Agree with Savard, and as much as I loved seeing Roenick with his obvious passion for the game and his leave-it-all-on-the-ice playing style, he could arguably be left off the team for Max Bentley.
To my eyes and by all accounts, Mikita was a very good to excellent defensive center, was excellent on faceoffs, and was considerably better than Toews offensively. You are seriously underrating Mikita here, perhaps because you never saw him play. It would take a phenomenal next ten years for Toews to surpass Mikita, scoring better than he currently does (winning an Art Ross), winning multiple Selkes, and likely then only when considering more cup wins with an additional Smythe. It is unlikely that any current NHL center surpasses Mikita historically all time for centers, Crosby included.
I'm 67 years old and I'm guessing that I saw Mikita play a lot more than you did. Personally if I could take only one I'd take Toews over Mikita every day of the week.
Ok then, mea culpa. I followed Mikita from the mid-late sixties on, really knowing him from about 1967 onward.
Still, Mikita did well in the playoffs, generally scoring a ppg or better in any serious playoff run the Hawks had in the 60's to early 70's during his prime and beyond years. For the most part, the "supporting cast", which Toews has had in abundance, was lacking for Mikita and Hull. The Hawks had little chance of beating those Toronto and Montreal teams with their superior depth (though '71 and '73 could/should have gone to the Hawks). In 1971 at the age of 31 he scored 18 pts in 18 games, and in 73 at 33yo he scored 20 in 15 games.
Playoffs 150 pts in 155 games (59g/91a).
4 Art Ross, 2 Harts, and six first team all stars.
I'd say that he held up his end of the bargain reasonably well.
