Sophomore Slump or Sophomore Rebound?

[Greg_Di 966]

 

You usually hear that rookies heading into their Sophomore season will experience the dreaded sophomore slump. This is usually brought up when a rookie cannot follow up his rookie season with the same type of numbers or same type of production. Majority of rookies will go through this but today we will focus on Henry Eagles and why we think that he will not suffer from this fate.

 

His rookie season was a disappointment all around for himself and the league, the number one overall pick was supposed to play better especially after getting multiple votes for being predicted to being the rookie of the year and also playing on a cup favorite team. He finished the season with a measly 31 points, not even getting close to making a dent to be considered as rookie of the year last season.

It is highly doubtful Henry will experience a sophomore slump due to his low point total. If he actually does have a slump next season then there might be more issues with his game then most people realize. If this happens you can bet the "bust" word will start to follow the young player around and cause even more pressure on the player. We are predicting though that he will have a rare sophomore rebound, his true potential will finally start to show in his second season and that could only mean great things for the Wolves organization, who are going to be making another run at the cup this upcoming season.

By our count, Henry's only trajectory has to be up and we saw a few glimpses of this in the playoffs. He put up 5 points in 7 games and looked much better as a player then he has been all season. Top that off with having one full season under his belt to get used to the faster and stronger pace of the game as well as a full season and off-season training. He has been steadily working on improving his overall game, especially his scoring ability. In his rookie season he focused more on his defensive side in order to be a productive member of the Wolves team. While that did not produce high scoring numbers for the young player, it helped improve one of his weaknesses he had in junior hockey and that was defense. With now focusing on improving his offense, Henry, will be a well rounded player.

 

With Henry coming along nicely in training and in his development, we are also predicting he will be given more responsibility on the team which can lead to more ice time. With more ice time, Henry will be able to produce more points for the team. While we are still very early in the off-season, we are thinking that Henry will be able to hit the 70+ point mark this season if his development continues on this path. While he did not win rookie of the year, many in the Wolves camp are betting that he can go on and win most improved player. 

 

 

[Gaikoku-hito 1,792]

I am hopeful for a breakout season but I am also not worried about Eagles. We should be a good team again this season and only getting better together.