[Dhaliwal] L’agent Dan Milstein nous dit qu’il reste déterminé à faire en sorte que cela fonctionne à Vancouver pour Kuzmenko. Il dit que ni lui ni Kuzmenko ne veulent un échange et que tous deux aimeraient que la situation s’arrange à Vancouver.
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electricnux
12 Comments
Milstein has said a few times after the first healthy scratch that there’s good communication with management and they trust the process that the coaching staff has put in place
I feel like even if this wasn’t the truth, Milstein would come out and say something like this to not absolutely tank his value (not that 5 scratches hasn’t done that already). That’s the benefit to having such a good relationship with a player agent.
Gotta give it to kuzy for the good attitude, even if it’s just what he presents to the media
Milstein and Kuzmenko deserve praise for their professionalism throughout this situation.
Allan Walsh would have handled this very, very differently.
Why not trust Tocchet’s judgement? Almost everything he touches turns to gold this season. He has probably met dozens of players with Kuzmenko’s personality profile. There are plenty of stories out there where players get tough love from the coach, hate the coach and then years later say they became a better player after coming out the other side of it.
Consider that this year is different than what we’re used to. Two points is not two points right now because they have 51 points already. That means Tocchet can afford to gamble a bit and not throw everything plus the kitchen sink to win each and every game. He can afford to limit ice time to players who need stiffening up before the playoffs.
Worse case scenario is Kuzmenko’s career craters, confidence destroyed. But that’s highly unlikely because he tends to score when he gets back on the ice.
Second worse case scenario is trade but don’t let pundits fool you into thinking his value is low. Other teams are desperate for scoring and there’d be a bidding war. There may be a bidding war right now. It’s easy to sell the narrative that Kuzmenko is not a Tocchet guy and can return to form under a different coach. And Allvin has been great at trades.
And the best case scenario is Kuzmenko is bleeding inside to prove himself as a top six guy for the upcoming playoff run, because Tocchet knows *exactly* what he’s doing. Look no further for Petey’s perfect winger hiding in plain sight this whole time.
I trust Tocchet’s judgement on Kuzmenko 100%. Next offseason Kuzmenko should not piss off the coach.
The good attitude from Kuz makes me really want things to work out. I really don’t think he’s worse than Karlsson, PDG or other guys to warrant getting scratched but maybe that’s just me
Is he in tonight?
I hope Kuzy plays tonight, the team has a better record when he plays than when he’s a healthy scratch
The plan should be to keep him around until at least the trade deadline unless things really go sour or the return is so good, you can’t say no. If it’s not going to work out by then, use him to get any help that might be needed instead of the standard pick and prospect. The team is in a fairly good spot right now, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with continuing to be patience and hope he figures it out. Players who score 39 goals don’t just fall out of a tree.
I also think about what happened with Boeser. The team couldn’t give him away (without throwing a high pick, at least) and look at where he is now. It’s possible the same thing could happen with Kuzmenko.
Are they just going to ask his agent the same question twice a week? Lol
👏 Let 👏 Kuzy 👏 Play! 👏
At this point, I cannot help but think this issue between coaching and Kuzy is a little bit personal. I get that we are all happy with Tocchet and his staff and we don’t want to see any of their warts and things aren’t at the point where we bring up their shortcomings, but it’s possible that Tocchet is both a great coach for this team and a real asshole when it comes to how he feels about Kuzmenko for no good reason beyond he doesn’t like the guy.