The $5.3 Mil Shadow?

[nfreeman]

Give me 50 forwards that have been better than him since the lockout. I don't mean 50 guys you like better, I mean 50 guys who have clearly performed better.

Point wise, you'd be lucky find 30. He'd be as good or better than half of those guys defensively.

To turn this around, there is not a team in the league where Pominville is not a top-three winger.

And only a handful where he would not be top-two.

You don't know what you have.

Well, since the lockout is I think not the relevant time period. I think the right question is whether there are 50 (or 40, or 30, or whatever) forwards I would rather have on my team right now and for the next couple of seasons. In determining the answer to that question, you have to look at past performance, but I think looking at the last couple of seasons makes more sense than looking back to 5 seasons ago. Based on those parameters, I can absolutely find 50 forwards I'd rather have than Pommer -- remember, that's less than 2 forwards per team.

 

Free, by your logic, the top 15 teams would have to have all 45 of the top forwards and somehow not one slipped down to any of the lower 15. You made a compelling argument about last years playoff but by any objective analysis, he is a legitimate 5 or 6 paid like a 2 or 3.

I was waiting for someone to call me on that -- this is why I mentioned that I was using Dudacek's methodology. In any case, though, my point is that on a top-3 or so offensive team (like the Sabres used to have), he's a decent 2nd-liner and a great 3rd-liner. But I agree that he's a legit 5 or 6 paid like a 2 or 3.

 

Again, legitimate five or six puts him outside the top 100 forwards.

You can probably look at the Caps, Pens, Lightning, Vancouver, Chicago, Anaheim and San Jose and say they each have three better forwards than Pominville

But It would be tough to argue he's not a top three forward on Ottawa, Dallas, Toronto, St. Louis, Phoenix, NYR, Nashville, Florida, Edmonton, C-bus, Colorado, Carolina, Calgary, LA, Minnesota, Atlanta and Buffalo

You can debate some of these and the half-dozen teams I haven't mentioned.

But by any objective analysis, he's a legitimate three or four.

There are certainly plenty of teams for which he is a top-liner, but those aren't Cup contenders. He's not good enough -- or at least hasn't shown it yet -- to be a top-liner on a contender.

 

I would love for him to use last spring's debacle as a learning experience and step up this year in the playoffs. If he does I'll be happy to reevaluate him. But until then, I see him as a decent 2nd-liner who puts up decent (but declining) regular-season numbers and disappears when it matters.

 

Vanek, Roy and Pominville can by a two-three-four on a cup-winner.

It's the one we are lacking.

I don't agree with this.