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Originally Posted by strombad
Only by your flawed logic was I denigrating Toews.
We aren't comparing Monahan to every other Flames player, you compared him to Toews, and I showed you why comparing him to Toews as a shot against Monahan isn't warranted. You, of course, left out my very correct points about their hitting and blocked shots not being far off, and considering this is only game 6, as I said before, Monahan has plenty of time to match Toews' numbers, they aren't that lofty.
Either way, Monahan was already one of the best face off guys in the OHL, he was automatic, sending him down isn't going to improve his face off skills when he's already dominated the dot. As for his physical play? The was one of the knocks against him pre-draft. It could stand to be improved, but comparing him to Toews in that sense is ridiculous, seeing as Toews barely managed higher 'physical' stats on average in his first full season than Monahan has over 6 games. Monahan hasn't looked shy, he goes to the tough areas, but he doesn't hit. Do you learn to play more physical in the NHL by playing in the OHL? I'd be mighty surprised were that true. I could see value if he was college or AHL bound, but playing against weaker opponents isn't going to help his physical game.
It stands to reason that your gripes are not warranted against a player who has only played in 6 career NHL games.
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he goes into rough areas but he doesn't hit? He negotiates or reaches in to attempt to get the puck?
Toews did not hit much in his first year in the league. He still does not hit much considering the role he plays. He did have a +40 Takeaway/giveaway last year and in his rookie year had 8 giveaways and 29 take aways in 64 games. He only had 27 hits in 64 games.... in 60 games Monahan should have 10 hits.
Monahan is currently at the Cervenka level of toughness... not at all close to the rookie Toews level.
You can see the difference in that Toews basically had 3 times as many hits in his rookie season as Monahan would have if he kept up his current rate?? Or in your world of approximations do you value a 10-11 goal scorer the same as a 27 goal scorer.
In Toews first playoff year his second NHL season he had 19 hits in 17 games.
Right now there is no way I can see Monahan stepping it up physically when he goes up against the other teams best centres in important games.
I think you can agree that is the role that the flames are counting on him to take over when they are a serious playoff team. He needs to grow.
I am really worried that if he plays 60 games as a fringe player that it will be more difficult for him to grow out of it.
It will get worse for him as the NHL season goes along. Already because of his scoring success and talent the other teams coaches are making game plans that involve physical domination of Monahan.
Right now Monahan (along with Baertschi and Hudler) have 0 seconds of penalty killing time.. Not fast enough or smart enough?
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It stands to reason that your gripes are not warranted against a player who has only played in 6 career NHL games.
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The problem is that if he plays another 4 NHL games then he likely will be in the NHL for the whole year.
He has the talent and the hockey smarts for the NHL but he has a 19 year olds body. The same as Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Yakapov, throw in Burmistrov , another 19 year old NHLer.
I do not think that there are more than a handful of people that would argue that their optimal development plan was to play in the NHL as 19 year olds?