Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaudreauvertime
My list of players are all U24 players. There aren't any U24 wingers I can think of who could replace Gaudreau for the next decade.
That's not to say Monahan would be easy to replace. But there are more players like Sean Monahan than there are like Gaudreau. So if push came to shove, you could consider moving Monahan for a Scheifele or Draisaitl etc. If you are going to lose Gaudreau you aren't very likely to find a young LW who can replace what he brings.
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Um.. re: bolded. That is an optimistic position. There is plenty of wing talent that could plausibly replace him for the next decade (er... eight years) if push came to shove. Especially if there were an associated cap hit saving to spread out the top end talent:
Kucherov
Panarin
Stone
Forsberg
Tarasenko
Toffoli
Palat
Landeskog
Laine
Keller
Marner
Ehlers
Drouin
Puljujarvi
Connor
Domi
Boeser
..never mind other forwards who while natural centers still could make potent wingers (McDavid, Eichel, Matthews, Bennett, Kuznetsov, MacKinnon, Barkov, Nylander, Aho, Strome, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Larkin).
Johnny is special. But he ain't the only special on the entire map. He plays a highly offensive role on a highly offensive team with generous minutes that afford him better offensive production than some two-way centres may get.
Does he excel in his role yes but to say he's irreplaceable is hyperbole. He's not Crosby here. He's not even TJ Brodie. He's not Jamie Benn either.