Comparing 1 & 2C's around the league

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

I could dispute a lot of that.

But heres a few interesting ones. Logan Couture may look better at the moment but largely on the basis of the dominating team he's playing for and the linemates he gets. Its always easier to look damned good on a better club. Will Couture look like this as key elite vets on the Sharks retire? What would Gagner look like in SJ? Don't get me wrong I'm impressed with what Logan has done with the situation but nothing is totally in isolation.

Which leads me to Kyle Turris. On what basis in reality is Kyle Turris established as a clear better option than Gagner. At no point in Turris career has he looked better than Gagner. This seems simply a type of "grass is always greener on the other side". If Turris was here people would be on him in an instant.

Fillipula? Seriously? Gagner is half a dozen years younger and has as many career pts. Outside of one outlier year people would be screaming Belanger if Fillupula was plodding on here. Plus he's 29 in a month. This is a guy that wasn't even on NHL radar and he's better than Gagner? No, not at all, he's played his career on a much better club and done little with it.

Roy, Briere, Lecavalier, Ribiero are twilight of careers. Wouldn't really trade for them at this point. How much clock would you really be getting on these players. One should always consider that Gagner is this good, and he's 23. A lot of people on the list are way beyond that in age or way below Gagner's accomplishments and established skillset.

ps I do respect that you stated "today" and understand the basis of your post. I'm responding to the thread as much as your post.

Correcting for age how many NHL centers are demonstrably better than Gagner? How many would be available and at what cost? How much addition by subtraction would go on?

Gagner has never been one of the problems with this club.

If you put Logan Couture on the Oilers, he would do better than Gagner.

Roy, Briere, Lecavalier, Ribiero are twilight of careers..... and better than Gagner.

 

[rockinghockey]

If Gagner could get to at least 50% on the FO, that would really improve him as a centreman. He is a -4 but his defense is getting better. He has been taking a lot of penalties lately so he can't be too aggressive. Do you guys think his trade value is higher now

 

[rockinghockey]

If you put Logan Couture on the Oilers, he would do better than Gagner.

Roy, Briere, Lecavalier, Ribiero are twilight of careers..... and better than Gagner.

Would love to get Couture on the Oilers. Will never happen but what a great 1-2 punch of RNH and Couture.

 

[Horseradish]

I could dispute a lot of that.

But heres a few interesting ones. Logan Couture may look better at the moment but largely on the basis of the dominating team he's playing for and the linemates he gets. Its always easier to look damned good on a better club. Will Couture look like this as key elite vets on the Sharks retire? What would Gagner look like in SJ? Don't get me wrong I'm impressed with what Logan has done with the situation but nothing is totally in isolation.

Which leads me to Kyle Turris. On what basis in reality is Kyle Turris established as a clear better option than Gagner. At no point in Turris career has he looked better than Gagner. This seems simply a type of "grass is always greener on the other side". If Turris was here people would be on him in an instant.

Fillipula? Seriously? Gagner is half a dozen years younger and has as many career pts. Outside of one outlier year people would be screaming Belanger if Fillupula was plodding on here. Plus he's 29 in a month. This is a guy that wasn't even on NHL radar and he's better than Gagner? No, not at all, he's played his career on a much better club and done little with it.

Roy, Briere, Lecavalier, Ribiero are twilight of careers. Wouldn't really trade for them at this point. How much clock would you really be getting on these players. One should always consider that Gagner is this good, and he's 23. A lot of people on the list are way beyond that in age or way below Gagner's accomplishments and established skillset.

ps I do respect that you stated "today" and understand the basis of your post. I'm responding to the thread as much as your post.

Correcting for age how many NHL centers are demonstrably better than Gagner? How many would be available and at what cost? How much addition by subtraction would go on?

Gagner has never been one of the problems with this club.

I like Gagner. I like RNH too.

But I think Couture is a better player than either right now. It's always hard to predict what a guy would do hypothetically...but Couture's not a passenger like Bernier, Setoguchi, nor Cheechoo were. He makes plays happen. And even if he's not, Joe and Marleau are both centres, and they are WAY better than anything we have now.

Turris isn't better than either. But Spezza is. Spezza's a 90 point guy several times. And Turris is only a little bit worse than Gagner NOW, in terms of scoring. Plus he's a useful two-way centre and wins more draws. Ottawa has the edge.

Benn and Roy are debatable, but I think they have the upper hand as of now.

I think Filppula, like Turris, isn't as good as either. But Datsyuk is all-world in both ends. That one's easy.

Giroux is a top-5 centre in the game. Briere isn't really noticeably better or worse than either of our Cs, different strengths and weaknesses, but Giroux puts them over the top easily.

You can't possibly argue, in any way, that the Oilers have anything better than Stamkos and Lecavalier. They're both better than RNH or Gagner right now. Stamkos SIGNIFICANTLY so.

Backstrom's put up 100 points. He's a hell of a centre, and Ribeiro is consistently around a PPG too. Ribeiro's nothing that much better than RNH or Gagner, but Backstrom, again, is.

 

[ChadSC]

Based on the list provided by the OP and looking at the combined Points Per 60 Min of each team:

Top 5 teams:

1. Pittsburgh - 7.56
2. Anaheim - 6.36
3. Tampa Bay - 6.25
4. San Jose - 6.20
5. Boston - 5.96

Bottom 5 teams:

1. Phoenix - 3.44
2. Columbus - 3.68
3. Calgary - 3.74
4. Toronto - 3.96
5. Nashville - 4.05

Oilers are 13th in the league - 4.91.

 

[McOilers97]

I'm honestly pretty happy with Gagner this year, as small a sample size as we've had thus far. He seems to be winning a lot of puck battles and using Yakupov and Hemsky really well to get/create chances. I try not to read too much into the plus/minus: I know it is a big stat for assessing forwards' two way play, but it also doesn't necessarily reflect on that player. Gagner has been back-checking and working his tail off in the defensive zone; i think the -4 is more of a reflection on Hemsky and Yakupov not being quite as responsible as they should on D.