Let's Go Blues

Krigloch the Furious wrote:This good?

Sent from my R2 unit

The best line to ever describe Nail Yakupov sounds mean spirited, but in fact it describes his game to a ‘T.’

“He plays like a guy being chased by a swarm of bees,” someone once said.

All over the place, all the time. Now he’s in St. Louis, and in the annals of hockey lore, Yakupov sidles up next to Alexandre Daigle as one of the worst No. 1 overall picks in National Hockey League history.

Of course the Edmonton Oilers chose him.

Offensively, defensively, off the ice with his teammates… Nobody ever knew where to find Nail Yakupov. There was no system he could follow, no traditional path to success he could be led down.

Coach after coach told him where to go to support the puck, but when support was required he was somewhere else. They ringed the puck around the boards to the place he was supposed to be, but Yakupov was never there when it arrived, for reasons unknown.

They coached him on where to go when the puck was in the offensive zone, but too often when his centreman looked up to pass him the puck, he was elsewhere. It was like he had learned only to score as a junior in Sarnia, but somehow never to play hockey.

Teammates invited him to dinner with the boys. He most often had something else to do.

Toasted Oates wrote:I like it as well, but an interesting perspective to consider:

The best line to ever describe Nail Yakupov sounds mean spirited, but in fact it describes his game to a ‘T.’

“He plays like a guy being chased by a swarm of bees,” someone once said.

All over the place, all the time. Now he’s in St. Louis, and in the annals of hockey lore, Yakupov sidles up next to Alexandre Daigle as one of the worst No. 1 overall picks in National Hockey League history.

Of course the Edmonton Oilers chose him.

Offensively, defensively, off the ice with his teammates… Nobody ever knew where to find Nail Yakupov. There was no system he could follow, no traditional path to success he could be led down.

Coach after coach told him where to go to support the puck, but when support was required he was somewhere else. They ringed the puck around the boards to the place he was supposed to be, but Yakupov was never there when it arrived, for reasons unknown.

They coached him on where to go when the puck was in the offensive zone, but too often when his centreman looked up to pass him the puck, he was elsewhere. It was like he had learned only to score as a junior in Sarnia, but somehow never to play hockey.

Teammates invited him to dinner with the boys. He most often had something else to do.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/oile ... pov-trade/

Despite all of that Canadian angst, it's not unreasonable to think he could blossom with the change of scenery. Plus, he bumps Paajarvi out of the lineup which is a godsend in of itself.

A good, practical trade. When Schwartz comes back, the top 9 won't have a lot of muscle (and will have Lehtera and Bergy) but it's actually palatable.

You know what you have w/ Sobotka. At least w/ Yakupov, the ceiling is still high. Reckless indeed.

dmiles2186 wrote:From the reaction I'm reading, Edmonton just completely bungled how they handled him and eventually saddled him with 4th liners. I like it. We give up nothing for a dude who was #1 overall. We put him in the right situation here, with a fellow Russian in Tarasenko, and maybe the Blues can unlock that potential.

theohall wrote:1) All of those other Oilers players with similar issues were getting better under McClellan while Yakupov seemingly never even tried.

cprice12 wrote:Low risk, high reward...and we prevented Chicago from getting him. So there is that.

Kerfuffle wrote:

cprice12 wrote:Low risk, high reward...and we prevented Chicago from getting him. So there is that.

We wouldn't have had the cap room and for a guy who only scored 8 goals I'd rather give one of our prospects a chance. It's a low risk signing by the Blues for one year - and the upside is he wants to prove he can still play at an NHL level and get a new contract - so he's incentivized to do well. If he becomes a player like Tank then it becomes a steal for one year. But right now he looks like Ryan Leaf to me.

glen a richter wrote:Here's part of why I'm irritated... and I'll eat my hat if Yak goes on to greatness. We could have had Hall for Shatty except 22 didn't want to extend for Edmonton, understandably. They turn around and trade Hall for next to nothing and now Yak for next to nothing. Is it beyond the realm of reality we could have gotten RNH for Pochiro and a good prospect? Edmonton is clearly selling low because God knows they can't afford all these top 5 picks they've drafted and all we could do was a guy with a bad rep as a likely 1st round bust and suspect work habits?