A complimentary middle six offensive piece if slotted appropriately. I can't think of a time (outside of a game or two) where one of Milan Lucic or Trevor Lewis weren't slotted alongside Monahan this season. These are not players that can or will compliment Sean's greatest assets. Pretty much any statistic available will back that up - and certainly the eye test too. I don't think Whiskey's suggestion of moving him to the wing is a bad idea at all at this point.
Is that honestly true though? I am by no means crapping on Sutter here (can't question what he has done), but Sean Monahan has not sniffed a top six role for the entirety of the season. His three most common linemates (by a mile) are Lucic, Lewis and Dube. Prior to the Toffoli acquisition he was also statistically the most productive forward on the top PP unit. He now finds himself completely off special teams all together. Sean Monahan is a misfit on this roster but I just don't buy that he's not a capable and productive NHL forward when slotted appropriately. Obviously that won't be here in Calgary under Sutter, but this is reminiscent of Bennett's inability to find an appropriate role.
I maintain that he absolutely still has the hockey iq and offensive game to compliment high skill players in this league.
I mean, he did get Toffoli for like, what, 9 games and that line looked like absolute dog shit.
I think Monahan could carve out a career as being the third guy in on a skilled line; know what I mean?
Lindholm type centre that can play two-ways, elite RW, and Sean Monahan that can just play his game... find quiet ice, disappear for the entire game yet still have a GWG somehow. Or as the centre of a team that has a couple elite playmaking wings they could shoe horn him in.
The issue is what the net positive and negative is.
Look, I'll be honest and say I've never been a Monahan fan. You can roll the tape back to 2012/2013 when I was posting here and you can see that I really didn't think he was the player you could build a franchise around in a major franchise defining year. I won't lie about it. My thing with his game, is and has always been 'at what cost'. He was scoring 30 goals a season with Calgary, Johnny was breaking into the league... and yet he always sat around 50% GF%, and hovered between mid 40's and low 50's in xGF%. So, he can produce, but he gives as much and he takes.