hall makes rnh better or if rnh makes hall better. There are 3 players on each forward line for a reason. The coach should be putting these players in a position to succeed even if rnh rides off of hall. We have both players on this team, might as well use them where they are producing at the highest rate.

 

[GMofOilers]

Hes going to be fine. He has the highest potential out of any of our players.

Didnt he just have a serious shoulder surgery last summer?

He might be in a little bit of a slump but really who wouldnt be playing with Yakapov? The guy really shouldnt be in the NHL let alone top 6 this year.