Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
He has been less effective since the all star break last year.
Since then he had a summer to re-group, and then the break between the season pause and the start of the bubble.
And largely we've seen the same thing. A perimeter player who is producing less than he did before.
The sample size is getting larger. So we can continue to wait for his rebound to happen - but we should also ask what if it doesn't.
Sure you can look back at his production since he came into the league, but his production has tailed off for an extended period of time, and those stats match the eye test.
Yes I think he's peaked. Which frankly isn't unusual. A lot of players peak before his current age. Or they don't continue to progress.
Nothing wrong with admitting that and then evaluating what you do then short-term and long-term.
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He had a rough 2019 calendar year, there’s no doubt about that, but rebounded quite nicely at the start of 2020. Check the statistics yourself where he was a ppg player once lines stabilized. The eye test matched for me as I thought he was getting closer to form.
Maybe he’s not a 99 point Hart Trophy contender every year like he was in 18-19, but a durable 80 point game breaker who can run a powerplay is more than enough value for his current contract. Honestly, he’s closer to a $10M player than $6.75M and as I demonstrated, he’s one of the top producing even strength players in the game today, so how will this team replace that?
The Flames finished 20th in scoring this season and a big part of that was due in part to Gaudreau’s struggles. Yet in 18-19, the Flames finished 2nd in league scoring which surprise, surprise, happened to coincide with his career year. Basically since his arrival, this team has been very reliant on what he brings to the table and the percentage of his team’s overall goals shows that.
Johnny Gaudreau is not the Calgary Flames’ biggest problem. He’s actually a solution. Minus his current cap hit, this team has $75M in cap space, is the rest of that $75M pulling their weight? That’s a good question. Canadian fanbases are way too hard on their star players and yet people still wonder why Canadian cities end up on so many No Trade lists.