Yakupov traded to Blues

[yave1964]

Well so much for Nail Yakupov going to the Hawks.

 

  A few minutes ago the Blues added Yakupov for a conditional pick a third rounder unless Yak scores 15 goals then it goes to a third and a prospect (sort of) named Zach Pochiro who isn't much.

 

  I have been hyper critical of Yakupov over the years, he doesn't seem to get the North American game, he stays in his lane and takes poor percentage shots WAY too often but perhaps playing alongside countryman Taresenko might get him going. If not, the Blues didn't exactly break the bank for the former first overall pick.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Hall, Yakupov, McDavid (just kidding Oiler fans, settle down)...

 

And the Oil just signed Kris Russell, so I'd say yea, we got some 'new look' Oilers starting in 2016-17.

But will they be a WINNING new look team? Stay tuned...

 

As for St. Louis, well, they will be getting a player that perhaps wasn't done justice in his development according to one observant Oiler fan, and it now falls on the Blues to turn this guy around and get him to (cue Army music) beeee all that he caaannnn beeee...

 

Seriously though, Yakupov gets a bit of a new lease on life, he will have players around him who are more accustomed to winning (well, regular season anyways) and it will just be an entirely new environment.

 

Blues have to turn him around, but Yakupov himself has got to WANT to get better, put in the work, be constructively critical of himself, and take ownership for all he does or doesn't do out on that ice sheet.

 

As Yave basically already said, relatively low risk but high reward type deal for the Blues.

The Oil just seems to have wanted to just move on from Nail.....but maybe they get something out of the picks and/or prospect they may get.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

Wow. Edmonton also gets a prospect...forward Zach Pochiro. 

 

The names are escaping me right now, but it seems like the Blues and the Oilers have made several trades together over the last few years.

[flyercanuck]

Amazing the far ends of the spectrum you get picking 1st overall. 

[sekkes85]

I know for a 1st overall pick he has been disappointing but the kid is only 23 years old and a change of scenery should do him wonders.  The Blues only traded a  prospect drafted in the 4th round and a conditional 3rd rounder (2nd in 2018 if Yakupov scores more than 15 goals).  Manning or Read and that conditional 3rd would have been a better deal for the Oilers.  Really wish we threw something together, even if it doesn't work out it would be a very low risk / high reward trade. If it didn't work out Yakupov's contract is over at end of year (still an RFA).

 

Beyond a good deal for the Blues.  

[yave1964]

12 hours ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

Wow. Edmonton also gets a prospect...forward Zach Pochiro. 

 

The names are escaping me right now, but it seems like the Blues and the Oilers have made several trades together over the last few years.

David Perron for Paarjarvi for one. That comes to mind.

[hf101]

31 minutes ago, sekkes85 said:

I know for a 1st overall pick he has been disappointing but the kid is only 23 years old and a change of scenery should do him wonders.  The Blues only traded a  prospect drafted in the 4th round and a conditional 3rd rounder (2nd in 2018 if Yakupov scores more than 15 goals).  Manning or Read and that conditional 3rd would have been a better deal for the Oilers.  Really wish we threw something together, even if it doesn't work out it would be a very low risk / high reward trade. If it didn't work out Yakupov's contract is over at end of year (still an RFA).

 

Beyond a good deal for the Blues.  

 

 

I moved your topic to this existing thread.

 

And yes I agree this will be good for the Blues and Yakupov I think will also improve as he will now play with Tarensenko.

[JR Ewing]

ARRRRRRRRRRRGH! I had written an extensive post (and I mean that I spent over an hour), which was then eaten by the site when the topic was moved and I hadn't yet pressed "Submit"........... Damn the swear filter.

 

 

[hf101]

Just now, JR Ewing said:

ARRRRRRRRRRRGH! I had written an extensive post, which was then eaten by the site when it the topic was moved and I hadn't yet pressed "Submit"........... Damn the swear filter.

 

 

 

 

Sorry about that JR,  -- try clicking into your 'blank editor'  and selecting the "back" button  maybe there is a chance the post is saved.

[JR Ewing]

1 minute ago, hf101 said:

 

Sorry about that JR,  -- try clicking into your 'blank editor'  and selecting the "back" button  maybe there is a chance the post is saved.

