Used on the right wing of the second line by Dominique Ducharme against the Lightning, young Jake Evans has been blanked in the CH's last six games, and now also has a -6 differential. His head coach was asked about his use, and his answer was very unclear.
He defended his decision not to use Evans at center by asking reporters if they really wanted to see a kid like Evans face the Jonathan Toews, Nathan MacKinnon and Steven Stamkos of this world every time he played...
Visibly taken aback by this response, former NHL scout Grant McCagg criticized Ducharme by providing examples of several of the CH's young center players who have been able to compete with the best in the game in recent years.
As he so aptly points out, Nick Suzuki has been doing it for almost two years now, three years younger than Evans. Phillip Danault and Jonathan Drouin also played against the best opposing center players when they were about the same age as Suzuki, so McCagg would like to see Ducharme use Evans and Ryan Poehling in situations that maximize their development.
While it's true that Evans does extremely well in his own zone when playing his natural position, I don't think the best option is to play him against opposing top lines, nor to use him on the wing. This presents Dominique Ducharme with quite a dilemma if he wants to foster the development of his young American forward.
