daver
Registered User
I'm not sure I'd have to look at it more closely.
How about you? What do you feel Malkin scores better than Sakic at? And in which components is the gap widest - one way or another?
I believe that Malkin is the better player on a per game basis primarily as he has been elite starting in his 2nd year vs. Sakic who needed more time to reach that same level. Sakic clearly has the better raw point finishes, a similar peak season and the superior playoff resume. Malkin can close the gap with more elite full seasons which can strengthen the case that he was simply a better player and achieved enough to make that indisputable, and remove the reasonable value that has to be applied to partial seasons. I think there is a clear difference between Crosby's partial seasons and Malkin's partial seasons, namely the # of them.
I agree with you that offensive production should be the primary metric.