ESPN - 10 Players with Major Expectations (Duchene)
 

10 Players with Major Expectations

sadly i doubt it

and why is that?

i just doubt he will ever get to 75 points.
hope im wrong obviously.

He'll be okay, but he needs some help. PAP and whoever else they get for his linemates Im not sure will get him where he needs to go. The two players that seemed to click with him offensively are gone.

Lots to prove, imo. And beyond totals, too. You can keep guys like the Sedins who rack up the points in the regular season, then take a dump in the playoffs. I want a big game, money player who can show up and score big goals. I've always hoped this for Duchene, but have yet to see it. He can be as low as a 50 -60 point guy for me, as long as he scores big goals or makes big plays at big moments. Right now as far as I can remember all the guy has done when the chips were down was score a shootout goal to put us into the playoffs - once. Other than that, seems like O'Reilly, Landeskog, McGinn are the guys scoring OT/ last-second game tying goals. I really hope he shows up and becomes a clutch guy who elevates his game at the biggest moments this year.

I hate saying he is a product of his line mates but so far in his career they haven't been much help and unless they can get some wing depth he won't be a star.

Huge expectations on him and I think he will meet them all.

Well, he picked up 67 points in his second year at the age of 19/20 on the worst team in the league. Frankly it is hard to imagine that he won't reach 75 points at some point in his career solely based on that season.

He's scored key goals/points before against the lightning/ottawa and numerous shootout goals. He can be a clutch player.

The guy has one down year and everyone starts to question him. People say he has no hockey sense, no defensive skills, no compete ect. The guy clearly has hockey sense. Most of his goals are scored because he is in the right spots. His issue is when he tries to do too much. He will learn to settle down, it may just take time.

His defensive game seems to have progressed this year also and I expect it to increase over time. This is one of the hardest skills for young offensive players to pick up and it takes some players a long time to realize that good defense leads to more offense.

I have absolutely no doubts that the guy will be our leading scorer again in the future. just two years ago he was playing in the all-star game and he scored 67 points on a dreadful avs team. He has a great work ethic and like us was extremely disappointed in his season. He will be extra-motivated to prove that last season was a fluke.

He will be fine the last thing you want to do is give up on him I hope the Avs dont do that. Remember how "crappy" the Sedins were? Yah. Vancity did good not to trade them

If they can leave him at Center , with the right wings , i think he will be fine . But if they continue that stupid idea of playing him at LW , 48 games will seems very long to us .

i think people always forget he's only 21 yrs old. Even if he doesnt have a crazy season, theres no reason to believe he wont reach his potential. You kind of got to feel for the guy since he's had to play with different wingers every couple of months. It takes some time to build chemistry and hopefully him and Parentau can play together all season. At the same time I still think he gots lots of work to do to become the player we expect him to be. He needs to work on his defensive game and needs to get rid of the habit of just floating around and depending too much on his teammates.

Actually i agree if he had line mates he had good chemistry with he would soar. if we could have kept Fleishmann he'd be golden.

idk why i said he wouldn't reach 75 points. pretty clearly can.

But he still has a lot to prove, i hope he's learned to use his line mates more regardless of how well he is clicking with them. no more pointless spin moves.
also i think he needs to move his hands lower when he shoots, he keeps them pretty high up and it has to have an effect on his shot power. though, i have no clue what im talking about in that regard. lol.

If anything he needs to do this more. It should help if he plays with parenteau.
Heres the lines I'd like to see.

Hejduk-O'reilly-Landeskog
Jones-Staz-Mcginn
Parenteau-Duchene-Downie

That way every line has a forechecker/aggressive player to cause turnovers. Staz gets two scorers to set up. Landeskog and O'reilly make up for Hejduks shortcomings.

Thats a really good idea actually. I was trying to figure out the line combinations and ive got to say those are probably the best. I hope Hejduk is in much better shape this year though maybe he can put up 20 goals again.

Other than a few position errors that would be good.

I'd like to see Stastny's line be the top line to start the year and have Duchene's/O'Reilly's splitting 2/3.

I predict Duchene will lead the team in points by a significant margin this season. By significant margin I mean more than 5pts in this shortened year. I'm guessing 44pts in 48 games for Duchene. I think Stastny/Landeskog will be in the 39pts range and we'll have a few guys in the 35pts range like ROR, PAP, Mcginn or Downie.

I would rather O'reilly's line face top competition. Both O'reilly and Landeskog are capable of playing with top lines in the league and actually outproducing. They both proved this last year.

Stastny should no doubt be on the second and I would be ok with them receiving more offensive minutes.

in a fifty game season

Landy (20g, 20a) -- Duchene (20g, 25a) -- PAP (10g, 30a)

book it

That would be great.

Honestly I really think Duchene is going to explode this year. He worked so hard in the offseason to stay in top shape, and he was playing quite well in Europe(Especially Defensively in the Spengler, that was damn impressive). I think we'll see a huge transformation from Duchene this year from a 1 trick pony offensive guy too a 2 way stud with serious offensive potential.

Man, I hope the bold is right. And don't get me wrong - I don't question the guy's skill or heart. It just seems like whenever I'm watching a game and we need a goal, I want to see Duchene on the ice with the puck on his stick making a play or scoring the goal. I agree that the goals he scores are because he's in the right place, but I want to see goals at the right time. I want to see the play or the stretch of games that opens the flood gates and gives the kid the confidence to be THE guy in the key situations. I may have missed a few goals he's netted in the clutch, but it really seems like he hasn't been that guy. I'm trying not to get down on him, and I really hope he can motivate himself and prove he's one of our money guys for a long time.

I've really wanted to see Landeskog - Duchene - Parenteau ever since we acquired PAP.

If not with Landy then with Downie but I think that Downie and PAP there would be too much pressure on Duchene to be the goal scorer when he's more of a balanced player than a sniper. The LAST thing I want to see is another soft combo like PAP-Duchene-Hejduk.

I think its not just about his wingers though, but part of his struggles were because of the change in system and loss of puck movement from the backend last year.

I am confident that he will be fine and will be a great player though, if not this year then soon after.

I wouldn't doubt Duchene's heart - he plays with enough emotion that he will be fine in the playoffs once the Avs start regularly making it there.

Good post.

HFBoards is hilarious for that though. Before last season (summer 2011) Zach Bogosian was a big giant pile of dog turd...he comes back and has a solid 2011-12 season and now he's great again...yay! Everyone is happy!!?

LOL...it would be funny if it wasn't so short-sighted and pathetic

I feel the same way.