Wheatking
Registered User
- Sep 25, 2006
- 15,945
- 71
For the record I never said the top 20 Dmen were the top 20 Dmen in points. I just used the top 20 in points as an easy reference point.Yeah, how dare I look past points....
Top centers rarely hit free agency and almost never get traded. It's much easier to aquire top Dmen. Just ask the Flyers(Pronger and Timonen) and Bruins(Chara and Kaberle).
Of the top 20 centers(in points) only Joe Thornton, Brad Richards and Mike Ribeiro have been moved since the lockout. Thornton was rare blockbuster and Richards was a victim of the cap but Riberio wasn't the player he is today. What are the odds of Crosby, Stamkos, Backstrom, Sedin, Kopitar, Tavares, Toews, Staal, Getzlaf or Richards getting moved in the next 5-10 years? Not very good.
Of the top 20 Dmen in points, 9 of them have changed teams since the lockout. 10 if you include Jack Johnson. Plus it looks like Liles' days in Colorado are coming to an end and there have been rumors that Weber may leave Nashville when he's a UFA.
So quit patting yourself on the back for "looking past points". Do you really feel like debating over who the "official" top 20 Dmen in the NHL are until we come up with a list everyone can agree on just to see which have been traded or hit free agency? Isn't it much easier to just use the top point producers and understand that while some of those names may not actually be in the top 20, it's still a list of good players that was easy to come by. Again, just a little common sense would be nice.
The only way we'll be Calgary is if Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi and RNH/Larsson ended up not being a good enough core to win a cup but they're still our core 15-20 years from now.I'm slowly shifting from Larsson to RNH. A line of Hall - RNH - Eberle would be unreal. And im scared that if we draft Larsson, we end up like Calgary.
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