I figure he's going to have some lazy stretches because I'm not 100% sold that he's got that effort level to a consistent level. However, this kid should score 20 goals in his sleep every season if he gets PP time.
I think he gets 20 dump if he just gets a regular shift with linemates that don't trip over the blue line. The skies the limit for this kid. Very happy craporella is gone.
20 gls is a very reasonable target for him, but the jury is still out. Last year in the AHL during the lockout it was very poor performance from him with only 23pts in 48gms, and that had nothing to do with Torts.
that may be true (can't find game logs of last year AHL season for Kreider) but that still should not discount the fact that in his total body of work in the AHL he was very poor offensively (compared to skill/expectations). We cannot just ignore the bad and only see the good. I still see 20gls for him as a reasonable and achievable target for him next year but the jury is still out on what type of player he can become. In his pro career (AHL/NHL, reg season and playoffs) he only has 35pts in almost 100gms (97).
I'd like to see him with a really skilled passer like Brassard, who's probably the best playmaker on the team. One thing I noticed with Kreider is he gets a little too jumpy out there sometimes, he needs to just let the game come to him and find his open space where he can get his shot off more consistently.
Kreider's OT goal in the playoffs vs. Boston is everything he has to do to become a 30 to 40 goal scorer in the NHL. If you watch it on youtube, he left the entire Bruins team in the dust from his own faceoff circle, drove the net, out muscled Hamilton who is a big kid and made a great deflection. Everything a world class skating, power forward should do. He should watch that play over and over. If he does that a lot, he'll score a lot. He is simply bigger and faster than almost all the players in the NHL.
Not gonna lie, I totally jumped out of my chair when he scored that, spilling a whole bowl of corn chips, which I promptly landed on and wrecked. Worth it.
In my opinion Kreider is going to start out slow, but because Tort's isn't here to send him to Hartford he will be allowed to play and learn and will come on strong at least 30 games into the season. Then he will take off and become the player we were all hoping to see last season. I say 30 to 35 goals ...
