I don't feel Monahan will ever truly live up to his contract. He reminds me a bit of a guy like Brad Boyes - never someone who will drive scoring on your team or carry a line, but can play with decent players and not look out of place.
He has extremely strong positioning in the offensive zone and gets himself in good areas to score on a play or finish a play, but the other areas of his game will need significant polishing if he ever hopes to become a "true" 1st line C. His defensive game needs to improve significantly and you always want to see more physicality and engagement going to the tougher areas of the ice.
I think we're going to see what he is really made of while Gaudreau is out. We'll see if he rises to the challenge.
|