 

First thing I looked to do, but unfortunately it can't be done. I should learned from prior times. I once wrote an epic year-by-year "How it got this bad" post, hit "Submit", and all gone. I just didn't have the heart to do it again.

 

[hf101]

43 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

 

First thing I looked to do, but unfortunately it can't be done. I should learned from prior times. I once wrote an epic year-by-year "How it got this bad" post, hit "Submit", and all gone. I just didn't have the heart to do it again.

 

 

 

 

I need an app that shows who is reading the current page.  So that we can make sure no one is currently on a page being moved or merged.  

 

Done!

[WordsOfWisdom]

2 hours ago, flyercanuck said:

Amazing the far ends of the spectrum you get picking 1st overall. 

 

This is why I'm very cautious about Matthews. The last thing the Leafs need is another Nail Yakupov when they finally get a #1 pick.

 

Yakupov has to be the biggest dog **** pile of a #1 pick that I can ever remember. I mean wow he sucks in every possible way. Was Alexandre Daigle a #1 pick in Ottawa? 

[WordsOfWisdom]

14 hours ago, yave1964 said:

A few minutes ago the Blues added Yakupov

 

14 hours ago, yave1964 said:

I have been hyper critical of Yakupov over the years, he doesn't seem to get the North American game

 

LOL. He can join an entire roster of players in St. Louis that don't get the North American game. (Specifically that you need to win during the playoffs and not just the regular season.)

 

With Yakupov in St. Louis, I'm going to further downgrade my forecast for the Blues.

[flyercanuck]

8 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

This is why I'm very cautious about Matthews. The last thing the Leafs need is another Nail Yakupov when they finally get a #1 pick.

 

Yakupov has to be the biggest dog **** pile of a #1 pick that I can ever remember. I mean wow he sucks in every possible way. Was Alexandre Daigle a #1 pick in Ottawa? 

 

Matthews is NOT Yakupov. The leafs got a legit #1 centre there

 

And yes, Daigle is some serious competition.  Patrik Stefan is worse though.

[JR Ewing]

... The Coles Notes version of what I wrote earlier:

My frustrations with management

 

Of all of the hockey men in scouting, ops, player development, etc, only two unnamed scouts wanted Nail Yakupov, with all of the rest wishing to select Ryan Murray #1 overall. Such was the extent of this desire for Murray that Yakupov wasn't even interviewed leading up to the draft, and thus his surprise at being #1 selection. A mere hour before the draft, Oilers owner Daryl Katz walked into the room and told all that, under no uncertain terms, Nail Yakupov would be the #1 pick. This is an abject lesson to all that you should not to interfere, and let your people do their job.

 

Yakupov had an alright rookie year, but it was smoke and mirrors: he had an unsustainable SH% of 21%, and his GoalsFor% greatly exceeded his CorsiFor%. There is a STRONG tendency for those numbers to snap back as the GP pile up, and that they did. My problem is not so much with that, but how Dallas Eakins handled him. Whereas Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle were gifted minutes ("We're selling hope") and never punished for turnovers or lack of attention to defense, Nail Yakupov was give the stick at every turn.

 

Earlier in their first year together, Nail was benched for a few games. He had a very incomplete notion of two-way play, and it was felt that a view from up high would help, though he felt greatly slighted by this. Eakins returned Yakupov to the lineup against Washington, but then did the bizarre: placed him at LW (which he had never played before) and on what must surely be the worst defensive group of the last 20 years at least: Yakupov, Sam Gagner, Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, and hard-matched them against the Ovechkin line. The Oilers lost 4-1, with Yak going -4. The next game was against TOR, and Eakins threw good money after bad, hard-matching the same group against JVR/Kadri/Kessel, once again losing 4-1, and with Yakupov once again being pilloried for a -4. After the game, Eakins noted that he was happy with this match-up, but despite that, Yak mostly found himself batting down the order from that point on. This pretty much encapsulates the Eakins era for Yakupov: he was never put in a position to succeed, and when he didn't, it became self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

My frustrations with player

 

Nail Yakupov is quick, elusive and has cannon shot. But, if you watch him, one thing is crystal clear: he doesn't really know how to play hockey, and his lack of ability to process the game punishes him and the team at every turn. He skates the puck into coverage, doesn't know who/how to backcheck, and even though he has a great shot, he doesn't know how to get himself into position to receive a one-time pass.

