Quote:
Originally Posted by Dagger
It's written poorly but the reasons why it's written are valid. Monahan is supplying points now, but statistics suggest he's going to eventually fall down from this pace....and the question becomes is it worth keeping Monahan up for a whole year to play 10-12 minutes a game with little to no PP time? He's 8th amongst Flames forwards in PP time and he's getting just over 13 mins of ice time with these numbers likely decreasing as Stajan and Cammy come back into the lineup.
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As the season has gone on, Hartley has increased the Monahan line's overall ice time and their PP time. Against New Jersey, Monahan-Backlund-Baertschi was the #2 PP unit.
Cammalleri's return shouldn't impact Monahan's 5-on-5 ice time at all since they play different positions, but Hartley might mix up the PP lines. Stajan's return will likely impact Street and Colborne before Monahan.
Ultimately, the questions they need to ask is: "Is Sean Monahan currently one of the Flames organization's top 4 available centres? Will Monahan be one of the organization's top 4 centres when all available players are healthy?"
For me, the answer to both of those questions is, "Yes". As a result, he should stay on merit.
He has not looked out of place in the NHL so far. Except for his first assist, all of his points have been good solid NHL calibre points. The plays he made on his goals against Montreal and New Jersey, and his assist against Montreal were all plays that you expect to see from a very small percentage of NHL veterans.
Might he hit a rough patch at some point this season? Sure, but sending him back to Ottawa isn't going to do anything about helping him work through a rough patch in the NHL. If he gets sent back to the OHL, then all the inevitable NHL growing pains get set back by a year, as well.
Another important factor to keep in mind is that he's developing really good chemistry with Sven right now, and sending Sean back will likely have a negative impact on Sven's game too. They appear to be developing strong chemistry on the ice and a friendship off the ice. They're the only two ELCs on the team, so they're certainly rooming together on the road (veterans get their own rooms on the road in the new CBA). Sven has someone to share the rookie experience with, and they can help each other work through the rough patches down the road.