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Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • NHL.com •
Several months ago, Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi made some fascinating -- and, in my opinion, dead accurate --comments on the tricky nature of drafting and developing defensemen.
Said Lombardi, "You have to be so careful with defensemen. The history of young defensemen is incredible if you look at it. If you knew Chris Pronger was going to turn out the way he did, do you think Hartford ever trades him? Of course not! It's why he had to move, and the same with Ed Jovanovski, Chris Chelios, Bryan Berard, Bryan McCabe, all those kids.
"If they [are given too much responsibility] too soon, they eventually lose their confidence and they can't take the next step unless they get out of that environment and start anew.
And that's why I was always so careful in San Jose with [Scott] Hannan and [Brad] Stuart and all these guys. The one advantage we have, if I am able to keep this together, is that we have solid veterans like Blake, Norstrom, [Aaron] Miller and Visnovsky that you can break in young defensemen with. So we'll see [about Jack Johnson]."
While Chris Chelios is actually a rare example of a defenseman who blossomed with his original team (Montreal) right off the bat, the substance of Lombardi's comments is right on the money.
Unlike forwards, who usually emerge at a fairly steady pace, it often takes defensemen several pro seasons -- which may include a real clunker or two after their rookie years-- before they hit their stride.
The ultimate example is the story of Pronger's development. Traded from Hartford to the Blues for the immensely popular Brendan Shanahan, he was nearly booed out of St. Louis while compiling a minus-18 rating his first season. Mike Keenan used to turn shades of purple screaming at him for the boneheaded mistakes he made on the ice.
By the age of 23, Pronger was better known for his brushes with the law than for his mediocre career in the NHL (202 GP, 17 G, 52 assists, 69 points, minus-33 rating, 277 PIMs which where largely of the undisciplined variety).
At age 24, though, he started to put it together and by the next year, he was a burgeoning superstar defenseman.
While Pronger's case is atypical in just how dramatically he turned around his fortunes on the ice, it is not at all unusual for defensemen of all ability levels to need until their mid- to late-20s to start to live up to their ability.
Players like Nicklas Lidström and Scott Niedermayer, who hit the ground running, are rare. And these players were usually eased into their top-pairing roles over the course of several seasons.
Lidström spent his early years on Detroit clubs that had the likes of Paul Coffey, Slava Fetisov, Mark Howe, Brad McCrimmon and fellow young defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov. Niedermayer had the benefit of coming up on a defense-first New Jersey Devils team that had Scott Stevens to do the heavy lifting as well as highly capable defensemen such as Bruce Driver and Ken Daneyko.
Two of the other top five finishers in the Norris voting for 2006-07 were relatively late bloomers. Dan Boyle, who was undrafted out of college, started to emerge as a quality NHL defenseman at age 26. Kimmo Timonen reached the NHL from the SM-Liiga at age 23 and became a full-time NHLer the following year.
For these and other reasons, I think the Philadelphia Flyers would be foolish to give up so quickly on Joni Pitkänen, regardless of how poorly he played in 2006-07.
It's one thing if they get a trade offer that blows them away. It's quite another to pull the plug now out of frustration or, worse, panic. On the flip side, the Flyers are justified in playing hardball with Pitkänen's agent on the player's salary. He has clearly not earned a raise, and I think the club stands a good chance of winning in arbitration if it comes to that.
There is no question that Pitkänen took a huge step backwards this past season. Defensively he was atrocious and offensively, he stuck to the same perimeter move rather than venturing into the middle of the ice (where he'd had success the previous season). He sometimes seemed afraid to get hit. His decision making with and without the puck left a lot to be desired and he took some truly awful, lazy penalties.
But one season earlier, Pitkänen was ahead of the curve before suffering a sports hernia that knocked him out of action for about six weeks. Prior to suffering the injury in early December 2005, his name was mentioned in early Norris Trophy buzz. He made his share of miscues but the good decisions outnumbered the bad ones, and he and center Peter Forsberg frequently hooked up on creative plays.
No one was talking about him switching to a bigger stick back then.
Pitkänen hasn't been the same player since the hernia surgery-- he has been tentative, indecisive and extremely frustrating to watch ( a sentiment widely shared by his coaches, GM, teammates and fans alike). One good play will be followed by three that leave you shaking your head. Any way you slice it, it was a terrible year.
Even his 43 points were way below what he ought to be capable of producing.
But in the bigger picture, it's hardly unusual for a young defenseman to take a step backwards as his responsibilities on the ice increase. The Flyers team as a whole struggled terribly this past season and there were no longer players like Eric Desjardins and Kim Johnsson to alleviate pressure from Pitkänen.
While Pitkänen's response to the opportunity was highly disappointing, it really shouldn't have been surprising in retrospect. Assuming Pitkänen stays put, the presence of Timonen to play first-pairing minutes should help alleviate some of the burden from Pitkänen.
To put it politely, he's not the most mentally mature at his age that you'll ever see. But neither was Pronger and neither was Jovanovski (he carried the unflattering nickname "Special Ed," which didn't stem from his unusual skill level for such a big defenseman).
It's easy to talk about showing patience with the development of young defensemen. It's quite another to put it in practice when it seems like the player just doesn't get it.
It's a tough, tough call to make on whether a defenseman simply needs to mature or lacks hockey sense.
The latter was the bane of the existence of Karl Dykhuis, Michel Petit, and many other defensemen chosen in the first round of the NHL Draft who teased their teams for years with flashes of brilliance followed by several games' worth of ineptitude.
I have no idea at this point which category Joni Pitkänen falls into. But neither do the Flyers or anyone else, and that it makes it extremely risky for Philadelphia to trade him.
