Chris Tierney isn’t a good player? He had 48 points last year and is a respectable two way forward. I think that’s pretty far off.
Caved in possession his whole career, under 50% GF for 3 straight years, it may be harsh to say he's not a good player but he's not shutting down anybody in the playoffs and he's pretty soft to make an impact. Not much of a shot either, so most of his damage is through playmaking. He was pretty mediocre in the Sharks cup run, and in the two playoffs after was absolutely invisible.
I think it'd be fair to ask "Can he do a lot for a playoff team?"
Alright, time for a pointless exercise:
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I'd be biased here - Montreal is the team I built. If I were to break it down though:
WARNING EXTREME BIAS:
Centres: Pretty obvious the tandem of Tavares/Point is pretty awesome, if not best in the league. Pettersson is also awesome. The demise of Joe Pavelski is greatly exaggerated, considering nobody on Dallas scores points (system-related!!). I think I'd rather have Wennberg/Kotkaniemi over Brassard/Richardson down the middle after that because the latter two are possession blackholes but hey, I get it. Hard to beat Tavares/Point.
Left Wings: Tatar and Landeskog are both fantastic coming off big years, I'd cancel them out. Pearson has had a better season than Niederreiter, I'll give you that. Compher is a C more than a winger and gets caved at 5v5, MacEwan is barely an NHL forward, but also Perreault struggled this year, Compher has more offense than Nieto but Nieto is one of the better bottom six guys in the league. It's tight here.
Right Wings: I'd take my RWs here, Mantha is a monster and I'll take him over Zucker, Kase and Johnsson may cancel each other out (Johnsson isn't really at his proper position). Donskoi got caved in possession propped up by a good line, I'm not too scared of him vs Hinostroza. Kyrou isn't going to be very effective on that 4th line in Toronto, but neither will Malgin frankly.
D: I think Toronto has no clue how good Manson is to have him THIRD PAIR, that's a travesty. Manson should be ahead of even Schmidt. My top pair is better than Toronto's top pair, would rather have Giordano/Subban anchoring because while Subban struggled, so did OEL this year and Giordano is clearly the best D of either teams. Gustafsson has been much better than Gardiner the last two years, Niskanen though I'd probably take over Dillon but Dillon is a playoff player to a tee. Jake Gardiner will likely lose them a game in the playoffs. I'd trust my D more than Toronto's but Toronto probably has an extra man of depth.
Goalie: Bobrovsky has experience winning big playoff series, Francouz has no experience at all. Could be tighter due to seasonal play though.
VERDICT: I obviously would have taken
MONTREAL IN 7 as I am their GM, I think Toronto's bottom six isn't very effective and their D isn't deployed properly (plus has question marks) but I acknowledge they have a fairly solid top six (including two good Cs) and a good overall team.
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CENTERS: This one is super even - Giroux and Reinhart have played less C this year than wing. Barkov + MacKinnon? Advantage MacKinnon but it's not easy, so maybe the Giroux/Reinhart difference averages out. From there, I like Faksa's shutdown ability more than Eakin and I don't think Acciari is scoring 20 in a new role, I'm going
FLORIDA here.
LEFT WING: Taylor Hall ahead of all - I like Saad on Boston though. After that, I'm really not loving any of the rest. Athanasiou is super overrated - I think Boston's bottom six guys in Vesey and Maroon are more reliable to me than Wagner or Boedker, Greenway isn't really a top six forward yet...it's close. Because of Hall I have to go
FLORIDA but at the same time, Boston fills our their left side depth better.
RIGHT WING: Boston's top six RWs are awesome, Dadonov/Atkinson sign me up. Rust is pretty good in Florida but Perry is nearing done, Colin White had a rough year AND is a C anyways. I'd prefer White + Sprong to Bjork and Sobotka but the high-end here suggests
BOSTON
DEFENSE: I really don't like either side. Burns and Doughty are super close, both didn't have the seasons they wanted but both guys can be 1D for sure. All of Boston's other 5D are leaky possession guys and I feel like that's a rough-go. Florida - Nurse isn't going to help the Hjalmarsson pairing at all, he needs a puckmover. Dermott though will compliment Doughty. I actually think Gostisbehere at a 3LHD is an underrated move, he could do damage there (in two ways LOL). Slight advantage to
FLORIDA because I trust Nurse, Hjalmarsson and Dermott more to move (or in Nurse's case, transport) the puck and breakout than Lindell, Savard and de Haan.
GOALIE: It's Bishop for me, but if there was a playoff goalie who you KNOW is going to fight, it's M-A Fleury.
BOSTON
VERDICT: Hall-MacKinnon is scary enough to me that I am going to go FLORIDA IN 6 - but hey, Bishop can win a series on his own so, toss-up in that regard.
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CENTRES: Malkin/Toews is an awesome combo, Eriksson Ek is also a real 3C. However, Zibanejad this year is a game-changer too, and Henrique/Bjugstad is also a pretty solid combo. I'd also prefer Spezza as my 4C over Glendening. The high-end and experience here though suggests
COLUMBUS
LEFT WINGS: When I think of who I want on my LW in a physical playoff series...Brady Tkachuk and Jamie Benn are top of mind. I like DeBrincat a lot and Hintz was great last year, but Carolina just trumps here in depth. Mikheyev is a solid 3LW and Lucic - laugh if you want, I see him making more of a physical impact than Trevor Moore would on the 4th line. I'm going with
CAROLINA here.
RIGHT WINGS: Tough one for me. Granlund and Zuccarello to me are pretty even in terms of what kind of impact they can give a playoff team. Both Clutterbuck and Simmonds will provide physicality and both Helm and Namestnikov can give you speed or versatility. It ends up coming down to Boeser > Gourde, and for that, I go
CAROLINA. I think Boeser and DeBrincat end up cancelling each other out overall, revealing better wing depth in Carolina as a whole (and Boeser had a better season).
DEFENSE: Dahlin is sick and Pesce compliments him well, Ekholm-Hamilton would be a fantastic pairing. I like Djoos-Holl a lot as a 3rd pairing in CBJ whereas I'm less hot on Greene-Fabbro. Chiarot and Martinez are pretty comparable. The one place I have to tip the scale is Marino was simply a much better unproven guy than Adam Boqvist this season, I feel more trust in Marino as a top 4 D and I do prefer Ekholm-Hamilton to Dahlin-Pesce at this stage by a very thin hair.
CAROLINA
GOALIES: Tough one - Holtby has way more experience and despite some lackluster regular seasons, I wouldn't say he was bad in the last two playoffs at all. He was quite good aside from some meh moments. Saros is a really good goalie himself but doesn't really have starting playoff experience. I like Saros, but I may rather ride Holtby into battle. It's another hair decision.
COLUMBUS
VERDICT: There's going to be OTs and Malkin may be able to carry a team into battle, but I will go with the slightly more well-rounded and physical HURRICANES IN 6.
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