Who is the Calgary Flames' best player?

[Nightmare1000]

For most hockey teams it is generally clear for many fans as to who the best player on a team is such as Sidney Crosby on the Pittsburgh Penguins and Connor McDavid on the Edmonton Oilers. But for the Calgary Flames it isn't clear to me who their best player is currently. In your opinion who do you think is the best player on the Calgary Flames? In my opinion I think the best player on the Calgary Flames is Sean Monahan. I feel that he is their best player as he is big, strong, smart, and great in all situations on the ice. He is also a great playoff performer, and I think him along with Connor McDavid will have a great rivalry going on in the future as the respective best players on Calgary and Edmonton. I also believe he will be the future captain possibly. I hope he can bring a Stanley Cup to the Calgary Flames in the future. He is the best player they have had since Jarome Iginla. I don't think he will ever be as good as Jarome Iginla was but I believe he will be a great player regardless. Some people say Johnny Gaudreau is better but I don't think so as I would take the much bigger, stronger player rather than the smaller, faster, flashier player. I don't think either of them will will be as great of a player and captain as Jarome Iginla was but it will be interesting to see how close they can become to matching him. On a side note it would be cool to see either of them get into a fight with Jarome Iginla and see how they would do against him. I think he would destroy them in a fight in his prime and still would beat them in a fight now at almost 40. Another question is do you think if the Calgary Flames had the team they have now along with a prime Jarome Iginla and prime Miikka Kiprusoff without any salary cap issues that they would be a Stanley Cup contender and a favourite to win the Stanley Cup? I believe they would as they are already a great team, and having their only weakness which has been their mediocre goalies recently fixed by having Miikka Kiprusoff in net would allow them to win a Stanley Cup. Also another question is would the current Calgary Flames beat the 2004 Calgary Flames in a playoff series. I don't think they would as I feel the 2004 Calgary Flames would beat them pretty easily as they are better everywhere than the current Calgary Flames.

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[Mbraunm]

Gaudreau-I believe he drives offence more than anyone on that team

 

[MessierII]

Giordano. Whoever his D partner is consistently has a career year then goes back to mediocrity when moved away from him.

 

[McBaevid]

Giordano or Gaudreau

 

[missingjibbsclub]

Probs Giordansy

 

[King In The North]

Johnny or Giordano.

Although I think Monahan gets a lot of flack here.

 

[Bluelines]

From and outside perspective looking in, either Gio, Gaudreau or Monahan. Gaudreau produces at a higher rate the Monahan but I would probably lean towards Monahan because center is typically a tougher position than wing. Gio is still a great defender, I'd take him in a heartbeat but he's no longer a difference maker like Gaudreau or Monahan.

My vote would be Monahan.

 

[Fugazy]

Giordano or Gaudreau.

 

[Yung Rotini]

Giordano.

 

[DJJones]

Giordano, it's going to suck when he gets old.

There just wasn't enough time haha

 

[InfinityIggy]

Mikael Backlund. Without him this past season, we are a lottery team.

 

[tony d]

Johnny Gaudreau for me.

 

[King In The North]

Mikael Backlund. Without him this past season, we are a lottery team.

True. Whether you looked at game #2 or game #82, Backs was one of the few consistently great players on the team this season.

 

[Boxscore]

Most exciting - Gaudreau.

Most important - Monahan.

Monahan is a great, young, versatile center. They are hard to find and are extremely important.

Giordano is aging and his on-ice value is slipping a bit. He's still an awesome player, but right now, Monahan is the most important player on the roster.

 

[DJJones]

I don't think Giordano slipped at all this year. Just got unlucky on his shot.

Offensive dip is simply moving from Hamilton to Brodie. Brodie is a defensive expert and Hamilton is an offensive expert. So Giordano's role swapped. The fact that he can do that is amazing. Shut down defender that still gets 40 points.

 

[Fig]

I honestly think we have a true committee of players working together as a unit. I contemplated whether Gully should get an honorable mention, but I'll talk players instead.

Gaudreau - Most dynamic/clutch on the team.
Giordano - Pillar, leadership, best Dman
Monahan - Heavy lifting for the first line/clutch on the team
Backlund - Heavy lifting for defensive assignments

Worth mentioning, ignoring salary, IMO Matt Stajan gets a nod. Essentially our Backlund lite on the bottom 6 quietly doing his best with the guys we have back there (some horrible scrubs at times). He keeps the bottom 6 respectable vs other teams so that it isn't easily exploited by others. Consummate pro. Helps play shutdown or grinder style game without complaint.

But a single guy that truly represents everything our team stands for? Giordano.

Gaudreau is amazing, but the play style we have as a team does not represent the style Gaudreau plays. It represents Gio's style completely. Gio trusts his team and thus other players have grabbed different mantles to help the team in their own way.

 

[X66]

This is a good question, definitely no franchise player on the team or in the horizon so it makes it interesting.

Gotta go with Gaudreau.

 

[Makar Goes Fast]

brian elliot

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

This is a good question, definitely no franchise player on the team or in the horizon so it makes it interesting.

Gotta go with Gaudreau.

You do realize Gaudreau is top 5 in NHL scoring since he entered the league right?

Not to mention he was the most dangerous player at the World Cup AIWEC. The guy is the next Pat Kane, but sure he's not a franchise player...

 

[DaveLeafFan]

Gio, Dougie, Gaudreau, Monahan

 

[viper0220]

I think it is a combination of 3-4 players, it would be nice to have 1 clear cut but having a combo is good as well.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

When it comes just centers, Backlund is better than Monahan. For most important player, I'd say either Giordano or Brodie. Don't underestimate Brodie, from what I've watched Brodie benefits as much from Giordano as Giordano does from Brodie. Brodie being paired with horrible players like Engelland, Wideman, Jokipakka, etc. makes him obviously look worse than he does. Brodie was far more important than Giordano in 2015-2016, and without him our record would have been one of the worst in the league (And I'm talking about bottom 2-3, not bottom 5). Brodie even being paired with a liablity in Wideman and Engelland, and taking more defensive zone starts than Giordano (Although very irrelevant due to him taking only slightly more), he still managed to for mostof the season have a lower CA60 than Giordano and Hamilton. Brodie's issues is generating offense, but I think Brodie is the Flames best defensive player and even though his CA60 got worse with Stone, every other metric such as preventing high danger chances, actual results, eye test, and GA60, etc. all improved significantly, and Stone in my opinion is just an elite #5, not even a #4D, showing you just how terrible Engelland and Wideman were.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

You do realize Gaudreau is top 5 in NHL scoring since he entered the league right?

Not to mention he was the most dangerous player at the World Cup AIWEC. The guy is the next Pat Kane, but sure he's not a franchise player...

WC is not a good example lol, and he was playing easy minutes with even better team mates. Gaudreau is a great player, but he's not elite in my opinion. Kane is also very overrated and really only turned up a notch after that false sexual assault incident.

 

[DCDM]

Gaudreau if by "best" you mean "most skilled."

Most important, however, is Giordano.

 

[Snakepit]

Giordano. Guy's a beast