If you cannot build around Ovie, then you're not a very good GM. I get the playmaking winger appeal of Kane, he is probably in that next layer with Sakic, Yzermam, Bourque, Richard for me. But I am fascinated to see you making this argument juxtaposed to something we have been arguing in terms of roster construction. You need an elite franchise level player and wingers can be okay there, Ovie has certainly been an elite franchise player for all of his tenure in the league. Every guy needs help, let's go back to your own comment the opposite way I think if you swap him and Crosby which like I said is dangerous Malkin and Staal battery down the middle with the best goal scorer of all time is really hard to slow down. You also gift him a better prime D-man in terms of Letang and Gonchar over Green... Crosby was surrounded by more talent for most of his career. I realize most don't like this because of the trouble Crosby had trouble with wingers, having watched that with Datsyuk over the years, some guys just don't click.
Staal was actually the biggest reason for their win over us to me. Malkin was better than Datsyuk, but in the second final Staal really handed Filppula his lunch. Yes Zetterberg beat Crosby heads up, he always did, just like he did Toews, their type of play style was nearly impossible to win that matchup with, he was kind of king of the two-way grinding matchup center for a while there.
Backstrom is a fabulous player, but once Kuzy came along and you could interchange them there is a reason the top line was always Ovechkin. He is the guy you sent your best over the boards for, he is the chalk talk player and line driver. It might not be in a classic puck dominant role, but it was dominant none the less. In my lifetime I can only think of him and Lindros in terms of the sheer agony of they can do what they want and play an overpowering style. Because it was before my time so I have to rely on it and what I have seen but that was also a huge part of Howe and Bobby Hull's success.
***As a note and I hope most understand this when I am listing Hull in the top ten that is Bobby and not Brett.
Also while we have talked about Toews being overrated a lot, he is a really good hockey player, that he was always on another line is important. Crosby always had another threat. Yeah Ovie couldn't drag teams with Captain Chris Clark playing #2C at times when he was younger, not a huge shocker. Kuzy was important because no player in the league has ever won with the talent you're looking for out of young Ovechkin. That he was rolling off President Trophies with that group to me shows me just how good he was, they were flawed in a lot of ways when he was at his absolute peak in the late 00's in my opinion. He did his part and then some.
GOAT g/60 or some shiz like that.
