Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaudreauvertime
Young top line centers are certainly a huge requirement, but just in the last few years, we've seen a decent amount of good centers get traded at a very young age.
I can't think of many PPG wingers who were traded at a young age.
Wait, my opinion that Gaudreau is more valuable than Monahan means that I'm overrating Gaudreau and underrating Monahan and the centre position in general?
If Monahan is more valuable than Gaudreau, then why would he make less money on the open market?
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Wingers are less valuable than centres in general. Centres have a greater impact on the game in many areas. Centres take face-offs, most wingers don't. Centres have responsibilities down low, near the net in their own zone to cover the opponent's 3rd forward. Wingers have a much easier time covering the opposition defensemen. Playmaking centres can make average wingers great (See Lemieux-Rob Brown, see Crosby-Dupuis, etc). Goal scoring wingers often are meh without a playmaking centre to set them up.
Where have the best goal scoring wingers of the past 10-15 years led their teams? Nowhere for the most part. Where have the best 1-2 centre men duos in the league led their teams in the past 10-15 years? Stanley Cups.
As for valuation it must be understood that players who score points will get paid. But scoring the most points does not necessarily make you the most valuable or impactful player for team success.
Johnny scores the most points on the Flames but centre is the more important and impactful position. That's why this negotiation is a tough one. Johnny deserves to be paid huge for putting up huge points. But it's dangerous to pay wingers huge money as you can rarely build a cup winning team with a winger as your most important and most highly paid player.
We all love Johnny. We all know how vital he is to the team. But paying him 8+ million may impact our ability to keep Bennett, Tkachuk, etc. So for the team to have success they really need to have Johnny on as cheap a deal as possible. If you overpay on wingers you can't afford your centres and defensemen and centre/defense are more important to team success.