Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason14h
Huby was the 3rd best player/most important behind Barkov and Ekblad,
|
Aaron Ekblad?
Ekblad has never even been the best player on his defense pairing during a season where the Panthers made the playoffs. He's a good player but so highly overrated due to draft pedigree, height, and precocious success. Early on, Brian Campbell was the primary source of his success. More recently, MacKenzie Weegar. And Gustav Forsling has been a higher impact defenseman than him since arriving in Florida.
Ekblad was not more valuable than Huberdeau, and is not more valuable than Tkachuk.
He's an alright value for his contract and age, but let's not pretend he is something he is not.
As for Barkov? Fantastic player, but there are really some bizarre takes about him too. Things like "his line drew all the attention away from Huberdeau's line" - like what team is actively focused on defending a lower scoring player? That's akin to saying Jonathan Toews is the reason for Patrick Kane's success, or taken to an extreme, Mikael Backlund's line drew all the defensive attention so Johnny Gaudreau could score. Hear how asinine that sounds? Barkov is a better player than Huberdeau because of his position and 200 foot game, but Huberdeau didn't hit 115 pts by Leon Draisaitl-ing off a better player's offensive talent.