Monday, November 24, 2008

Sam Gagner - Grown Ass Man



"Sam wasn't a gifted athlete" - Sam Gagner's Trainer

"You'll never be a rabbit, but we can make you a really fast turtle" - Dave Gagner

"I wasn't born fast." - Sam Gagner

Sam Gagner is a poor athlete. He has a terrible metabolism for a 19 year old professional hockey player. But that doesn't make him a terrible hockey player, he just has a few challenges over other players. Sam's been getting a lot of hate from the Edmonton hockey media. He's got 5 points (1 goal) in 19 games after finishing last season with some offensive magic.

But don't hate on Sam - he can't actually compete at this point in the season. The best way to think of Sam Gagner is a Grown Ass Man. Grown Ass Man has one option in professional sports - wait for the other guys to get tired, or use veteran tactics. Sam Gagner is too young to have developed veteran tactics (like say Jeremy Roenick or my favorite example - Jerry Rice) so we have to wait for the rest of the NHL to get tired.

Pay attention to Sam Gagner in the next game you watch. He's always a step or two behind the action because the rest of the NHL still has too much energy. Once game 40 or 50 hits and the dregs of the NHL season start wearing on the rest of the players, Sam will look like he belongs and use his natural scoring ability and offensive awareness to rack up a few points.

The best move for the Oilers is trading Sam Gagner in the off season for someone who isn't a liability for 30 games per year. He oscillates from being a 4th liner to a 2nd liner for 1/3 of the season. That's not the kind of guy I want to build my franchise around. Either that, or Sam can start developing veteran tactics and evolve into a great player. During the offseason, his offensive potential will be apparent and some foolish team will trade something of value for our old friend Sam.

1 comment:

kassam said...

Sam Gagner is not a liability, he is snake-bitten. Gagner is shooting a 2.7% and he's playing 17 minutes a game. He's only a -3 on the season so he is eating up minutes and not getting scored on, hardly a liability.

His shooting percentage will go up and he will be scoring more points. The kid is a stud, he has all world talent with average speed.