Hoggy’s Potential

The past few games, Hoggy has felt like a completely different player. Of course, he makes mistakes fairly often, such as the occasional unnecessary icing or stupid penalty, but I think his potential is very high.

I understand that it gets frustrating when he’s on a cold streak, but we forget he’s literally only 24 years old. It took Ryan Kesler 5 pro seasons to get to where Hoggy is right now in terms of production (mind you, they are completely different styles of players and Kesler was very defensively sound).

If he learns to be more patient, keep his emotions in check, and not get frustrated with poor performance, he has top line winger potential. There’s no doubting he has the skill, and he has shown he can thrive when given the opportunity.

I hope the coaching staff can give him a longer leash, he’s only going to learn from mistakes if he’s allowed to make them. There’s a lot of untapped potential here. I hope we don’t trade him, we will likely regret it.