How important is centre depth?
A fair amount has been made on here about the Flames lack of center depth. I always felt the center was the engine that powered the offense, but after looking around a bit, it might be even more important. In fact, I would even say it's the most important position on the ice.
If you look at the past 6 cup winning teams it becomes strikingly apparent:
Anaheim: Getzlaf, McDonald, Pahlson
Detroit: Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Draper
Pittsburgh: Crosby, Malkin, Staal
Chicago: Toews, Kane, Bolland
Boston: Krejci, Bergeron, Kelly, Peverley
LA: Kopitar, Richards, Stoll
Every team had a Center that scored at around 1.00 PPG or higher in the playoffs, and a great second line center. The top line centre led each one of those teams in scoring in the playoffs and the second line centre was close behind. Clearly the centre drove the offense for each of these teams.
The next thing that became apparent was the third line centers. What do Sammy Pahlson, Kris Draper, Jordan Staal, Dave Bolland, Patrice Bergeron and now Jarrett Stoll have in common? They are all renown shut down centers. The center seems to be heavily involved in providing defense.
We often hear how goaltending is key, but not all of those teams had top notch goaltending. Not all of those teams had fantastic D. The commonality among them is center depth.
Centers do not grow on trees, but I'm nervous as I don't see any help down the middle in the near future
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