Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
You missed the reference to "the Johnny years". It was the usual "he would have been nothing without Gaudreau" innuendo. He had 22 goals at 18 on mainly the second line with a lot of secondary players. Note - this was second on the team in goals, so the notion he was hiding may not be as accurate as some might think.
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No I didn't miss it. I interpreted it differently. I thought that it was mentioned that Monahan deserves credit for those years. I thought that in the first years of his career Johnny benefited from playing with Monahan as much as Monahan benefited from playing with Johnny. Moreover, in the first half of 2018-19 Monahan looked like one of the best centers in the league. They were regarded as a duo, that's why I didn't think too much of it.
I just find that Monahan's first year is often taken out of context. For example people mention his 22 goals, but forget he had a +/- of minus 20. People also don't account for the fact that he was quite lucky that year. If we take his play 5 on 5 he scored 18 goals, while only having an expected goals of 9.2. He was very opportunistic that year, and despite that he had an on ice goal %(5 on 5) of 41.8%.
It's still quite an accomplishment for an 18 year old just coming into the league. However, at this point in his career we need more out of him, while in reality we would be fortunate to receive the same level of production out of him offensively.