Quote:
Originally Posted by Barca
Dahlin is a lotter win so it's not fair to compare
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But, that's pretty much the whole point of why Buffalo would make a better team than Vancouver for Tavares. With Buffalo, they have two very young players that have been touted as "franchise players" since their draft. Will they live up to expectation? Maybe not. But there's pretty much never been a scenario where a team has three franchise players and don't make huge noise.
On the Island, Tavares has been
that guy for so long that going to a place where the pressure isn't only on him might be a relief. The Islanders have always been as good as Tavares could carry them, even with the emergence of Barzal on the second line behind him. If Eichel lives up to his expectations, Tavares might not be seeing the top pairing and shut down line everytime he touches the ice. That would be a first for Tavares.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barca
Boeser = Eichel, Brock was on pace to break Eichel's career stats.
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Eichel put up 57 points in 61 games last season and 64 points in 67 games this season. Boesser put up 55 points in 62 games this season. It takes some pretty odd math gymnastics to argue that Boesser somehow was on pace to beat him when Eichel had the better point-per-game average and played more games last season. They also were drafted the same year.
At this stage in their career, an excellent rookie season from Boeser and Eichel not quite living up to the massive expectations put them on similar footing, but as a center Eichel is the easily more valuable player to me and I still think has higher potential. But you're right that the "=" is probably fair to argue.
And, while I didn't include him originally, if you're going to list Horvat we should probably list the better Ristolainen seeing as they were drafted one spot apart in the 2013 draft. So pretty much throw in a complete top pairing defense in Dahlin and Ristolainen to the young guys of Buffalo, and Canucks just don't compare.
Both teams were trash, but one team was trash because they relied on their young guys who are expected to get better, join the team for a full year, or stay healthy. One team was trash and they just lost two of their top scorers to retirement. Trending in different directions.