F A N
Registered User
- Aug 12, 2005
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I think it comes down to whether you mean a guy who hits 20+ a couple times in his career, or a guy who scores 20+ goals regularly. Both are “20 goal scorers” but have drastically different values to teams. Being able to count on a certain level of production is much more valuable than a Michael Grabner-type where you don’t really know what you’re going to get from year to year. And granted we don’t know which of those Jake is yet, but I get the feeling people are talking about different things when they debate his upside. I don’t think there is much doubt he will hit 20 goals at some point in his likely 10-15 year NHL career, it’s how often he will do it that is more contestable.
All else being equal I don't disagree but cap hit, the way he scores his goals, and utilization counts as well. I think Grabner was simply underrated most of his career. He was basically putting up his goal totals playing on the 3rd line and being on the PK while generally producing at a rate that presented a value for his cap hit. A player can score 20 goals regularly but he may do so in a very streaky manner while being invisible most other nights.