The player who is being criminally underrated in this thread is Joe Pavelski. Sharks fans on this forum, myself included, have always underrated him because of the valid belief that he was likely to decline very soon. We all started doing that during and shortly after the 2013-2014 season where he scored 41 goals, but he was an elite superstar for 2 more seasons after that, and he is still a star, although more of a complimentary player at this stage of his career. He was literally the MVP on a 100 point team that made the playoffs this year. Over the past 5 years, he has had more points than Joe Thornton in 4 of them. The one year where Thornton out-scored him, he had a whopping 4 more points than Thornton. Even this year, in a year where Thornton was injured for half of it, and Pavelski had certainly declined, Pavelski was still our best player, and he still tied Tarasenko in points. Pavelski also had a Conn Smythe level run in 2016. 14 goals in 23 playoff games. Tarasenko has never been at that level. This fan base needs to show some damn respect to Joe Pavelski. He was one of the best right wingers in the NHL over a 5 year time frame, he was an elite superstar in his prime. He’s not anymore, but neither is Tarasenko.
And yes, I have watched Tarasenko play. I haven’t seen anything from him that makes me say “forget the 5 years of statistical volume that show Joe Pavelski is comparable or slightly better; I watch Tarasenko and he is an elite superstar on a completely different level from Joe Pavelski.”
And for the record, I’m not one to disregard such a massive plethora of evidence in favor of one conclusion because “I watch them” and I don’t agree with the conclusion that one easily comes to after analyzing the evidence. The only time I’ll do that is in a case with a player like Connor McDavid where I say “I don’t care what the stats say; this guy is obviously at another level from everybody else” or with a player like Dylan DeMelo where I say “I don’t care what the stats say; this guy is obviously terrible and does not belong in the NHL.” And there is a massive plethora of evidence to say that over the past 5 years and right now, Pavelski and Tarasenko have been comparable, and Pavelski has probably been slightly better. And I have not seen anything from Tarasenko in my admittedly limited viewings to say he is on another level from Pavelski.