Monahan's skillset isn't in question, or ought not be: he has a ridiculous knack for finding a postage-stamp sized piece of open ice and scoring from it. His in-close game is amazing. And he's really raised his face-off game recently.
But the rest of his game is mediocre, for many reasons. One is that he shuns any contact, he's just not a physical player in any sense. Two is that he's not a fast skater. Three, his defensive tenacity is not super high, you don't see him charging around his own end knocking people around or digging pucks out of tough areas (see point one).
So if he's a first line center, and on this team he is, he's got to be given linemates who will do the work he won't/can't do. Gaudreau is good at feeding a waiting Monahan, but Gaudreau isn't fast enough to break in alone, nor tenacious enough to retrieve pucks for him. So I'd like to see Monny on a line with say Tkachuk and Mangiapane, say, two guys who would battle for those corner pucks.
But I think the truth is on a really strong team, Monny is a third line center with a dangerous knack at the net. Look at Colorado, Pittsburgh, Boston, Vegas... where would Monahan slot on those teams?
Monahan's been owned by big fast mean centers for years. He just doesn't have the game to keep up with a Getzlaf in intensity or physicality. He's not a liability, but he's never going to take your team deep as a 1C. If the Flames scraped out of this Dallas series, Vegas or Colorado would both have licked them up in 4 or 5 games is my thought.
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