Randy Randerson
Registered User
you're giving Johansson the benefit of the doubt that he's going to continually produce in the high 50pt range, but he's only done that once. In his previous 3 seasons he averaged a pace of 47pts/82 games and for his career before this year averaged a pace of 45pts/82 games, so last season is clearly an outlier. That's not to say he can't repeat, but the odds aren't with him doing that
You're also devaluing JVR based on his defense, which is a narrative that's largely driven by his time under Carlyle (where the whole team was abysmal defensively) and perceived effort level - his measurables since Babcock tell a very different story: http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rat...amid=28&type=corsi&sort=PCTRelTM&sortdir=DESC . I'll buy that Johansson is a better defensive player, but the gap is overstated - JVR is fine defensively in a role where he's not being used against the other team's best offensive players, and there should be no expectation of that happening - he'll either play on top lines to get matched up against suppression lines or he's going to play on the second scoring line and face other team's second scoring line
JVR consistently paces for upper 20's goals (29 and change average) and upper 50's pts (59 and change average) for his last 332 games (entire Leaf career). So he's a much much better bet to repeat that type of performance
Age I don't think matter much with both in their 20's for teams that are looking to compete now. Johansson has an extra year on a more expensive contract, I would say this adds some value on Johansson's side of the equation
So, if you want to frame one player in the best light possible and another in the worst light possible, sure it looks good for Johansson, but that really isn't objective
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