Moving Monahan now would be idiotic in my opinion. Recency bias indicates he's not worth his caphit, and in todays market that won't return you anything of significance. He's a much better player than these boards would lead you to believe, or that his value would currently indicate. I stand by that. Why he hasn't been shutdown for the season when he is struggling to even shoot the puck is beyond me. This team is out of it.
Look at the "top" lines splits this season without a complete anchor on the right side (Ritchie, Leivo, Simon and Bennett) and compare them to those of the brief times spent with one of Lindholm, Dube, Mangiapane, and Tkachuk. It's a night and day difference. In fact the statistically worst combination for them (Ritchie) has seen the most time with them. This organization has done a disservice to both Monahan and Gaudreau by trying to turn them into players they simply are not.
Everyone likes to point out how "Monahan's line" (its not his line, it's Gaudreau's btw..) get's cratered in at even strength when in reality he has only been outscored once in the past seven seasons at even strength over the course of a year, and has had a positive xG% in 3 of the past four seasons including this one. The top line was trending in an extremely positive and dominant direction prior to Ward taking over.
The top line statistically is giving up very little defensively, but it has come at the expense of the offense. That is what Treliving, Ward, and Sutter want(ed), and it was clearly the wrong call.
We are going to lose one or both of these players as a result of these decisions for less than they are worth and it's a friggen' shame.
While I totally agree our brutal coaching and management decisions are a huge shame and that the situation is less than ideal, I still really don't agree that Monahan doesn't drag down Gaudreau. 100% a guy like Ritchie or Leivo drags both of them down way more, but look at just Johnny and Money's splits. That is also night-and-day. Monahan without Johnny in almost 200 mins the last 2 years is 20% goals for, 40% xGF% and scoring chances for. He's been bruuuuuutal away from Johnny. That's probably a huge reason why we kept them together for so long and prayed they got hot so that his value rebounds a bit. Gaudreau should not be just a slightly above 50% goals for and chances for. That shouldn't be the goal for a top-15 winger in the league. He should be dominant. I don't disagree that we should consider keeping Monahan since his value may be at an all-time low, but it depends on the offer. I don't see him rebounding into a stud 30-goal scorer, I think he has consistently proven that over the past 2 years when he's been given every opportunity. And ESPECIALLY now that we're separating him and Gaudreau. If there is an offer for 1st+decent prospect or a similar RW (in package for Arvidsson, Garland, Reinhart, Laine, maybe Mantha), C, or D (like Dumba) I definitely don't think this is selling too low given that away from Gaudreau on the second line his production is bound to drop further. The composition of our top-9 is a major weakness - keeping Johnny and Money together doesn't work, stacking Lindholm on the top line gives us no middle-6, separating Johnny and Money will likely tank Money's value even further. There would be value in making one of those deals as I bet the rewards of the upside from one of those deals outweighs the risk that Monahan will suddenly return to 2018 form.
As for blaming the production for Johnny and Money's line on the coaches and management, I think that is pretty inaccurate as well. Those two are mostly to blame for regression and just simply are not skilled enough to be a great top-line. They needed to be more defensively responsible and there shouldn't be that offense/defense trade-off that you suggest. The best offence is good defence, being in position and taking advantage of opportunities. Being more defensively focused should not all of a sudden turn them into offensive black holes. And if it does that's a big issue with the player. I don't think there's a single coach that could've turned that around (except maybe Bob Hartley for one unsustainable year lolol). Having a slightly above 50% xG% and Goals for% from our top line with one of the top-15 wingers in the league is NOT the goal. We should expect way more, and that's why we're so stupidly mediocre. And last thing, I really don't get why everyone is so insistent that Monahan is injured. We are literally so bad that if he was injured there's no question we would shut him down. Seems like more of a convenient narrative to me, although anything is possible for sure.
I'm curious, if Monahan is kept away from Gaudreau, what do people expect his production to be like? I definitely believe that his value will just continue to drop (maybe a 20-25 goal, 50 point C with a lot of the production coming from PP) and that even selling 'low' right now might actually be the highest value he's gonna have. Of course I don't actually know the market and maybe teams have wised up already and would never consider one of those deals I mentioned, at which point ya I guess we keep him cause we're already screwed and the time to trade him was last off-season or earlier. What I'm most excited for is Gaudreau's game with Lindholm and Tkachuk. That's a real step in the right direction