OT: Seventh defenseman - Jakub Kindl

[heyfolks]

I thought the Kitchener incident played into his development. Add the depth of Detroit and the absolute lunatic coaching of Babcock (and I blame Holland for that ongoing nonsense) with this back story and he didn't have much of a shot to ever make it in Detroit's system.

Really thought his skill set would translate but he did not seem to be able to process and react at the NHL level. Having to play for Babcock likely impacted that, but so did his trials in life before then. I wish him well.

 

[DamonDRW]

I actually liked the story. He seems to be a bit of shy dreamy person. Worst possible case for Babcock style of coaching. Still Kindl managed to play in the best hockey league in the world. This is something, 99% of players do not achieve.

 

[lomekian]

Kindl had the skill to have a better NHL career than he did, and probably deserved more of a shot sooner, but that said, he didn't stick because he was too soft for his size. He coughed the puck too much under pressure, and wasn't good enough offensively at the NHL level to make up for it to play higher up the line up.

He's pretty honest in his account regarding himself and his shortcomings, and his account of Babs is totally plausible. There were times when Kindl was playing well and would just get taken out of the line-up in favour of worse d-men, which would not help a guy trying to rebuild his confidence after discovering that the NHL doesn't care how good you were at 17 - unless you were already NHL ready

 

[Dotter]

I was more excited about Kindl's development than I ever was about Brendan Smith. Smith showed nothing when I watched him in Grand Rapids--Never understood the hype. Turns out my excitement for Kindl was misplaced.

What did I learn? Watch these kids with little expectations and hope for the best. Although, Zadina flopping while being a 6th pick did sting a little.

 

[GMR]

I actually liked the story. He seems to be a bit of shy dreamy person. Worst possible case for Babcock style of coaching. Still Kindl managed to play in the best hockey league in the world. This is something, 99% of players do not achieve.

Didn't he hook up with a supermodel according to Henkka?

 

[Henkka]

Didn't he hook up with a supermodel according to Henkka?

Yeah, Miss Kosovo Universe 2011 - Aferdita Dreshaj. Singer (bad) and model (good).

She dumped Leonardo di Caprio at ~2011, before met with Kindl.

At 2010s' this Dreshaj family lived at Michigan, on those Kindl career days, I saw some videos from Youtube, they were just cruising with a car in Michigan (Aferdita with her sister) and talking in great English.

Then there has been Youtube full of their wedding from 2018 with Kindl. At least Abdelkader and Helm I think were seen as quests on the videos.

Aferdita and Jakub still seem be together, and got a baby boy at 2021.

Some articles say that they live at United States, but I'm not sure. All Instgram posts are mostly from Europe. Maybe from holidays, maybe not.

There they are, at Albanian capital:

Aferdita must be a big celebrity in a small country like Kosovo is. Kindl is just another hockeyplayer Czechs have produced in long long hockey history.

 

[ShelbyZ]

I know Holland wanted the shake up the country club atmosphere Dave Lewis had been running, so he hired Babcock. Plus, this is a direct quote “The worst practice players of all time are Yzerman, Robitaille, and me” -Darren McCarty lol. So maybe a 40 year old Yzerman just didn’t want Babs on his ass in training camp. And I know Babs wanted to motivate Shanahan as well coming in.

I always remember that from Babs first season. By the lockout, Shanahan had pretty much fully transitioned from being a power forward to being a middle class man's Brett Hull where he was just kind of waiting for his one timer opportunities. That first game against the Blues, Shanahan gets in a fight with Jamal Mayers and Ken and Mick talk at length about how Babcock wanted Shanahan to bring that every game. I don't think it lasted much longer outside of the beginning of the year. While he piled up some goals (and it obviously helped that Detroit got 8 games each against 3 of the worst teams in the league), he was an absolute ghost against the Oilers in the first round.

The other thing I remember is that when he left, for what was likely more money than what Holland wanted to pay, he said something about feeling like he was part of the Wings past (despite the team having a handful of guys that had been around longer than he had) and it was resonated with some fluff piece from Mitch Albom. Not even a week later, Ben Wallace leaves the Pistons to sign with the Bulls and Mitch Albom rakes him across the coals for being greedy or something like that.

It definitely seemed like Yzerman and Shanahan didn't want to go back to having a more demanding coach after Dave Lewis, but at the same time could still recognize that that coaching style could get a young core over the hump.

I seem to remember in either 05-06 or 06-07, there were rumors of a mutiny or at least some discontent in the locker room towards Babs. I remember there being a thread about it on RWC back in the day.

I can't remember the exact Podcast or some of the finer details, but at some point over the last few years, Jamie Rivers (who ironically got the same treatment Mike Commodore would get from Babs in Detroit) went into some detail about Mike Babcock taking over the locker room in 05/06. IIRC, one key point was that right from the get go in that first camp, Babcock had a separate meeting with veteran players that had some tenure or influence over the room (Shanahan, Lidstrom, Maltby, Draper, Osgood, Holmstrom, etc. etc.) and told them all something along the lines that they weren't that important to him and that he already knew of guys he could bring in to replace them. Also mentioned that at some point he got the team in front of a TV so he could point out mistakes that Lidstrom made while playing in the Olympics.

 

[GMR]

Yeah, Miss Kosovo Universe 2011 - Aferdita Dreshaj. Singer (bad) and model (good).

She dumped Leonardo di Caprio at ~2011, before met with Kindl.

At 2010s' this Dreshaj family lived at Michigan, on those Kindl career days, I saw some videos from Youtube, they were just cruising with a car in Michigan (Aferdita with her sister) and talking in great English.

Then there has been Youtube full of their wedding from 2018 with Kindl. At least Abdelkader and Helm I think were seen as quests on the videos.

Aferdita and Jakub still seem be together, and got a baby boy at 2021.

Some articles say that they live at United States, but I'm not sure. All Instgram posts are mostly from Europe. Maybe from holidays, maybe not.

There they are, at Albanian capital:

View attachment 745995


Aferdita must be a big celebrity in a small country like Kosovo is. Kindl is just another hockeyplayer Czechs have produced in long long hockey history.

I’m guessing you also know what kind of car she drives and the name of her favorite pet dog.

 

[jaster]

Babcock had a separate meeting with veteran players that had some tenure or influence over the room (Shanahan, Lidstrom, Maltby, Draper, Osgood, Holmstrom, etc. etc.) and told them all something along the lines that they weren't that important to him and that he already knew of guys he could bring in to replace them.

Lol, man I hope this is true. What a loser if it is. This is like a lieutenant walking up to a bunch of SNCOs, reminding them he’s in charge, and telling them they are replaceable as if he thinks they aren’t critical pieces to the team. All this would do is trigger a bunch of eye rolls. ‘How do I immediately lose the respect of my team leaders 101.’

 

[Henkka]

I’m guessing you also know what kind of car she drives and the name of her favorite pet dog.

I don't know. But Google probably knows.

 

[jaster]

I don't know. But Google probably knows.

But who's the ugliest GF/wife of all the players? Can you start a poll?

 

[AlwaysSunnyInDetroit]

But who's the ugliest GF/wife of all the players? Can you start a poll?

could be relevant scouting information