Its unfortunate he lost a whole year of his development playing under a coach that doesnt know what he's doing because management refused to find a better coach than colliton in the offseason. You see how bad Caufield was under Ducharme? Thats Dach under King. Coaches matter

Hes a bigger body also. A patient route is needed with his development. Still 21 and had a lot thrown at him from a young age and was rushed into the majors.

I dont even necessarily know that patience is the word to use here. If we want the rebuild to be successful, we need a coach who can actually DEVELOP young guys. Colliton helped with defensive development, but they need someone to help teach them how to advance their skills. Savard was perfect for Kane and toews for breaking them into the show. Quenneville helped develop them further. You're seeing Marty St Louis turn Caufield into a star by actually teaching him how to get better and hone his skills. Colliton was a system over skills guy, and Derek King doesnt know what hes doing at all. There's a reason virtually every single one of our young prospects has busted if Kane didnt take them to his skills coach over the summer.

I agree its a coaching thing also though I still feel a level of patience is needed with Dach, I don't think we will see the best of him until his mid 20's which is fine while we are developing and not being competitive but your right, we need a coach that can harness these young guys coming through.

Only reason I’m asking the question now is because long back when I said he was the wrong pick, others said you gotta give it three and we’ll see where others are compared to him. Well, we’re at that point and I can name ten players in that draft we’d have been better off with let alone are indeed better than Dach.

Yeah its fair to say that he hasn't been playing the best as of late, but its hard to wonder just how much of that development was lost under a hopeless coach and a broken wrist. Im not sure Zegras would have as much confidence as he does if he didnt have the full support of a coach who actually knows what hes doing and had an organization send him to college for a year and then spend another half a year in the AHL instead of forcing him through to the NHL first. Believe me, Im less than impressed with Dach, but at this point, with how many top picks we've screwed up over the past 5 years, do you think drafting anyone else would have turned out as good as they have?

I definitely don’t disagree with you. We would have probably messed up whoever we picked. However, all I remember for the last three years is how it was virtually impossible for Dach to fail according to all our fellow hawks fans on this site. That never sat well with me.

To your point about coaching or development though, that’s part of the issue I tend not to justify. At least not with Dach. With reichel, boqvist, beaudin, or Mitchell, I totally get it. With Dach though, he was #3 overall and at that position of “too big to fail.” I understand that coaches make a huge difference, but that doesn’t explain how jack hughes is all of a sudden playing #1 overall hockey now. Dach was trusted to go straight to the NHL, and was decent at ABSOLUTE best. Since then, he’s been nothing but awful. Coaches can’t teach players mentality in my opinion, that’s something you have to learn on your own. Hughes is reaching those levels cuz he’s finally playing the way he knows how to. Dach, on the other hand, is the worst kind of player. He’s been blessed with size and hands, but plays with such fear and timidness you’d think he was 5’9’’ and barely 170 lbs. out there. This is why I never wanted Dach. His time in juniors constantly showed why his getzlaf comparison was total B.S. back then. He never showed drive, or aggression, or even strength. He just thought he’d get away with being Mario lemieux.

To your point of his wrist, I really hope that isn’t a long term issue like it’s been made to be. Unfortunately, he broke his own wrist on that play, and it wasn’t even against professionals. I just hope the hawks’ sake, we don’t look back and say, “can you believe we ruined a career because a child in the NHL complained and wanted to play at the World ****ing Juniors?!”

Yeah, I mean, the justification on the Dach pick was likely that with his size, it is virtually impossible to fail. And he hasnt failed, to their credit. Maybe as a lottery pick, sure, but he has had success as an all around player. At this point, his skill floor is a 3c. Hes going to have a long career as long as he remains healthy because he has that size and the motor that he does. Because of the size and motor, he was going to be ready the fastest out of that class and Bowman wanted to squeeze what he could out of the Kane and Toews era instead of building for a future core. I still think he has the skill to be a high end 2C or a low end 1C. The problem is consistency, which makes him more of a 2c, or more likely at this point, a 2RW because of faceoffs. I am confident he will at least get to that level if surrounded by the right support. I

The problem lies squarely on management as they have fudged this every step of the way. He wasnt the BPA at the draft. He wasnt ready for the NHL. And he wasnt given a coach to help his development. I will never blame him for not developing the way that he should have. All I can do is be hopeful he figures it out with the right coach, and at least his next contract wont be expensive.

oops i edited the post above