Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Are you suggesting that one of Monahan, Bennett or Lindholm was a burgeoning prototypical, top line centre? I disagree. I think they were always what they have ended up being in their best performances—good top six centres, capable of top-line duty, but without the lethal combination of skill, speed and smarts to be dominant in that position.
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I think that Monahan could've taken another step if he was forced to pay attention to the defensive side a bit more when he was starting up. Another area was carrying the puck, where he used Johnny as a bit of a crutch in transition.
As for Bennett, we'd never know, but he became a different player in FLA. One we only saw for spurts in the playoffs. I think that he had a higher potential, but being stuck on the 3rd line with Jankowski, Neal, Brouwer, etc didn't help him any.
I don't know what Lindholm could've become, but he was flip-flopped between RW and C. I doubt there was more there in terms of generating his own offense.