 

Last season, there was a sequence where Darnell Nurse spent around 20 seconds battling with David Backes for the puck, won it and passed it Yakupov outside the line. Yak promptly turned and skated back into the defensive zone and passed it back to Nurse, who once again had Backes all over him in a New York minute. The other night, Patrick Maroon was working like a demon to keep possession along the boards, deep in the Jets zone, and was double-teamed by two players. Yakupov stood 5 feet away, watching the entire thing, not really knowing what he should do. Maroon lost the puck and the Jets cleared. Things like these are constant issues with him, and whether it's an issue of having too many coaches in his head or an inability to process the game at the NHL leve, they are a real problem. He's not a player with 4 years of experience, but rather a player with 1 year of experience 4 times.

 

“I’m going to play my game. I don’t want anything to change from how I played last year, how I played when I was 10 years old, I want to play the same game. I love more playing with the puck. I don’t really like playing without the puck, skate all the time and do forecheck and hit somebody every shift — I don’t think it’s my game. I try to do it some time, but I’m not here to crush everything. I just want to play hockey.”

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/10/14/edmonton-oilers-nail-yakupov-not-happy-about-sitting-out

 

TSN's Ryan Rishaug was told by an Oilers source that Yakupov is very willing to put in hard work, but really only in the areas which he's already good at or enjoys doing. Thus, this summer, he spent the bulk of his time working on his shot, especially the one-timer, even though shooting the puck is one of the things he can already. There has been a steadfast refusal to work on the parts of his game which are not at an NHL level. When Rishaug asked him, this week, what he needs to do to improve his game, Yakupov replied "Nothing new. I just need to keep doing the same things I've always done."

So far through camp, Yakupov has been outplayed at RW by Jordan Eberle, Kris Versteeg, Jesse Puljujarvi, Anton Slepyshev, Tyler Pitlick and Zack Kassian. What the hell else can Peter Chiarelli do but trade him, particularly when the request has already been made Yakupov?

 

Yakupov talked in a radio interview yesterday of his excitement at being a top 6 player in St Louis. I t could happen, but I would be pretty surprised: if he was put off by the Oilers constant message that there are two nets on the ice, I can't imagine what he will think of Ken Hitchcock's views.

 

[JR Ewing]

15 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

This is why I'm very cautious about Matthews. The last thing the Leafs need is another Nail Yakupov when they finally get a #1 pick.

 

Shallow pool in Yakupov's draft class. I wouldn't worry.

 

 

15 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

Yakupov has to be the biggest dog **** pile of a #1 pick that I can ever remember. I mean wow he sucks in every possible way. Was Alexandre Daigle a #1 pick in Ottawa? 

 

Daigle was a disappointing pick, but Yak came well short. Stefan was terrible.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Perhaps a bit off topic (and I know fantasy hockey and real hockey are two different things), but I just find it interesting that since the announcement of the trade, Nail Yakupov has been added to more rosters than any other player...at least, according to Yahoo fantasy sports.

 

To me, that tells me the general consensus is that Yakupov WILL do better in St. Louis than he did in Edmonton.

Of course, that could all be the result of a "shiny new piece added to a new team" syndrome...and Yakupov may STILL struggle finding his game in the NHL.

I mean, Kris Russell got quite a number of adds as well when it was announced the Oilers signed him...meanwhile, not many people bothered with him when he was on the Stars...just sayin.

 

Anyways, I trust the evaluation of @JR Ewing on Yakupov not only because JR tends to really pay attention to details, but he just happens to be a close follower of the Oilers....and unless Yakupov has some light shine down on him to reveal the "way to play the game", then his time in St. Louis may not be any better than it was in Edmonton....perhaps worse because the Blues generally compete for the post season and his lack of "awareness" will stick out even more.

 

I for one, will be interested in how Yak does with the Blues.

