Colorado Avalanche: What Sending Tyson Jost to the AHL Means
Need for Player Development — My Thoughts
Tyson Jost has not been adequately developed at the NHL level. I’ve already said that in previous posts. I’m going to go into that argument again.
Resolved: A player is responsible for his own work. He must show up to practices and focus on everything the coaching staff instructs him to do. He must show up to meetings and film review and take notes.
The player is also responsible for a lot of his off-ice workouts as well as his own continued development in terms of evaluating his own play and tending to his nutritional needs. During the off-season, he must keep himself in peak shape while also focusing on whatever individual assignments he’s been given in the off-season.
An NHL player is expected to show up to games on time and with the proper preparation to play his best game. He must implement both his individual instruction and the team play as a whole.
Colorado Avalanche
Players must start with elite raw talent. However, a lot of background goes into player development before he ever gets drafted, much less steps foot on NHL ice. Even once he’s drafted, he must be developed in his formative years. For some players, that’s at the NHL level. Other players may take different routes.
For Tyson Jost, his post-draft development came as a stint in the prestigious University of North Dakota Men’s Ice Hockey program. They’ve won the NCAA tournament eight times (as recently as 2016), made the Frozen Four 22 times (as recently as 2016), and made a total of 32 appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
NoDak is an elite NCAA development route. Said program has turned out elite NHLers such as Jonathan Toews, TJ Oshie and Zach Parise — yes, it hurts me to call the latter “elite,” but it’s also true.
The Colorado Avalanche lured Jost — word attributed to Rawal at Mile High Sports — out of this prestigious development program. Jost had to look at his own stats at previous levels and know he was likely to have another breakout season, this time with NoDak. But he followed his NHL team’s advice because, hey, that’s the dream, right?
I have to think the Avalanche promised they’d continue his development. Indeed, as Montano observed, they plopped him right into the lineup. The next two years, he made the team out of camp. And the next two years, they put his development on the backburner — Montano’s words — as they chased the will-o’-the-wisp playoffs.
And now, here we are. Apparently the Avalanche are going to commit to developing Tyson Jost, but that looks like his playing in the AHL. As much as I loved watching Jost develop as a (personable) young man last season, I wish they’d left him at NoDak if they weren’t going to bother with his career.
Last season, when the team was sharing their AHL affiliate with the St. Louis Blues, I don’t think sending him to the AHL would have been all that beneficial. This year… it just might be. However, they went about it all wrong.
They should have done what they did last season — send him on a “conditioning stint” after he came back from injury. Instead, this season, they wait until the entire team is imploding then “demote” him as if it’s all his fault. Because, yes, that’s how you instill confidence.
Take a look back at Jost’s scouting report. When you fail a player with those talents… that’s a gigantic red flag.
The only silver lining is that I have more confidence in the Colorado Eagles coaching staff — specifically the head coach — than I do in the Colorado Avalanche coaching staff — ditto the head coach thing.
Let’s focus on that for a moment.