Is Matthew Tkachuk better than Auston Matthews?

[yada]

It's not that PP points aren't valuable, it's that where playoff hockey differs from regular season hockey is mostly at 5vs5 and Stamkos has a pattern of not being able to transfer his elite 5vs5 game from the regular season to the playoffs.

Sometimes points come at 5vs5 and sometimes they come at PP and usually there's no reason to overreact to this variance, but in Stamkos' case he just absolutely lacks a playoff run where he looked dominant at 5vs5 - either by stats or by eye.

Moving goal posts, cool

 

[Regal]

Moving goal posts, cool

Being unable to have a discussion about player value beyond a total stat line. Cool

 

[Despote]

Moving goal posts, cool

Powerplay production is about talent but it's also about opportunity, and value in any situation is only value over replacement. For example Palat scored 12 5vs5 points to Stamkos' 5, but he never got the opportunity to play on the #1 PP unit with Kucherov, Point and Hedman to accumulate point totals.

No doubt Stamkos is a better powerplay player than Palat, is an elite PP piece and adds excess value, but comparing the point totals of a player who gets PP1 time to a player who doesn't get PP1 time as if that difference is representative of the difference in value is laughable. Even a player providing zero excess value will get their points in that situation.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

Tkachuk not only is the more dynamic forward, but he brings a ton of energy and grit to the ice through his play. Tkachuk pulls guys into the fight, Matthews doesn't have that in him, he doesn't like to carry the puck, he prefers to get lost in coverage and catch teams sleeping with fast decision making.

 

[Regal]

Powerplay production is about talent but it's also about opportunity, and value in any situation is only value over replacement. For example Palat scored 12 5vs5 points to Stamkos' 5, but he never got the opportunity to play on the #1 PP unit with Kucherov, Point and Hedman to accumulate point totals.

No doubt Stamkos is a better powerplay player than Palat, is an elite PP piece and adds excess value, but comparing the point totals of a player who gets PP1 time to a player who doesn't get PP1 time as if that difference is representative of the difference in value is laughable. Even a player providing zero excess value will get their points in that situation.

Their point about “tied for second leading goal scorer” is a bit ambitious too, when it was a three-way tie and one of them (Kucherov) had more assists than Stamkos had points and the other (Killorn) had only one less point, and missed 4 games. I think he was probably at best behind all of Kucherov, Point, Hedman, Vasilevskiy, McDonagh, and Palat in terms of importance to that run.