On Monday's Hockey Central, panelist Nick Kypreos made a very observant comment. The Hockey Central panel was discussing the sad state of affairs of the Leafs (I know, big surprise that they were talking about the Leafs). Anyway, his comment was that under John Ferguson, the Leafs have largely ignored developing their depth through the farm. Case and point was the acquisition of Dominic Moore off of waivers from Minnesota.
Kypreos explained that farm players (and he was one of them) "play their head off" when the big club goes through rough patches. The idea here is that if they play out of their mind, they could get the nod to come up to the big club. So, the question is asked, do the Leafs think that poorly of their depth with the Marlies that they bring in a Dominic Moore, a career fourth line checker at best? Kypreos explained that its like a punch in the gut, and can really bring a prospect down.
Contrast this with Darryl Sutter and his comments about Quad Cities. He recently said that there are at least 5 of them (on the farm team) that could play at the NHL level right now. Naturally when asked to identify these five, he passed, not wanting to heap any extra pressure on these lads. Sutter always has a steady-eye on the farm. He successfully cultivated David Moss, Eric Nystrom, and Dustin Boyd, and has others like Cam Cunning, David Van Der Gulik, and Adam Pardy waiting to become household names in Calgary.
Two franchises, one sinking like a stone, the other is not.
I heard these two comments, and they almost seemed related.
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2 comments:
Thank you for clarifying that there were 5 "on the farm team" and not 5 Quad Cities. 5 Quad Cities would be Pent Cities, would it not? Where would you live in Pent Cities? PentHouses? And, thus, it becomes a slippery slope...
I could refer to Quad Cities as "QC", but this would clash with "Quality Center", a work app that I work on constantly. It's also QC.
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