Ohashi_Jouzu*
Registered User
Mrb1p, I know Tavares is on a whole other level from Kessel. He is probably a top 5 center in the league in terms of offense and his ability to slow down / control the play.
But if you take a look at recent cup winners, they all have 1 thing in common: legit #1 centre and an elite defenseman. For the past 3 winners, Kopitar Toews and Bergeron are elite Two-Way centres. Tavares is easily a better offensive centre than all 3, but all 3 are much better two-way forwards than Tavares.
The past 3 winners also had elite two-way defenseman in Keith, Doughty, Chara. Without their respective elite defensemen, these teams would not even have made the SCF.
In short, trading a young budding two-way defenseman, who until recently was considered elite by most around the league, for an elite centre who for all intents and purposes is one dimensional (even if he is one of the best at that one dimension) is not a way to build a championship team nowadays. You win with good goaltending, strong defence, and good two-way forwards, in that order.
I would say the gap between Toews/Kopitar/Bergeron and Tavares (on whatever level of examination) is significantly narrower than the gap between Doughty/Keith/Weber and Subban (I'll take Tavares over Bergeron every time, honestly, and all 3 of those guys over Subban every time). Hate to sound like I'm ragging on PK, but this kind of homerism is kinda rubbing my the wrong way today.