really hard for me to accept that sakic has the offensive edge. trots won an art ross (and of course the hart) over a prime lafleur. led the league in assists twice. a tie, i can accept, though i can also see an argument for trottier in terms of peak offense. sakic was definitely the better goal scorer though.
peak vs. peak, i'd take trottier overall, as most probably would. but let's also take a closer look at the stages of their careers:
- they both come in at 19. trots scores 95 points and wins the calder. sakic has a good but not great rookie year.
- trots has a sophomore slump year (by his standards), sakic explodes for 100 points, cracking the top 10.
- but by year three trottier was a top five player in the game and kept this up for the next seven years. sakic was a top ten scorer in the league. big difference.
- sakic hits that truly elite level at 25. by that age, trottier has a hart, ross, three top fives, five top tens, three cups, and a smythe.
- trottier slows down big time after 27, though he still had three decent offensive seasons left in him. meanwhile sakic is almost just getting started.
but to me, the second half of sakic's career is just catching up to what trottier did at an earlier age. if the question is who would you rather build a team around, i have to go with trots because, on top of his more complete game, he peaked earlier. as a GM, you want the quality years as soon as possible. who knows if you will still have your job ten years down the road. who knows if that player hasn't signed somewhere as a UFA by the ten year mark. and with sakic, this is a guy who held out and went back to junior in his draft year and signed an offer sheet a year after his first cup. i'm not saying this to diss sakic, but it goes to show that you have to get what you can out of a guy right away, because he may not be around forever, or he may price himself out of your range. shooting for the guy who is better from ages 30-37 doesn't really make sense to me if the other guy not only has a higher peak, but it comes two years after you draft him.