Let me elaborate on their Tavares-less production. Because as I said, it doesn’t work “that way” (that they’d be completely SOL) and because I’ve been thinking more about it.
Imagine Tavares suffers a torn ACL in training camp and NYI just promotes from within. Parenteau and Moulson play on the top line and Nielsen moves up. Nielsen is the 3rd best member of this lin. P&M are capable scoring line players, and would likely find a way to get 60 points on a bad team with the prime 1st line and 1st PP opportunities, if they can get 70 with Tavares. Now they’re the ones carrying their linemate. Let’s say Nielsen, as a 1st liner with these two for wingers, gets 50 points. So Instead of 85-70-70, it’s a 60-60-50 line. That’s a loss of 55 points. 55 points comes from approximately 20 goals. Which I think is a fair approximation. Tavares’ GVT for this season will probably come close to 20.
Also, I’m not sure that these guys will enjoy “long productive careers with Tavares”… they are interchangeable parts, much like all the scoring line players the Leafs have employed the last 5 years. I am pretty sure Tavares secretly expects that the Isles will have drafted much better wingers for him to play with by the time he’s in his prime.
I'm not sure where you're going with that first bit..
As for the third paragraph, how easy do you think it is to replace 70 point players? Last year, 70 points was good for about 24th in league scoring.. among such company as Patrick Sharp, Joe Thornton, Bobby Ryan, Anze Kopitar, etc. That isn't easy to replace, and considering Tavares isn't what I'd call a truly elite talent (like, a guy capable of 90-100+ points), the fact that these two guys can even approach 70 speaks a lot to their actual skill level.
Currently, Parenteau is around the level of guys like Gaborik, Iginla, St. Louis, etc. for scoring (please don't say I'm comparing him to them, this is just where these players currently place in scoring). This is DAMN GOOD production, no matter which team we're talking about. If Tavares wants better linemates, the next stratosphere of linemates would basically be the elite of the NHL.. Sedin, Kovalchuk, Eberle, Neal, etc. These types of guys don't grow on trees. I imagine that Tavares is perfectly happy with the guys he is playing with, guys that are capable of keeping up with him offensively.
So, yeah.. I feel like NYI has one of the better first lines in the league. All three guys are high quality players. If Parenteau and Moulson came over to the Leafs, they would instantly become our 3rd and 4th best players, no questions asked, and that's only if Lupul proves this year wasn't a fluke.
I feel like a contender would be interested in adding Moulson as the final piece of a top six line, but not so much with PA.
There's a thread on the Isles board where they're discussing this exact same thing, but I've just never believed Pareanteau would be anything more than a 4th line "shootout" guy on a contender like he was with the Rags. That's probably fairly ignorant of me to keep that same impression but it's not like the dude's particularly young either. (I realize the other player in this comparison is the posterchid for late-bloomers)
I think part of the problem with Parenteau on the Rangers was that he was getting only 13:41 TOI/G, likely with scrubby linemates, and only 1:42 on the PP. He did get some PP time, but considering the Rangers that year were merely average on the PP (13th @ 18.3%), I don't think it's saying all that much. Parenteau simply lacked the 18:43 (2:56 on the PP) that he's currently getting now.
He had a very impressive year last year considering the expectations, and the fact that he's destroyed those totals this year says that this guy is going to keep getting better for a while. He isn't a big time goal scorer like Moulson or Tavares, but he's shown that he's a very good playmaker for his team. I can't think of ANY team in the NHL who wouldn't want this guy. I think to look at his age and say this is a fluke or something is a big mistake.
