TruePowerSlave
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Nate being barely above Mikko is more puzzling. MacKinnon has clearly been more dominant, missing a few games shouldn't make that big of a difference.
Who has been our most important player this year?
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LOFIN
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Exactly the other way around. Despite Nate being dominant, it was Mikko who kept our head above the water and kept us in the playoff hunt. MacKinnon is having the better season, but Mikko has been more important and it's not even close. For me, MacKinnon is 3rd in this poll after Mikko and Georgiev.
11 games is not just "a few games". It's almost 15% of the season, 22 important points on the line there.
TruePowerSlave
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11 games less but clearly better on the ice. I take Mack without hesitation.
If it's only about importance and not performance then imagine having Compher as your #1C.
LOFIN
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The point of the thread is literally the most important player this season, not the best performance. I agree, MacKinnon has been our best player. But Rantanen has been more important, because he had to carry the team when we had our worst stretch with injuries.
It may sound like I'm trying to downplay MacKinnon because arguably he has been the 2nd best player in the league this year. Actually it's not even close, he has been that.
RECKLESS
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Mikko carried us to points with literally an AHL team on his back. When times were hardest. After the shortest summer and despite these injury bug troubles he has scored goals on a historical level. In my book he gets all the praise in the world and is the MVP.
That's not surprising. We desperately needed another depth bottom 6 guy, and he's a really good one.
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Mikko is far better than Hejduk or Tanguay.
expatriatedtexan
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Absolutely voted for the big Moose.
The only other option would be Georgiev and he has been an absolute beauty of a pickup. I love the guy. But what Mikko did by putting the entire damn team on his back and carrying them forward for a what seemed like a month...There's just no comparison really.
The only other option would be Georgiev and he has been an absolute beauty of a pickup. I love the guy. But what Mikko did by putting the entire damn team on his back and carrying them forward for a what seemed like a month...There's just no comparison really.
TruePowerSlave
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How can arguably the 2nd best player in the league not be the most important player?
The Avs have zero center depth behind the guy and only McDavid is outplaying him. A full season without Mikko wouldn't have been as impactful as a season without Nate.
There is some galaxy brain logic going on here.
LOFIN
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TruePowerSlave
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11 more games isn't enough when Mack is clearly outplaying Mikko, plays the more important position and is more vital to this team that has no center depth.
The Hart/Lindsay voting will agree.
LOFIN
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Ted Lindsay is obvious. I agree in saying MacKinnon is the better player, that's obvious.
Hart? Please. We saw how that was snubbed from MacK already. We know how the voting works. When it comes to Avalanche, I bet even Makar would get more votes than Mikko simply because of name recognition.
Fact is, Mikko held the ship afloat during the darkest days. Georgie as well of course. MacKinnin is having the best season.
I know production and being available matters but watching these games with Cale out its clear to me he is the most important player for the team. MVP, fine give it to someone else. But this isn't an elite team if Cale is not playing 24+ minutes.
expatriatedtexan
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I've got all the love in the world. But there can only be one most important player. I've got Mikko #1, Georgiev #2, then MacKinnon at #3. I know others will have a very different list for their top 3. I'd love to see them in order though.
Grigowski
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One out of leftfield: I go with Brad Hunt. That guy stands for our season so far. Plus, he is a cool dude who knows his level. 
Ararana
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John Mandalorian
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Perhaps. There's no denying that Rantatnen carried the team while MacKinnon was out. However, in the time since, Mikko has had more "quiet" nights. Maybe some of it's due to being the driver on the 2nd line and other players having cold spells in the 2nd half?
expatriatedtexan
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Actually, I think Mikko's cooldown has more to do with him playing with Nate. Yes, they give each other a shitload of assists too, but they do kinda rob each other of goals a bit when playing on the same line. That's why I've always like Mikko being on his own line, leading it even if it's from the wing. He's good enough and is paid well enough to do that.
That's been my bug-a-boo since our 1st 2nd round ejection. Bednar is too quick to put all the good eggs in the same basket. Makar-Toews play extensively, almost exclusively, with ?-Nate-Mikko. When struggling for depth production, you should pretty quickly look to see if spreading the wealth a little could help. I feel consolidating it all hurts the team, I'm not sure what Bednar's reasoning is.
That's been my bug-a-boo since our 1st 2nd round ejection. Bednar is too quick to put all the good eggs in the same basket. Makar-Toews play extensively, almost exclusively, with ?-Nate-Mikko. When struggling for depth production, you should pretty quickly look to see if spreading the wealth a little could help. I feel consolidating it all hurts the team, I'm not sure what Bednar's reasoning is.
He's tried balanced lineups before--doesn't really work.
If anything, what we're seeing is a much more "balanced" lineup than what he had before, which was to put Nuke, Nate, and Mikko all on one big line and then a 2nd line that was all leftovers. Once that was proving to be a disaster, he moved Nuke to the 2nd line and that's paid off a bit.
Personally I don't like it when he pairs Nuke with Mikko for the most part, it makes for too slow a line, especially this year where the big Russian has definitely lost a step.
