Quote:
Originally Posted by Par
Who are they?
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I'll take a stab at it since my OCD likes lists:
Generational - Crosby, Ovechkin, probably McDavid and Eichel eventually. Jagr deserves consideration, too.
Superstar - Stamkos, Karlsson, Malkin, Doughty, Lundqvist, P. Kane, Thornton, Tavares, Price, Toews, S. Weber, Keith, Quick, Getzlaf.
They deliver impressive totals year in, year out, are explosive & exciting, and are key to their teams' success. I hesitate a bit on Weber & Getzlaf, though due to some blips in their offensive output.
Star (too many to mention) - Benn, Seguin (besides playing for the Stars), Perry, Giroux, Subban, Kopitar, Tarasenko, Hedman, Holtby, Burns, Letang, Pacioretty, Josi, Pavelski, Pietrangelo, Byfuglien, Bergeron... I'm sure I'm forgetting some absolute defensive stalwarts a la Bob Gainey, too.
Rising stars - guys like Johanssen, MacKinnon, Klingberg, Martin Jones, Forsberg, Ekblad, M. Murray, S. Jones...
Then there a bunch of excellent players who don't quite put up the totals or may lack the dynamism of the stars. I'll just put Wayne Simmonds as the poster boy for this category since it's so subjective.
Gaudreau is either a rising star or an established star. I don't much care which. He could even vault into superstar status if he records even better numbers and/or delivers in the playoffs. Gio belongs in the conversation with the star players above.