Johnny Gaudreau and Jonathan Huberdeau both came off of career seasons and changed teams in the summer, but their scoring hasn’t been what has been expected of them. Ahead of Gaudreau’s first return to Calgary tonight, TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button delves into why there has been such a dramatic scoring dip from both players this season.
@Calgary Flames
18 Comments
You can’t
$10.5M a year for 32 points in 44 games.
Calgary’s basically just burning money with that contract.
Huberdeau to Habs, for Drouin.
Gaudreau went to a garbage team when he could’ve been with the Devils rn. Huberdeau doesn’t have Barkov anymore.
They’re both basically the same player. Some years they’re unbelievable. Some years they’re ghosts. Their careers show that. That’s why neither one is a superstar.
Gaudreau was the weirdest thing, could have gone anywhere and was just like yeah ima go play for the worst team in the league.
Huberdeau needs to shoot more. Yes, the Flames system is more of a checking style instead of the run-and-gun he played in Florida, but it's not impossible to score in that system. Last year proved it with 3 40-goal guys. If anything, the Flames really need a legit sniper that could free-up Huberdeau. Their main issue is that they can't score enough. They generate a lot of shots and chances, but they don't finish.
Hubredeau is playing on a line with Milan Lucic
Huberdeau has actually been amazing defensively for the Flames, and is visibly getting better offensively. Sutter's system is notoriously hard to get a hang of initially, it will come.
Because Johnny is playing on a worse team…. Duh
It is necessary for both to build a suitable strong line and everything will be ok.
Well.. Huberdeau is playing with Blake Coleman and Backlund now and not Barkov and Verhaeghe so not sure what there is to even talk about with that.
Gaudreau’s not even having a bad year really. Almost a PPG. Lower than usual but he is still one of the best one dimensional players in the league. The problem he’s having is that the Blue Jackets never have the puck. They’re a bottom 3 team in every single measurable possession metric you can think of.
I’ll save you 2 minutes
The blue jackets are terrible and Huberdeau doesn’t have a Barkov anymore who has perfect chemistry
You can explain it by them being in 2 completely different systems with different guys around them. It’s like moving companies but you’ve got the same title. You know what your job is going to be, but you still need to be on-boarded and learn the different processes and that shit takes tiiiiime
One guys a little punk ass who picked a talentless team since he doesn't care to ever win anything. And the other came from a team with freewheeling structurless hockey to one with a coach who is a hard ass with a very specific system you can't stray from, that obviously plays to defensive structure and he's having a hard time finding a way to get as much offense playing. Also as far as huberdeau goes, he's trying to hard to replicate his 85 assist season last year, forcing passes to guys who aren't ready to shoot. And refusing to shoot making it easier to defend since your almost certain he's gonna pass the puck.
I have faith in Huberdeau. Markstrom too.
Worse supporting cast that's why.
Now I’m not saying it’s the same since I’m not a flames fan and I don’t follow the flames. But from what I can tell Gaudreau has a mass drop off production wise the year Sutter became head coach which continued the following year. After that though, he put up a career high 115 points. I’m not saying it’s the same thing and that it’s not worrying that Huberdeau is having this disappointing of a season going into his extension but I don’t see him staying this bad forever. Not an excuse, he should be better than he is right now, but that’s just what I’m thinking