The Zermanator
In Yzerman We Trust
- Jan 21, 2013
- 3,395
- 1,206
Have to agree with haulinbass here.
Larkin is a building block type player, no question there. But as good as AA reaching 30 goals has been (and his season in general), he's only got 50 points. That's great and all, but still a Nyquist level player. Hronek and Cholowski, though promising, have not proven to be beyond top 4 2nd pair types.
That's supposed to do damage in the playoffs? If you consider the makeup of recent Cup winners (or any, really) that's mighty optimistic. Even if those guys hit it out of the park development-wise and AA becomes a 60-70 pt guy and both Hronek and Cholowski become a #2-3, which I think are fair high bars for all of them, that still leaves the most crucial players missing. The stars.
It's good to have Kessel, but you need Crosby and Malkin (especially) if you want the Cup. You need several stars, bottom line. We have one bona fide star in Larkin, remains to be seen if Zadina has that in him. Need a couple more, at least.
Pittsburgh: Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang
Washington: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Carslon, Holtby
Chicago: Kane, Keith, Hossa, Toews, Seabrook
Detroit: Larkin, Athanasiou, Hronek, Cholowski
Ummmm, one of these things is not like the others...
That is why I've been cheering for as many losses as possible this season, having the best lottery odds and no worse than a 4th pick along with Karlsson hitting FA provides a real opportunity to assemble a team that can rival those.
Larkin, Karlsson, Lottery/4th 2019 1st, Zadina (?)
Now it's actually starting to look like something you can build a team that will do damage around. Especially if that 2019 is Hughes or Kaako. It's still possible, Karlsson remains unsigned but it's looking like we may need a lot more lottery luck than it seemed a few weeks ago to make that a reality.
People are listing all these names like 'Ohh Turcotte/Cozens/Zegras/Podkolzin/Byram/Dach/Krebs all look so good, we'll get a great player either way!'. But think of how extraordinary it would be if they all hit their potential. It would be extraordinary because that's never happened, and it won't now. Several of these players will not reach their perceived potential. Some may bust out entirely. Hughes and Kaako, on the other hand, are about as close to sure things as you can get.
Ultimately that's the value in tanking, it gives you the best odds at a sure thing, somebody you can just pencil in as part of your budding core. Rather than more questions and more uncertainty with more development time.
Should we just pencil him in as a PPG guy now then?
Larkin is a building block type player, no question there. But as good as AA reaching 30 goals has been (and his season in general), he's only got 50 points. That's great and all, but still a Nyquist level player. Hronek and Cholowski, though promising, have not proven to be beyond top 4 2nd pair types.
That's supposed to do damage in the playoffs? If you consider the makeup of recent Cup winners (or any, really) that's mighty optimistic. Even if those guys hit it out of the park development-wise and AA becomes a 60-70 pt guy and both Hronek and Cholowski become a #2-3, which I think are fair high bars for all of them, that still leaves the most crucial players missing. The stars.
It's good to have Kessel, but you need Crosby and Malkin (especially) if you want the Cup. You need several stars, bottom line. We have one bona fide star in Larkin, remains to be seen if Zadina has that in him. Need a couple more, at least.
Pittsburgh: Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang
Washington: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Carslon, Holtby
Chicago: Kane, Keith, Hossa, Toews, Seabrook
Detroit: Larkin, Athanasiou, Hronek, Cholowski
Ummmm, one of these things is not like the others...
That is why I've been cheering for as many losses as possible this season, having the best lottery odds and no worse than a 4th pick along with Karlsson hitting FA provides a real opportunity to assemble a team that can rival those.
Larkin, Karlsson, Lottery/4th 2019 1st, Zadina (?)
Now it's actually starting to look like something you can build a team that will do damage around. Especially if that 2019 is Hughes or Kaako. It's still possible, Karlsson remains unsigned but it's looking like we may need a lot more lottery luck than it seemed a few weeks ago to make that a reality.
People are listing all these names like 'Ohh Turcotte/Cozens/Zegras/Podkolzin/Byram/Dach/Krebs all look so good, we'll get a great player either way!'. But think of how extraordinary it would be if they all hit their potential. It would be extraordinary because that's never happened, and it won't now. Several of these players will not reach their perceived potential. Some may bust out entirely. Hughes and Kaako, on the other hand, are about as close to sure things as you can get.
Ultimately that's the value in tanking, it gives you the best odds at a sure thing, somebody you can just pencil in as part of your budding core. Rather than more questions and more uncertainty with more development time.
Buddy, Blake Wheeler was 25 when he had his first 60 point season. Bert is outscoring his pace at his age, when Wheeler was 23 he had 38 in 82.
(edit: tbh I had Mantha in mind when posting, I love Bert but he'll never be Blake Wheeler)
Should we just pencil him in as a PPG guy now then?
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