Originally Posted by
dodospice
I'm on board with Yakupov, I think he has the talent and skill to be an elite player in the leaguee... however I don't think Edmonton is the place for him to achieve that. I would however ask Yakupov to play to his strengths (scoring goals and playing offence) as opposed to a lot of defence which seems to be an issue with a lot of young players. If they made it this far doing what they're doing, then why ask them to change?
I think I agree. I liken it to the situation Seguin faced in Boston. I've always been vocal that Seguin would never be the star he was drafted to be as long as he stayed on Boston, simply because of the team system. He wasn't the type of player that thrives in Boston.
Yakupov simply needs a different team. He needs to be given a fresh chance on another team to succeed. He can't be playing behind Eberle or Hemsky. I think he has the talent, he just needs to right situation. Edmonton isn't that.
14T BiWeekly H2H. 4 C/RW/LW, 6 D, 2 G
Cats:G(3), A(1.5), PIM(0.2), PPP(1), SOG(0.2), GWG(1), SHP(2), Hits(0.3), BkS(0.4). W(2), SO(2), OTL(0.5), SV(0.2), GA(-1), L(-1). 9 Keepers in Bold. 12 player Farm team (skaters under 110, goalies under 80 gp) in italics
LW - Gaudreau, Forsberg, Parise, Hyman (C)
C - Backstrom, Getzlaf, N Foligno (LW/RW), Kotkaniemi, Carter (LW/RW)
RW - Tarasenko, Rantanen, Arvidsson, Atkinson, Gourde (C/LW), Mikheyev (RW)
D - Dahlin, Theodore, Ellis, Klingberg, Fox, Andersson
G - Murray, Grubauer
Prospects -Rossi, Turcotte, Kravstov, Tippett, Bouchard, Lehtonen, K Miller, Addison, DeSmith, Kahkonen, Ingram, Gustavsson