Andreas Athanasiou

[Bobby Terrance]

He's looking to be the first 30 goal scorer for the Wings since the 09 season. Looks like hes adjusting nicely at playing center full time.

This cant be true, can it?

 

[TheOtherOne]

This cant be true, can it?

It was true, but he was too slow, Larkin beat him to it 1(?) game faster.

 

[LarKing]

This cant be true, can it?

Our offense has been so bad since the Lidstrom/Zetterberg/Datsyuk days.

 

[Bobby Terrance]

It was true, but he was too slow, Larkin beat him to it 1(?) game faster.

Really? I just assumed Z or dats at least hit it once in that time frame. That's not great. But hey, next year if AA, mantha, Larkin, and maybe even zadina there could be 4.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Really? I just assumed Z or dats at least hit it once in that time frame. That's not great. But hey, next year if AA, mantha, Larkin, and maybe even zadina there could be 4.

Franzen, Nyquist, Tatar got pretty damn close with some 28, 29 goal seasons.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Greece lightnin, go Greece lightnin!

 

[Conbon]

Do we all at least agree that it's interesting that opinions of him range so greatly from bad to good?

Is there a more polarizing player in the league? Is there another player whose usefulness is so seemingly hard to reach a consensus on?

Grabner is similar

 

[obey86]

Never thought he could crack 30 goals, crazy.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

Never thought he could crack 30 goals, crazy.

If you would have told me that a year or so ago I would have laughed it off

I still love him as a player and think trading him would be absolutely ridiculous as opposed to some others feelings towards him

 

[VoluntaryDom]

AA is good and has been underrated imo

 

[Reddwit]

Never thought he could crack 30 goals, crazy.

If you would have told me that a year or so ago I would have laughed it off

I still love him as a player and think trading him would be absolutely ridiculous as opposed to some others feelings towards him

Actually, when Athanasiou held out a couple seasons ago, there was an article where Holland said he didn’t want to trade AA cause even though he was still a work in progress, Holland thought he had the ability to score 30 goals in this league and he didn’t want to trade him away for a song only to have it come back and bite him in the ass. Kinda prophetic.

 

[The Red Line]

A lot of fun to watch him play. His goal last night was a beauty, so much speed. He seems to have really addressed any of the knocks on his effort/consistency. He had some good chemistry going with Zadina too during his call-up, hopefully we get to see them play together more next year.

 

[newfy]

Grabner is similar

I was going to say this. I think Athanasiou is more skilled/a better version of Grabner though. They use their speed to get a lot of breakaways ad generate scoring chances. They also dont use their teammates enough to be true top liners. When the wings are good again though, Athanasiou is the perfect second ine player because he can kinda just go out there and create his own offense and provide depth scoring

 

[WolfgangPuck]

Check his previois highlight goals Looks really impression
I liked his speed I think there lotsa of upside
The other player I like with the Wings that had growth is Mantha

 

[MBH]

The problem with those stats are they don’t actually scale. He’s not going to be a 40 goal scorer like Matthews if only he got more ice time. He also doesn’t back check at all. Even in today’s game he just watched as Patrick had a high danger scoring chance. He was ten feet away and just stood their while it all happened. So he’s a fun guy to watch when he’s not slumping or coasting, but in the end he’s a middle 6 guy.

That's what people said when he was scoring at these rates playing 11 minutes a night.
Now he's at 30 goals.

With decent linemates and more icetime, he could absolutely score 40.
Yes, he has holes in his game. He doesn't seem very good at cycling in the Ozone. His defense can be questionable (as it can for Larkin/Mantha/Bert and any other youngish offensive player).
But offensively? He could easily post a 40-30-70 season with a good center and decent passing defensemen and 19 minutes a night. Easily.

 

[Shaman464]

That's what people said when he was scoring at these rates playing 11 minutes a night.
Now he's at 30 goals.

With decent linemates and more icetime, he could absolutely score 40.
Yes, he has holes in his game. He doesn't seem very good at cycling in the Ozone. His defense can be questionable (as it can for Larkin/Mantha/Bert and any other youngish offensive player).
But offensively? He could easily post a 40-30-70 season with a good center and decent passing defensemen and 19 minutes a night. Easily.

Yeah, you can believe that. That's nice! He's 25 and posted 1 decent goal scoring season. Saying he could easily put up the same number of goals as MacKinnon, McDavid and Kucherov did is a massive stretch.

 

[Brownies]

He looked like Gretzky the last 2 times I saw him against the Habs.

 

[bobbyking]

If he played in the 90s hed be better then Mario

 

[BonMorrison]

Quick question for Wings fans - I heard he got moved to C late last season - it looks like he scored a lot from there but hear he's being moved back to wing next season. Was he that bad as a C?

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Would love him on the habs with Byron. Watch these 2 speedsters just take off every time.

Put those 2 on the wings with McDavid just so the NHL has to upgrade all the cameras to follow that line when it takes off.

 

[FissionFire]

Quick question for Wings fans - I heard he got moved to C late last season - it looks like he scored a lot from there but hear he's being moved back to wing next season. Was he that bad as a C?

His big problem is he doesn’t really use his linemates well. He tends to revert to hero hockey trying to do it all himself too many times. It’s a bad trait to have as a center. It’s why he works out so much better asa winger and why he can still excel with crappy linemates. He doesn’t really rely on others to get stuff done.

 

[Shaman464]

Quick question for Wings fans - I heard he got moved to C late last season - it looks like he scored a lot from there but hear he's being moved back to wing next season. Was he that bad as a C?

He was pretty terrible at center. Basically him playing center is like having 3 wingers on the ice.

 

[MBH]

Yeah, you can believe that. That's nice! He's 25 and posted 1 decent goal scoring season. Saying he could easily put up the same number of goals as MacKinnon, McDavid and Kucherov did is a massive stretch.

He just scored 30 playing largely with Glendening or Nielsen.
If AA was playing with Larkin, with Mantha's minutes, he'd easily scored 35 if not 40 goals.
He'd never have 70 assists though.
But he could go 40-35-75 at his peak. I'm certain of it.

 

[MBH]

His big problem is he doesn’t really use his linemates well. He tends to revert to hero hockey trying to do it all himself too many times. It’s a bad trait to have as a center. It’s why he works out so much better asa winger and why he can still excel with crappy linemates. He doesn’t really rely on others to get stuff done.

I feel like this is kind of a myth.

When you watch AA flying in, he sometimes uses linemates to a fault, trying to force passes that can't work, when he should really just go to the net and shoot and let teammates clean up the garbage.
There are times when AA looks like a good passer and times when he looks pretty ordinary.

AA needs guys who can get him the puck on the move.

There aren't many times when I remember thinking, man, AA should have passed instead of shooting there.

 

[MBH]

He was pretty terrible at center. Basically him playing center is like having 3 wingers on the ice.

He centered Glendening and Hirose and was a plus player, nearly a point per game.. His possession numbers were awful though. But Glendening is awful as a possession guy and the jury is still out on Hirose.
That said, I don't mind AA going back to wing.