Quote:
Originally Posted by Brisk-Illusion
The problem is that the organization has handcuffed itself by keeping Lats in the NHL when he wasn't meeting their exceptions.
They took a chance on a 19yr old on a mediocre team, he didn't play very well outside of a few bright spots with Koivu.
He made the team at 20 on a better team, and still had the same weaknesses than he did his first year.
Now he's 21 and is still essentially the same player that played his first game for us. He's still a slow, soft, forward who can't string more than a few decent games together unless he's playing with Koivu. The problem, is, while Lats has not gotten any better, our team has, players in Hamilton have improved and are now better than him.
Lats is not really to blame for his lack of development, few players grow at the NHL level, when a player is brought up to play a role, it is assumed he's ready to fulfill it, he wasn't. He was a project who never really improved, and just played well enough to stay in the lineup, without taking any risks or building his game, he played the only way he could to stay on the team. Now that we are a better team, his efforts are not good enough anymore, and no one knows what to do with him, if you send him down, you lose him for nothing, and if you keep him in the lineup he hurts your chances of winning because he's not the best man for the job.
From a neutral outlook it would seem trading him would be the best option for the team, and for him.
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Trading him? Latendresse has no value. Gilbert Brule was traded for Raffi Torres, and Brule could actually be sent down to the AHL without having to clear waivers.
Whoever deals for Latendresse is stuck with him at the pro level.
For the record, I don't think Latendresse is half as bad as people thinks. Send the struggling Kostitsyn to the AHL, and ACTUALLY PLAY LATENDRESSE FOR 10+ GAMES WITH EITHER KOIVU OR PLEKANEC AS HIS CENTER. Tell him to play hard, throw his body around, use his size and his shot.
Make a decision after 10+ games. I guarentee no one would want to trade him then.
Everyone was written off Andrei Kostitsyn at the start of the year. Those kids are young, some of them can have slow starts. I think Tender has understood that he needs to work his butt off NOW if he wants to have a shot at a career in the NHL.
The kids a goal scorer, put him with a playmaker, give him ice time on the PP (something Carbo has never done) for gods sake.
Last game Carbo tried LARAQUE on the fricking PP. WHAT A JOKE. If he wants a big body presence in front of the net for the PP, use LATENDRESSE. Just tell him what you want from him on the PP.
I remember last year Tender had a shift on the PP in which he played the perimeter while Koivu was getting cross checked in front of the net. IS THIS A ****ING JOKE? Carbo, you're the coach, this is your job. Tell Guillaume to stand in front of the ****ing goalie and put the rebounds home.
There I said it.