From my perspective many around here are way to critical of Monahan and way to lenient with Johnny. To me watching the playoffs Johnny's attitude became my largest concern. He played scared in every game but game 5. Through the first 4 games he whined to a ref almost every shift and when he went back to the bench all there was pouting and temper tantrums. When times got rough Johnny looked defeated and quit skating.
When you look at Johnny's overall game you notice he is the most unwilling player to go into the difficult areas. Areas where Mangiapane, Ryan, and Czarnik (Players of similar stature) go and thrive. Johnny is complete liability on the forecheck and for the 4th straight season he lead all forwards in turning over the puck 124 times. Johnny constantly holds the puck to long.
Johnny has the reputation with officials as whiner and diver. Most crews hate dealing with Johnny and this is a large reason why his penalties drawn has fallen in recent seasons.
The worst attribute with Johnny though may be his poor leadership skills where in no way can he be a role model with the temper tantrums and lack of willingness to change the weaknesses in his game.
Yeah, we get it, you don't like Gaudreau and will go out of your way to find any excuse for Monahan's soft play. You've made that clear enough.
But see, it's not a coincidence that once Bennett, a player that was actually willing to compete and go to the tough areas to battle, was promoted to the top line that Gaudreau started to get his offensive looks again. It was the same role Lindholm played for most of the season, creating space and drawing defenders away from Gaudreau, at least until he stopped. But by game five it was too late; Gaudreau had wasted away playing with a soft and lackadaisical Monahan for too long and offensive confidence was gone. But hell, Gaudreau looked better playing with Ryan down the stretch and that speaks volumes.
Gaudreau is what he is; a gifted offensive player that's also 5'9" (probably shorter in real life) and 165lbs. He's not going to go into the corners and win battles against 6'0"+, 200lb+ players. It's just never going to happen; it's not his game. He's not going to be a Cammalleri or St.Louis; a stocky mountain tree for legs type of player. But's that okay because of the other stuff he brings to the table; all that greatly outweighs his limitations. And he's shown that at every level of competition outside of the NHL including championships.
The turnover stuff is rubbish. All players who hold the puck more turn it over more. That's just how it works. The leadership stuff is made up by you as usual. The complaining to the refs is true is something he absolutely needs to curtail. But that's also something a lot of better players were just as guilty of (Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, etc.).
The bottom line is that if Monahan isn't going to pull his weight, the Flames need to find someone who will. An actual number one centre that can actually drive a line and won't depend on a 5'9", 165lb player to do all the heavy lifting for him. Monahan is honestly the Bouwmeester of forwards and that's not a good thing.