People have this weird hate-on for Monahan on this board and Calgary fans are surprisingly willing to dump him.
1. The guy has been a #1 center for 8 years and they've made the playoffs 4 times in that span.
2. He has great giveaway/turnover numbers, especially for a guy who plays so many minutes.
3. He's good on faceoffs.
4. Not physical, but he's also come around to "average" over the last two years.
5. He's a consistently good shooter, career 15%,
6. His even strength scoring is very good. Even his worse scoring years are basically what we got from Norris last season. Further, his "peak ears" 5v5 have hit areas that even Eichel's hasn't hit yet.
7. He's effective on the powerplay which we don't have otherwise.
8. He's only got a 6M salary so we can actually afford him.
9. He's only signed for two years.
Unfortunately,
1. He's played through a lot of injuries which affected his production some years. Some of those injuries may have permanent effects on his play.
2. His usage, deployment, and injuries had affected his points which is mostly what people look at rather than underlying numbers.
3. His Corsi numbers are ho-hum given his usage.
4. He's had good line-mates which might have juiced his numbers.