Scherbak is nothing like Kostitsyn who I watched in the AHL at 19 as well. Kostitsyn was way more raw, and looked lost in his own end but was stronger then Scherbak. Scherbak's passing/playmaking are a lot better then Kostitsyn's was at that age. In the AHL this year, you could often see Scherbak make just a sick pass that lesser skilled linemates just couldn't convert. For me I was disappointed in how much I overrated his lack of strength, it was very apparent that it's a big concern, he's got to get stronger especially the lower body as he was just pushed off the puck way too easily.
Plus his defensive game was a mess, although being moved to the toughest forward position just after returning from injury and having only played in a small handful of games as a pro while the rest of the league was in mid season form just seems like a really terrible way to develop your best prospect that was 19 for half the season. Or at least it put way more pressure on him then you would think an organization would want to do.
Just look at his stats. 48 games, 23 pts, which is a ppg of just under half a point per game. But in the final 22 games, just under half the season he played, he had 15 pts, which was good for a .68 ppg which over 76 games would be 52 pts, 5 less then Hudon had in his rookie year although he was 6 months older at the time.
Now keep in mind he had a major knee injury over the summer, so he wasn't at 100% to start the year, starts the season with DLR and Dumont and the line looks terrible. First 3 games no pts, the next 5 he has 3 pts, then gets injured, then comes back 18 days later for 1 game and gets injured about half way through that game. Then comes back after just playing about half a game over an 82 day span and goes 3 games, 0 pts but then gets 3 pts in the next 4 games. I believe it was after that on 1/30 or so they moved him to Center. 3 games no pts, then gets 2 pts in 2 games, then 0 in 5 games. But then he starts getting his legs under him and adjusting to the new position, gets 7 pts in the next 5 games and overall picks up 15 in 22 games. One problem with the numbers he put up at the end of the season were that he had 15 pts in 10 games and 0 pts in 12 games. Granted he was also moved from Center to LW for a few games for whatever reason (a position I don't recall hearing him play since we drafted him) and then back to center and then back to RW at times as well.
So consistency along with the injuries plagued him. In his total 48 games, which should really be 47 1/2 but in that time, 30 of those games he had 0 pts and 18 games he had 23 pts.
