Volica
Papa Shango
- May 15, 2012
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That’s not the case at all. McDavid, Draisaitl, and RNH stack up to most of the rest of the NHL in terms of ‘elite’ level forwards.
It’s not that a team like the Flames has such a better top 3 than the Oilers - heck you could make the argument that McDavid-Drai-RNH are every bit as good as Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk, if not better. Same deal with pretty much any team in the league.
Where the huge imbalance occurs is after that it’s Chiasson, Lucic, Khaira, Puljujarvi vs Backlund/Lindholm/Jankowski/Bennett.
Considering Backlund and Lindholm are great top 6 forwards. Kind of proves my point though. Last year I talked at length how the Flames needed two additional elite pieces to their forward group. Tkachuk developed into one, and Lindholm fell into our laps as the other one.
Backlund and Lindholm aren't 'depth' players. They are high caliber players in this league. One guy always gets a good Selke turnout, and the other dude has three less points than: Lucic, Khaira, Rieder, Puljujarvi and Kassian combined.
Even if you change the lineup, and Edmonton gets the Jankowski's/Bennett's/etc of the world; it wouldn't make them that significantly better of a team to actually be a playoff threat. They need another big player in that top 6, as well as a better bottom 6.