Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
There's the problem. Based on what criteria? I'm exactly where blender is and have a really different perspective on what constitutes a good hockey player, especially a center. To me, the greatest example of this is Jonathan Toews. When the Hawks won their Stanley Cups, I saw Toews as the second best center in the game behind only Crosby, even though Toews finished as the 7th then 14th highest scoring center in the game those seasons. I tend to favor guys that have a blend of good two way games and scoring more so than guys that are just offensive players. So as amazing offensive talents that McDavid and Eichel are supposed to be, their complete lack of defensive awareness and commitment makes them substantially less attractive. If you are scoring 100 points, but giving up 120 goals, are you really contributing to a winner? I don't think so, which is why I don't get so tied up in who is such a scoring machine. I could do a list, but it would require more explanation than its probably worth. Let's just say that if the Flames are looking to try and steal away a young center in the game the guy I would be most interested in would be Sebastian Aho. All the skill of Eichel and can spell defense.
You can't conflate the impression of fans or media with that of executives. Fans and media don't have the pressure to win sitting on their foreheads. While fans easily fall in love with guys who are flashy or score a lot of points like McDavid or Eichel, teams that want to win championships prefer solid two way players like Crosby or Bergeron. When you take salary considerations into play, I'm sure there are more than a few GMs that don't view Eichel worth the squeeze.
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Not sure where you information is coming from but first of all can you provide backup for his "he is bad defensively? I look at his possession numbers and it tells me less than half the time he is on the ice 5 v 5 he doesnt need to play defense because he has the puck on his stick, or a teammate does. I also see that when he is in his own end (when I watch) he is a one man breakout, but the sample size is small I will admit.
For faceoffs, that is a nice to have. The flames could instead find a faceoff specialist for d zone draws, or flank lindholm on his line to take a lot of the faceoffs.
You mention MacKinnon as elite... his breakout came in year 5 of his nhl career 97 points in 74 games. Eichel in year 5 (after having a better prior 4 years was on the verge of a huge breakout with 78 points in 68 games or a 94 point campaign. This was while he was carrying the corpse of Jeff skinner, and reinhart on his line. MacKinnon had his breakout playing the majority of his time with rantanen and landeskog... that is a pretty significant difference. While we are comparing them... eichel >MacKinnon in the faceoff circle.
To me the only legitimate concern on eichel is the health. Hence why you hire a medical staff to review the medicals to mitigate that risk. Otherwise the flames should be all in.
I would propose something like Eichel+ristolainen+tage Thompson for tkachuk, Monahan, andersson, 1st 2021, 2nd 2022. (Assuming health checks out)