Is it fair to equate Letang to Fleury? MAF - a clear #1 goalie in the NHL. At times made out to be the best. At times made out to be the worst. Dabbled with inconsistencies in his career. But at the end of the day most likely a HOFer who had a great career?
I'm just spitballing. I never got into the idea of valuing a player's career until it's over and time has passed to really understand how good that player was. I personally think Letang is what he is. He's a rollercoaster. His great is ****ing great. His bad is pretty bad. And the fans are rollercoasters, too. We went from "omg we wont win the Cup w/o Letang" in 2017 to "Omg we won the cup because we didn't have letang".
The haters of Letang, though, have been around for at least 8 years now. There have been threads after threads of potential trades or claiming he's done and i've always said - you will never replace the guy. The only thing you can do is go a different way. It's like having a dog. The dog is awesome but maybe it's not for your lifestyle right now and it doesn't make the best you. Maybe a cat is better right now because it's less to handle. I've always felt that's a fair argument around here. The problem is there are about 10 posters who can have that conversation in an honest and fair way.