i dont think hes gonna light the world on fire, but i think matching 15-16 goals is doable and 30 plus points is a realistic goal. so instead of at least, within the realm of donskoi production.
That and i dont see him going half a season without a goal. as our roster stands now, thought would be good enough for the 7th 8th at worse production of our 12 forwards.
There i s a place for him. him and chi twin and an outside aquistion would be ideal.
these young kids will not fill all the holes, and marleau may only partially fill a void all get that. but theres no way there are even9 forwards better then him on our roster let alone the 10,11,12 forward spotas
If Marleau got Donskoi’s minutes from last season and maintained his own scoring rates, he would’ve scored 23 ES points and 3 PP points. For a total of 26 points. At that point, you’re looking at 70% of Donskoi’s production, with the caveat that Donskoi was miles better defensively. Once you adjust for the inflated goals against and deflated possession that come with replacing Donskoi’s minutes with Marleau, I would argue you’re looking at about half of Donskoi’s overall productivity/positive impact.
Now consider that those scoring rates come from his age 39 season, playing significant minutes on a line with one of the league’s best even strength scorers in Auston Matthews, on one of the league’s highest scoring teams in Toronto. Youngsters like Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson both scored more than TWICE as many 5-on-5 points per 60 minutes as Marleau did.
Again, people really need to understand the way that Babcock deployed him. He is not a 37 point player under any other coach in the league. I don’t think anybody in the league got more favorable deployment - relative to what they actually are and relative to the other options that were available - than Marleau did.
And yes, there certainly is a way that there are 9 forwards on our roster who are superior to Marleau. That way comes from determining who is “better” based on literally anything other than raw points.