Ill take either. Ricci was a pretty good player when he was healthy. He had 20 plus goals in his first 4 years in the league, hopefully Lando can be more consistent over the course of his career than MR. But Ricci also had alot of intangibles that allowed to stay in the NHL despite lack of scoring ability. Gahh this season needs to start already, so many question marks for the Avs.
Ricci scored twenty goals in his first four seasons, true, but he played big minutes on some very bad Flyers teams in his first two, and then was a complimentary piece on some Quebec teams that were stacked offensively, all during one of the highest scoring periods in the sport. My point isn't that Ricci is a bad player by any stretch, but can you honestly tell me there was any point in his career where he wasn't a complimentary player?
All this, and he put up far greater numbers during his junior career. (I understand the OHL was a much higher scoring league at the time, but Ricci was 3rd in league scoring during his draft year, and had 41 points more than the second leading scorer on his team, while Landeskog didn't even scratch Top 10 and was 42 points back from the leading scorer on his team.) I understand that Lando had injuries, but even so, the guy put up 1.2 ppg against Junior competition, and he's supposed to put up 60 points in a league where his greatest attribute (his physique) is largely nullified by playing people just as well built as he is? I don't buy it.
I haven't seen him play as much as some, I'm sure. I saw him briefly at the WJC and I watched a few Kitchener games. He's a good skater, better than Ricci for sure. But what I see when I watch him, and when I watch highlights of his goals, is him beating people up physically, and taking advantage of bad defensive coverage. We'll see how far that gets him.