Originally Posted by Hondaracer
(Post 8998632)
So to expand on the JV thing..
When Jake was drafted his overall hockey IQ was questioned from the start, but i think that the Canucks felt pressure to draft a local kid because there was all this talk about the "misses" they had made in the past in not taking them. So maybe against their better judgement they drafted Jake.
Now, at 24 in the NHL the majority of the time "you are what you are" Jake has played 279 NHL Games and has been a professional hockey player for 6 years now. While yes, his goal production has been increasing year over year Jake is a VERY opportunistic player. He's also a VERY streaky player, as most goal scorers are. However, he pretty clearly isnt a permanent fixture in the top 6, and when you're not, what you're almost always asked for is consistency and reliability.
While he isnt a complete defensive liability, he doesnt use his size very often on the forecheck, and when he does get chances, usually he is on his own, or if he is with somone, such as on odd-man rushes, or rushes down the wing, he almost never creates a play or a scoring chance out of it. This happened numerous times in the Vegas series where he would rush down the boards and not even get the puck deep, it would get jammed up just inside the blue line, turned over, and right back up the ice.
As a result of his deficiencies in this area, it seems like Beagle is pretty much stapled along side him to make up for any defensive lapses, which again, hurts offensive production when you have a guy that offers almost nothing in that department on your line.
So yea.. i think Jake offers some good, but the bad and the deficiencies in his game outweigh the good, and i think he will never be intelligent enough to be a game changing power forward in the game. At best he is a guy you can bring up and down the lineup, but with our current roster and with potentially adding a Tofolli, etc. I dont know if he is a guy you can keep and pay to be a bottom 6 forward.
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