Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
I keep coming back to Frolik in this instance.
43 pt pace with zero PP time. Mostly as a 2nd line W, but also played all over the place including 4th line time at points.
Sam was on a 31 pt pace with 1:30 pp time per game. And rarely was he ever less than 3rd line and certainly took turns playing up the line up.
That's huge difference when considering all circumstances.
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8 of Frolik's 34 points came in the final 3 minutes of regulation wins. I'd wager that maybe all but one of those eight was with the opponent's goalie pulled. How much do you value empty net points?
When Bennett played RW (which is not his natural position by any means) in the top six (which he didn't spend nearly as much time on as your post implies) he aproached empty net situations differently, opting to take shorter shifts and change earlier, and did not have any empty net points last year. However I can recall situations where an empty net goal was scored thanks to a Lindholm or Ryan in immediate relief of Bennett. But sure, Bennett didn't get the point and that's all you're concerned with.
How much are empty net points worth? Surely you don't think they are worth just as much as points that are actually scored on goaltenders, do you?
And you're grossly understating the difference in linemate quality. 24 of Frolik's 34 points came with our top 6 forwards. Another three came with our #1 defense pair getting the rest of the points.
Contrast that with Bennett, who had 27 points (again, none with a net empty). Of these only seven were with the top pair or top six forwards. Of those seven one was a pp goal where Backlund had an assist, even though Backlund was by far the worst player on our PP last season. In fact our regulars on PP2 were guys like Neal, Czarnik, Hanifin, Ryan none of whom were top six or top pair guys. Backlund's time on PP2 was consistently fruitless even though he is supposed to be a top six guy.
The vast majority of Bennett's points were scored in a bottom six capacity, the vast majority of Frolik's were scored in top six or empty net capacity.
If you are trying to equate Derek Ryan, James Neal, Mark Jankowski, Austin Czarnik, Noah Hanifin, Mikael Backlund (PP) to a consistent diet of Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund (ES), and Mark Giordano, that speaks volumes aboug you.
Maybe Frolik does have elements that fit better with Tkachuk and Backlund, since line construction isvery much about offsetting skillsets, but pretending Frolik's limited and unproductive time in the bottom six equates to Bennett is just plain wrong. Though I am not shocked given your other terrible takes on Bennett.