The next year or two of his career will tell the story.
Said Lombardi, "You have to be so careful with defensemen. The history of young defensemen is incredible if you look at it. If you knew Chris Pronger was going to turn out the way he did, do you think Hartford ever trades him? Of course not! It's why he had to move, and the same with Ed Jovanovski, Chris Chelios, Bryan Berard, Bryan McCabe, all those kids.
"If they [are given too much responsibility] too soon, they eventually lose their confidence and they can't take the next step unless they get out of that environment and start anew.
And that's why I was always so careful in San Jose with [Scott] Hannan and [Brad] Stuart and all these guys. The one advantage we have, if I am able to keep this together, is that we have solid veterans like Blake, Norstrom, [Aaron] Miller and Visnovsky that you can break in young defensemen with. So we'll see [about Jack Johnson]."
While Chris Chelios is actually a rare example of a defenseman who blossomed with his original team (Montreal) right off the bat, the substance of Lombardi's comments is right on the money.
Unlike forwards, who usually emerge at a fairly steady pace, it often takes defensemen several pro seasons -- which may include a real clunker or two after their rookie years-- before they hit their stride.
The ultimate example is the story of Pronger's development. Traded from Hartford to the Blues for the immensely popular Brendan Shanahan, he was nearly booed out of St. Louis while compiling a minus-18 rating his first season. Mike Keenan used to turn shades of purple screaming at him for the boneheaded mistakes he made on the ice.
By the age of 23, Pronger was better known for his brushes with the law than for his mediocre career in the NHL (202 GP, 17 G, 52 assists, 69 points, minus-33 rating, 277 PIMs which where largely of the undisciplined variety).
At age 24, though, he started to put it together and by the next year, he was a burgeoning superstar defenseman.
While Pronger's case is atypical in just how dramatically he turned around his fortunes on the ice, it is not at all unusual for defensemen of all ability levels to need until their mid- to late-20s to start to live up to their ability.
Players like Nicklas Lidström and Scott Niedermayer, who hit the ground running, are rare. And these players were usually eased into their top-pairing roles over the course of several seasons.
Lidström spent his early years on Detroit clubs that had the likes of Paul Coffey, Slava Fetisov, Mark Howe, Brad McCrimmon and fellow young defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov. Niedermayer had the benefit of coming up on a defense-first New Jersey Devils team that had Scott Stevens to do the heavy lifting as well as highly capable defensemen such as Bruce Driver and Ken Daneyko.
Two of the other top five finishers in the Norris voting for 2006-07 were relatively late bloomers. Dan Boyle, who was undrafted out of college, started to emerge as a quality NHL defenseman at age 26. Kimmo Timonen reached the NHL from the SM-Liiga at age 23 and became a full-time NHLer the following year.
For these and other reasons, I think the Philadelphia Flyers would be foolish to give up so quickly on Joni Pitkänen, regardless of how poorly he played in 2006-07.
It's one thing if they get a trade offer that blows them away. It's quite another to pull the plug now out of frustration or, worse, panic. On the flip side, the Flyers are justified in playing hardball with Pitkänen's agent on the player's salary. He has clearly not earned a raise, and I think the club stands a good chance of winning in arbitration if it comes to that.
There is no question that Pitkänen took a huge step backwards this past season. Defensively he was atrocious and offensively, he stuck to the same perimeter move rather than venturing into the middle of the ice (where he'd had success the previous season). He sometimes seemed afraid to get hit. His decision making with and without the puck left a lot to be desired and he took some truly awful, lazy penalties.
But one season earlier, Pitkänen was ahead of the curve before suffering a sports hernia that knocked him out of action for about six weeks. Prior to suffering the injury in early December 2005, his name was mentioned in early Norris Trophy buzz. He made his share of miscues but the good decisions outnumbered the bad ones, and he and center Peter Forsberg frequently hooked up on creative plays.
No one was talking about him switching to a bigger stick back then.
Pitkänen hasn't been the same player since the hernia surgery-- he has been tentative, indecisive and extremely frustrating to watch ( a sentiment widely shared by his coaches, GM, teammates and fans alike). One good play will be followed by three that leave you shaking your head. Any way you slice it, it was a terrible year.
Even his 43 points were way below what he ought to be capable of producing.
But in the bigger picture, it's hardly unusual for a young defenseman to take a step backwards as his responsibilities on the ice increase. The Flyers team as a whole struggled terribly this past season and there were no longer players like Eric Desjardins and Kim Johnsson to alleviate pressure from Pitkänen.
While Pitkänen's response to the opportunity was highly disappointing, it really shouldn't have been surprising in retrospect. Assuming Pitkänen stays put, the presence of Timonen to play first-pairing minutes should help alleviate some of the burden from Pitkänen.
To put it politely, he's not the most mentally mature at his age that you'll ever see. But neither was Pronger and neither was Jovanovski (he carried the unflattering nickname "Special Ed," which didn't stem from his unusual skill level for such a big defenseman).
It's easy to talk about showing patience with the development of young defensemen. It's quite another to put it in practice when it seems like the player just doesn't get it.
It's a tough, tough call to make on whether a defenseman simply needs to mature or lacks hockey sense.
The latter was the bane of the existence of Karl Dykhuis, Michel Petit, and many other defensemen chosen in the first round of the NHL Draft who teased their teams for years with flashes of brilliance followed by several games' worth of ineptitude.
I have no idea at this point which category Joni Pitkänen falls into. But neither do the Flyers or anyone else, and that it makes it extremely risky for Philadelphia to trade him.
The next year or two of his career will tell the story.
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