well, he's very young and he got a wakeup call and while he's clearly immature (and who isn't at 20 yrs old, its just we've become accustomed to young NHLers acting very mature at a young age for some reason) so that can change.
The upside here is, as immature as jake is:
A. Its normal for most people his age! LOL
B. He's not an 'idiot' - from what we've seen he's a young kid being a kid bc he's got some cash now and buddies around (none of us would be any different, bo is actually an exception - I think being in Vancouver hurt him - too close to his bros who pumped his tires), so if he's not an 'idiot' he will mature and utica is good, away from all the nonsense and 'early celebrity'.
C. He's got talent and now knows he's got to earn it, nothing is going to be given to him, especially with the moves JB has made (bringing in 2 young offensive wingers plus Boeser about to come in, and maybe Gaudette). Plus you have Baer and Granny pretty much cementing 2 of 4 top 6 spots. If he looks around, he'll notice there's no spot 'waiting' for him anymore - if that doesn't light a fire under him nothing will
As I said in another thread lets see how he comes into camp next year and this is my view on how we need to evaluate him
1. Come into camp in great shape
2. Play your ass off and make it hard for the Nucks to send him back (but they should even as a test of his resiliency, to make him feel like he's close but can't quit or sulk)
3. Back to Utica and start being the 'driver of offense' and showing he can dominate physically and play 200ft
4. Be called up a few times and when called up, don't complain about what line you're on, with the limited minutes still show you want to be here by making yourself noticed
5. Following season should be starting to see him as the first call from utica even if he doesn't stick out of camp.
He's got 2 years in my view before we start talking about bust or anything of the sort. The key here is improvement in all facets of his game, fitness, drive, effort, professionalism on and off the ice, positioning, scoring etc - lots to work on.
When people say "powerforwards take more time' so far, this is an excuse for Jake to gloss over a lack of commitment. Powerforwards take time to put it all together at the NHL level but the best ones still showed progression. Jake won't wake up one day and voila its all working, we need to see progression and to date that hasn't been there. Let's hope over the next 2 years we start seeing that!
I think we will, he's a decent kid, just the celebrity got a bit too much into his head early and the Nucks smartly recognized it. Now its up to him!