If only because at some point last season, the idea was bandied a bit (probably not very well known, but I do remember reading speculation on it), that the Bolts should have tried trading disgruntled Jonathan Drouin to the Oilers FOR Nail Yakupov.

 

The thinking was Yakupov could play alongside young dynamic forwards in TB that already had their taste of playoff success, while Drouin could get a clean slate in Edmonton playing with equally talented forwards there and he was SURE to get the ice time he desperately wanted AT the NHL level...not in the AHL.

 

Obviously that deal never got done and truthfully, I don't know how much truth or traction that had, but fast forwarding to now, Drouin is still a Bolts player (and likely will be looked upon to take his game to the next level), and Yakupov is now a St. Louis Blues player.

I want to see how the change helps Yak (if it indeed does) and if the Bolts missed out on a potential "nice fit".

[WordsOfWisdom]

I think we should call him "Yaka-pooey".   He needs a nickname.  

 

(It rhymes with ca ca pooey.)

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

According to this:

 

http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/1122472-hitchcock-wants-yakupov-to-focus-on-his-strengths

 

The Blues claim they will be patient with Yakupov, let him do what he does (on offense), then worry about teaching him the finer points later on.

 

This will be interesting on a team as defensive minded as the Blues have been the last few years.

Although with guys like Tarasenko, Steen, Fabbri, and now Yakupov, they look like they might be going for a more balanced offense-defense type squad.

[OccamsRazor]

18 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

This is why I'm very cautious about Matthews. The last thing the Leafs need is another Nail Yakupov when they finally get a #1 pick.

 

Yakupov has to be the biggest dog **** pile of a #1 pick that I can ever remember. I mean wow he sucks in every possible way. Was Alexandre Daigle a #1 pick in Ottawa? 

 

 

Yeah Sens could of had Pronger who IIRC was the concensus #1 but nope they dropped the ball big time.

 

Outsmarted themselves i say! 

[WordsOfWisdom]

22 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

The Blues claim they will be patient with Yakupov

 

Yakapooey.  

[JR Ewing]

23 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

The Blues claim they will be patient with Yakupov, let him do what he does (on offense), then worry about teaching him the finer points later on.

 

He seems like a nice kid, but I don't know how being patient can work with somebody who has repeatedly said that he won't change his approach for anybody. Not any one of Ralph Krueger, Dallas Eakins, Todd Nelson, or Todd McLellan could impress upon Yakupov the need to work within the team structure. Oleg Znarok, coach of the 2014 Russian Olympic team said that they simply couldn't take him on, regardless of how talented he is, because he refuses to work on his game. During the past World Hockey Championships, he was sent home early by Znarok, for the very same reasons, and when asked, Yakupov said that he fully intends to play hockey just like he did when he was 10 years old. You can't play successfully at the NHL level when you play the game like you did as a little boy.

 

It could be that this is what opens his eyes about the need to do things differently, but that would be a sudden and immense departure for how he's approached his career as a hockey player. It's too bad, because there's ability there.

 

 

[JR Ewing]

First day of practice with the Blues, and his main work has been on the PK unit. Would pay money to see that.

 

[AJgoal]

On 10/9/2016 at 5:00 AM, OccamsRazor said:

 

 

Yeah Sens could of had Pronger who IIRC was the concensus #1 but nope they dropped the ball big time.

 

Outsmarted themselves i say! 

 

"Nobody will remember who was picked #2."

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

**Thread Bump***

 

Nail Yakupov has been a healthy scratch for the last three games..and has been that a few more times this season so far.

 

I realize people that follow him say he is having a hard time (or just being stubborn about) processing what it takes to be an NHL caliber forward, but I don't see how having a young player like that sit in the pressbox game after game will help him.

 

Occasionally, yes, but this seems to be more the norm for him these days.

Why not just send him down to AHL Chicago and have him play regular minutes down there and work on whatever it is the coaches feel he needs to work on?

 

Does he not have any options left to go down without putting him through waivers first?

 

Of course, if the Blues are worried about exposing him to Craig Berube (coach of the AHL Chicago Wolves), then perhaps he IS better off serving popcorn and watching X's and O's unfold on the ice.......