Fitting Kuzmenko

[RizzeeDizzee]

Little did we know that all it'd take for Kuzmenko to awaken would be me gloating...lol. As I said, I never had it in for him, I was just going by the numbers. Perhaps in the end there will be takeaways from both sides of the coin in this case. But if he proves me wrong, I'm fully prepared to own it just as I was when it looked like I was well on my way to being prescient.

[Belexus75]

Well you need to either let go of the numbers or make decisions combined with watching the action imo. Numbers by themself dont always give you full story imo.

I dont think you had anything to do with him waking up. Trade did. Last year he had great deployment in Vancouver this year he was put down the line up probably due to ok but not great defensive play overall. If you watch him skate he tries to cheat offensively a bit. Move to first line in CGY helped to restore offensive skill that was always there.

Jury is out if he can be successful on the good team where he needs to be more defensively responsible...time will tell but i watching him this and last year, offensive talent is there...no question. I think last years goal total was a bit of a fluke but point total was not.

[Tiramisu]

This isnt even personal at this point- i really feel like of you go into your research with a bias you'll almost always manage to find a disproportionate amount of evidence to support that side of the argument- I've done it. I'm not even saying hes a legend breaking out- all.ive ever done is maintain that he does have exceptional talent- which does NOT make it a given that he'll either find consistency or string it altogether in the big. I still hope he does but I'm not pretending I know something anyone else doesn't. So much of the data you provided- outside of shooting percentage regression (read: legit concern)- was... not convincing.

I'm just going to be honest again- and this is no offense. I heard: "I got burned by the Shipyachov/Brunnstrom/whoever else hype and im not falling for that again..."

Dazzling skillset- i hope he can maintain some consistency going forward and I hope he can find a team that values him- I'm still not sold thats Calgary. I think he was a throw in to this trade- or worse something like Van saying were only going to consider this huge offer if you solve our kuzmenko/money issue. I still don't believe he would get icetime on a better team and may have been sent packing to Russia already. If you're counting your kuzmenko chickens here its waaaaay too early. We either need to see Calgary make a meaningful investment in his future (doubtful) or we need to see him go to a team that will.commit to him in a top six capacity and accept some of his defensive warts. IF he can find that I think there could be a 70 point forward coming out of this- with the current run I can almost see more but that consistency has got to shake out first AND those are a lot of big ifs to begin with.

[tweetdrivr]

He had that opportunity in Vancouver and they shipped him out. Teams don’t want incomplete players anymore.

[RizzeeDizzee]

Here though we see in him that he's doing this well without EP40. That is meaningful. Yes, it's "garbage time" where the games don't matter and he's playing alongside Kadri, who, in case you haven't noticed, is having one hell of a season; but players who can put up 9 goals and 9 assists in 17 games, with more than half those points on the PP, are going to be given long leashes. It is possible that Kuzmenko does another disappearing act in 2024-25, as I haven't looked closely at his 2023-24 numbers as yet. But things went from bleak to dare I say promising quite quickly, as in the NHL it's all about what have you done for me lately, and he's done a lot.

[Tiramisu]

Its definitely meaningful- these panarin/kucherov-esque bursts of ridiculousness are now happening accross multiple teams with multiple linemates...