Patrik Laine Part VI: Help! He's Being Repressed!

[ijuka]

I think some of you Finns need to dial down your expectations. An elite winger will never come close to a generational center.

Well, if Laine's better than McDavid then he just plain is better...

You could argue that Ovechkin in his prime coupled with some slight, further improvements(Even in his prime there certainly was room for improvement) could have been better than McDavid / Crosby.

This elite / generational labeling with "one will never touch the other" is more than silly at this point.

 

[ps241]

Kovalchuk would be a much closer comparable to Laine than the likes of Crosby and McDavid. They had fairly similar rookie years as well, Laine's slightly better.

For what it's worth I think McDavid will be even a step above Crosby, but Laine will also be better than Kovalchuk.

Kovy was an amazing hockey player until he left for Russia.....can you imaging a young Kovy on this Jets team . Patrik will carve his own path and I am really interested to see that unfold in Winnipeg for the next decade. All I want is a cup parade in Winnipeg before I die please.

 

[Ippenator]

I'm not sure where this "center is way more important position than any other position"-strong claims really come from. Seems to me though that this is a more North American thing than European.

I think in Finland the best players have usually been wingers (Kurri, Selänne, Tikkanen, Laine and many others), and I think this pretty much applies to Russia also (Kharlamov, Krutov, Makarov, Mogilny, Bure, Ovechkin, Panarin, Kucherov, etc.).

Tappara won FEL championship last and previous seasons with wingers being clearly their best players. And this hasn't been at all rare in FEL or KHL. I think Sweden might be more like North America in this matter, but I don't think even Swedes are overappreciating the center position in the way that so many North Americans are doing.

I think this is more a cultural issue which has to do with the fact that some countries just happened to get their all time best players as centers, which then after all automatically made especially those countries appreciate the center position way more than other positions.

I honestly believe that there is no single position more important than the others. If you have good enough players at any positions, your team can do really well. The most important thing is to have width, balance, great coaching and great team chemistry in your team. If you don't have all these, it is quite unlikely for your team to do well.

 

[ijuka]

Well it's even more strange considering the fact that this decade alone, a team's won 3 cups being lead by an offensive winger.

I don't put a whole lot of value towards C over W, personally. Even more so when it comes to specifically offensively elite players. The center position's defensive requirements restrict the freedom quite a bit - In fact, very recently Granlund started performing much better after being moved to the wing.

Blackhawks with their Panarin-Anisimov-Kane line have been employing the "2 elite offensive wingers with a defensive C" layout which I find more optimal - The wingers are allowed offensive freedom whereas the C does his job without limiting his own offensive potential.

When C is the most defensively important role in the game(for the forward line), why do you even want a super offensive player there instead of a player who plays to the position's strengths? You think about players like Eichel, even Stamkos or Seguin - There's a clear trade off in defensive ability for that position. I think that having an offensive specialist as the C instead of W is a waste of defensive potential.


In my opinion, this is outdated thinking and people will catch on... With time.

 

[YWGinYYZ]

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