Player Discussion Yak Talk Part IV: It's nearly time... For camp

[Chet Manley]

Yak seems like such a great person and still a player with offensive potential. Hard not to pull for him to excel. He looks lost and confused with no confidence... no ideal when/if that will change.

IMO there are two options;
1)fresh start by trading him for little return or
2)hand him on offensive role and stick too it through the big bumps. He might not be the type of person that responds well to negative reinforcement.(benching, constant line demotion) Biggest work, stop the turnovers coming out the d-zone and feed his love of the game.

 

[Bangers]

If Yak is willing to listen to him, Lucic could be a good mentor for him. By most accounts, Lucic is a complete professional in terms of training, diet and watching video. Also, while Yak doesn't exactly need protection, it can't be bad to know that if a player runs you from behind, your teammates are going to get in there.

 

[McDavyCrockett]

Why were there rumors about Hall and Eberle bullying Yakupov? Something I'm missing?

 

[Wadewilson]

Let's keep yak, either he scores 30 with Mcdavid or if his trade value doesn't go up we put him out there on expansion and maybe they take him over Davidson...

 

[McTedi]

If Yak is willing to listen to him, Lucic could be a good mentor for him. By most accounts, Lucic is a complete professional in terms of training, diet and watching video. Also, while Yak doesn't exactly need protection, it can't be bad to know that if a player runs you from behind, your teammates are going to get in there.

This is absolutely correct, I think Lucic could have a profound influence on Yak.

 

[nexttothemoon]

I think this team really needed to have a guy like Jagr on it... in those formative years when all those youngsters were in that early rebuild phase... it would have been nice to have someone with that level of experience and who could bring that level of professionalism to the team.

The team had/has some of that in Smyth/Hendricks/Ference etc... but I think someone like Jagr could have made a positive impact on these young players instead of having the green players essentially being thrown into that leadership role when they weren't ready to take that on yet.

Look at Roy and the impact he seemingly had... would have been a cheap asset to even keep him around if it meant squeezing some success out of Yak.

 

[McPuritania]

If Yak is willing to listen to him, Lucic could be a good mentor for him. By most accounts, Lucic is a complete professional in terms of training, diet and watching video. Also, while Yak doesn't exactly need protection, it can't be bad to know that if a player runs you from behind, your teammates are going to get in there.

This is absolutely correct, I think Lucic could have a profound influence on Yak.

I'm really interested to see Yak play this year. I hope he's on the roster come October. With the departure of Hall, and the addition of Lucic, this could be the perfect storm of confidence for this guy. We all know confidence is a huge factor with Yak, so I'll be interested to see what transpires.

 

[Replacement*]

I'm really interested to see Yak play this year. I hope he's on the roster come October. With the departure of Hall, and the addition of Lucic, this could be the perfect storm of confidence for this guy. We all know confidence is a huge factor with Yak, so I'll be interested to see what transpires.

Its been nice as well for Chia and Mclellan to help Yak out by understating his past attempts to get traded/past statement Yaks agent has made.

This seems consistent with a lets just move on and get past this and I hope its the case. Past management would countinue to piss on yaks cornflakes and see him off the gangplank. Theres still a potential player here, and maybe some more help for him now.

 

[belair]

Its been nice as well for Chia and Mclellan to help Yak out by understating his past attempts to get traded/past statement Yaks agent has made.

This seems consistent with a lets just move on and get past this and I hope its the case. Past management would countinue to piss on yaks cornflakes and see him off the gangplank. Theres still a potential player here, and maybe some more help for him now.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. There's still three months of summer left. Still lots of cornflakes to piss on...

 

[frag2]

Why were there rumors about Hall and Eberle bullying Yakupov? Something I'm missing?

There weren't. Just BS by pro-Yak fans to stir **** with 2 Canadians vs a Euro

 

[DerpMorg]

I have been critical of Yakupov in the past, and still am, but I honestly see this as a fresh slate for him to work with. Hopefully he does something with it.

 

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

I think we should give Yak one last crack in the top 6.
Play him there for a few games and see if he looks good. We have the chance to run a few deep too 9 with

Lucic - McDavid - Yakupov
Pouliot - RNH - Eberle
Maroon - Drai - Puljujarvi.

If Yak struggles then that's the writing on the wall for him.

 

[McShogun99]

There weren't. Just BS by pro-Yak fans to stir **** with 2 Canadians vs a Euro

The bullying rumors were pretty dumb but I don't think Yakupov fit in with the previous teams. It's like like working at a job where everyone goes and parties/gets drunk after work and you're the sober guy that never goes out. You'll feel like an outsider because you're not down by what your peers like to do. The lack of quality veterans on this team hurt all the young players, not just Yakupov.

 

[DerpMorg]

I watched this and actually got a fair bit of perspective into who is recently. Definitely a family first, stay at home type person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlEQdtVtR7I

 

[McPuritania]

There weren't. Just BS by pro-Yak fans to stir **** with 2 Canadians vs a Euro

You have no idea whether they did or not.

 

[1Gold Standard]

Ya, I don't buy the bullying story not one bit. Yak has his family in Edmonton, if he was excluded from downtime with the core group, it was self-imposed.

 

[DerpMorg]

Maybe he genuinely does not get along with them, or have anything in common with them. Between language barriers, his personality, etc, people don't get along.

 

[s7ark]

I'm hoping the Oilers bring back Yak. No point in selling him off for nothing. Drouin and Hamonic both rescinded their trade requests. Maybe Yak can turn it around here. His value can't get much lower. And even if it does, who cares if we trade him now for a 3rd or later for a 7th after giving him another shot here?

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I don't think Yak was bullied. I don't think he was particularly welcomed either.


I think he was in a system completely devoid of any semblance of leadership.

From what I can tell, the Oilers so-called 'leadership' seemed to be built like a high school popularity contest.


:/

 

[McFlyingV]

I hope Yak breaks out this year so I can stop hearing about how we traded Taylor Hall. With a little confidence and a new outlook of the team, and finally maybe consistently getting to play with a skilled centre. Crazier things have happened.

 

[Replacement*]

I don't think Yak was bullied. I don't think he was particularly welcomed either.


I think he was in a system completely devoid of any semblance of leadership.

From what I can tell, the Oilers so-called 'leadership' seemed to be built like a high school popularity contest.


:/

Not the players fault either. It was quickly setup as a 6M buck glee club core.

Management set that dynamic. Now two of those players are gone.

 

[Dorian2]

RE: this Yak being left out of "the gang". My best friend who I've known for over 30 years since grade 6 only contacts me maybe 3x a year. Ditto for me to him. We both have totally different lifestyles and are interested in many different things from each other. We also each have our group of friends that we hang out with consistently.

But he's still my best buddy in the world. I have a couple of really close friends like that, as do many here I'd assume. Perspective is a huge thing.

 

[CornKicker]

im betting yak scores 25+ this season (with the oilers)

 

[Replacement*]

One side of this that hasn't been commented on is Yak doesn't mind getting in opponents face and rubbing some stuff in. A little bit of swagger that he first exhibited in World Juniors. Guy can trash talk and get people real angry and might even have some instigator qualities. Imagine if this started to grow if this team developed any kind of swagger. that could be interesting. Entertaining anyway. I think we'd see a lot more of Yak being a character, and having fun (which helps his on ice play) if this team got some moxy.

 

[Konami McDavid]

Not the players fault either. It was quickly setup as a 6M buck glee club core.

Management set that dynamic. Now two of those players are gone.

Did I miss a trade? Who is the second of the 6m club to get moved?