Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
And yet. Can you reasonably ask any more of Sean Monahan than outproducing Jarome Iginla after five years while playing #1C for four of them?
|
Of Sean Monahan? If you're asking if Monahan can be the best pure goal scorer in team history, then maybe it's an interesting question.
But using his center responsibilities to handicap him seems flawed, as he also has positional responsibilities he has deferred to his linemates. #1Cs are almost always the distributing forward on their line and he is not. This might not seem like a big deal but the nature of the position is that the center is allowed the most free ice and we see it often that his line has issues in all three zones and even on special teams because he is limited in his ability to make an impact all over the ice. That's not a knock on the things he does do well or even his defensive play, just a reality of his status as a #1C being in stark contrast to the vast majority of #1Cs in the NHL.
And I'm not sure you can ask more of him on that front, especially if you're going to compare him to someone who at age 24 was the best player in the entire world according to his peers. You have to ask if Monahan can in your mind even come close to that in his age 24 (this) season. What does that entail? Throwing out the elite players who dominate at other positions - Karlsson, Wheeler, Ovechkin, etc, etc, it's not clear Monahan has established himself as a top 20 center in the NHL, in a league where top teams may have multiple top ten centres.
Yes, he's a precocious talent especially with his knack for finding the back of the net.
But he is playing that position in a league with dynamic and dominant centremen like MacKinnon, Scheifele, Tavares, Crosby, Malkin, McDavid, Kopitar, Bergeron, Eichel, Matthews, Barkov, Barzal, Kuznetsov, Backstrom, Trocheck, Kadri, Point, Stamkos, Getzlaf, Hischier, Seguin ... you realize that being a solid goal scorer isn't enough for him to even be considered ahead of any of those guys. Would the GMs of those teams trade those, or other players for Monahan? Or would they accept that maybe they'll get a few less goals but a more dynamic creator who can take better advantage of the free ice afforded to the center position? And then you still have kids like Pettersson coming in from behind on an annual basis.
Personally, I don't really care if Monahan passes Iginla as a goal scorer, maybe he can, maybe he can't. I think in order for him to pass Iginla as a player, he has to establish himself as a top twenty or ideally top ten center and do so without needing to rely on Gaudreau.