Well part of the problem is he wont be a 1c on any team that acquires him. And with diminished opportunity will come diminished offensive number (I would strongly suspect). The garbage winger you are talking about literally set an NHL record for assists by a Left Winger the season before he arrived on Lindholm's line and had a long history of success in the league. So that isn't a good sign.
I am curious how anyone manages to get positive defensive metrics considering by your standard most of league would have to carry their linemates. Could there be a situation where your linemates are just awful? maybe but not even when your linemates are great do you put up great defensive numbers then ya you aren't a defensive stud. Nonetheless we agree the value is gonna be pretty good. And I agree he is a low level 1c or higher end 2c. But I think that is trending more towards 2c. And definitely he isn't a top 10 center and Selke candidate they made out he was a yr or two ago.
I literally said I took multiple data sets. You're using a 3 yr period excluding this yr and most of last. Why? I think we know why. That data just tells us Gaudreau and Tkachuk (and to a less extent Lindholm) were incredible and the line had a ton of offensive success which by proxy means the other team is not in your end.
I have said the offer is fair and am pushing back on you because you acted like it was a bad offer and Kuzmenko is a what...a turd. Also the B prospect looks like one of the steals of the draft. There is good value there too. The only reason Kuzmenko is available is because he's struggling currently and the rest of the team is playing so well. If you wanted Kuzmenko this summer the price would have likely been approaching Lindholm's value.
We agree on his value and role then. He’s still a consistent Selke candidate tho cause he is a top-15/20 two-way C. If it just went to the top defensive C it would go to guys like Backlund and Danault each year, but instead it goes to the best two-way guys. And I listed that top-20 two-way C’s a few posts ago and Lindholm is right in there.
And Huberdeau just doesn’t fit here, although he’s playing better lately. But just watch a few Flames’s games from earlier in the year and you’ll see Huberdeau drags down all his linemates, not just Lindholm lol.
Overall we agree he’s an ideal 2C, but put him with a guy like Bratt or Necas or Marner/Nylander and he’s giving you 1C production. Those are linemates he wouldn’t need to carry (like Huberdeau) and also wouldn’t carry him. That’s all I’m trying to say. Not that he’s the best defensive C or a Kopitar in his prime level Shutdown C.
And I don’t think Kuzmenko is trash, he just doesn’t have value lol. We have our own version of Kuzmenko in Mangiapane. Scored 35 two years ago, we overpaid him, and now he’s a 40-50 pt middle-6 winger making 5.8 mil with little trade value even though he’s still a good player. And Mang is actually good on the PK and defensively unlike Kuzmenko although less offensive upside. It’s just a reality that those guys have little value in a cap world where C’s and RHD are at such a premium