mja
Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt
G was definitely impacted in 2016-17, not so sure before that.
2014-15: 36 ES points, 37 PP points, 20:34, xGF 50.02, xGFrel +4.48
2015-16: 38 ES points, 27 PP points, 20:33, xGF 47.22, xGFrel -1.73
2016-17: 26 ES points, 36 PP points, 19:07, xGF 47.68, xGFrel -2.38
Injuries explain 2016-17, but the two previous seasons? A bit of a stretch.
Note that an injured Giroux could still excel on the PP, which shows that total points are misleading, PP points are different from ES points. You can be a 3rd line forward and remain a top PP producer, because Giroux doesn't skate a lot on the PP and can avoid pressure with quick passes.
2016: Flyers general manager Ron Hextall announced that Giroux, along with teammate Shayne Gostisbehere, will have surgery on May 17 to repair his right hip and a bilateral lower abdominal tear.
While he had various injuries before that, none were deemed serious. All hockey players are dinged during the season.
So there's no evidence he was injured in 2014-15, some that he might have been in 2015-16, definitely struggled to recover in 2016-17.
(if you look at 2015-16, no real falloff until April and the playoffs, so when was he injured?)
His play definitely made a huge jump at LW paired with Couts. Some was health, but compare to 2014-15, when he was healthy.
My feeling is he can play well at center in the short-run, but it would not be a good long-term strategy.
1) it would increase the workload of a 31 year old undersized center, and he'd be exposed to more contact and physical play, not optimal for longevity, as a wing he stays on the perimeter and away from traffic for the most part.
2) his defensive limitations would be exposed, he doesn't have great straight line speed and is undersized, attributes that allow him to remain effective offensively aren't as valuable on defense.
In 14-15 he was tied for 10th in league scoring. That wasn’t a down year. That was a low-scoring year league-wide.
He visually looked different than the rest of his career for huge chunks of 15-16 & 16-17. There was no explosiveness to his skating at all and he struggled to find open space.
Also, I’m open to Giroux at either position, but you underrate Giroux’s defensive play. He’s not the Selke caliber guy that some voters seem to think he is but your obsession with size downplays what he’s able to accomplish with the tools he does have. He’s one of the most intelligent players in the league and he’s a total puck hound.