Ales Hemsky has been by far the most talented forward in my years as an Oilers fan. Blazing speed, incredible stickhandling at top gear, breathtaking passes, and hilite reel goals. The tools are there, laid out for everyone to see every single time that he breaks in on an odd man rush or dishes a perfect pass to a teammate on the power play.
However the improvements seem to be coming slower than most would like. Last season he added a nice move where he drags the puck back and shoots through defenders legs. While it hasn't been seen as much this season, it shows signs of a player that is still improving his offensive game.
And now we have reached the root of the problem. For such an amazingly talented player, he isn't able to get his linemates involved enough. He is often times too busy skating circles around d-men and curling around from behind the net looking for the perfect pass that his linemates are either watching in awe or confusion as to what #83 is doing.
This organization needs to make a decision on Hemsky, either get him a natural left wing sniper, get him to buy into making quicker decisions with the puck, or trade him and build this team around another forward up front.
Perhaps the best thing that the Oilers could do from with-in the organization in the near future would be to move Gilbert Brule to the left wing and Rob Schremp to the right wing. This would allow Hemsky to have a RH shooter on the left side who actively looks to put the puck on the net, and it would allow Schremp to open up his goalscoring game from the right side.
You cannot take away the creativity of a player like Ales Hemsky, but sometimes he has to be shown the error of a few of his ways. Great players adjust their game to the strengths of their linemates, very good and good players have to be adjusted to by their linemates. It's time to find out if Ales Hemsky is a great player and a player that's worthy of the franchise forward label, or if he's just a very good player that could be cashed in for a great player.
