Legionnaire
Help On The Way
McDonald19 said:He worked hard his first season. Steve Thomas had him working hard on that line. The Ducks cut Thomas and Oates lose, a lot of veteran leadership was lost.
He was NHL ready then he decided to get lazy. Just because he got lazy in the offseason does not mean he wasn't NHL ready during his rookie season.
The disagreement that we are having is more than just semantics. Many players CAN PLAY in the NHL but it doesn't mean that they are NHL READY. He's simply too immature, and not dedicated enough to ever have been considered NHL ready. As you pointed out, his game went to poop without veteran leadership, and not being able to where he wanted to. Make no mistake that says a lot about his maturity level; which is something that is necessary in order to truly be considered "NHL ready"