We had two NHL caliber scoring wingers in Cogs and Hageling/Perron. Cogs and Hagelin aren't exactly scoring machines anyways; so all that shows is the Ducks were weak on LWers, but that doesn't make Cammalleri a #1LW.
Look at the 2012-2014 seasons, where he played 60+ games, he still only scored 32 and 45 points respectively. He has continued to reduce in points and it's safe to say he'll continue to do that, and will most likely get injured and miss a huge chunk of time again.
When you take all of that into account, Cammalleri just isn't what a #1LW in the game looks like.
Argue with SportsNet:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-positional-power-rankings-top-10-left-wingers/
February 2016
NHL Positional Power Rankings: Top 10 left wingers
If we were voting for this year’s NHL first and second all-star team today, who would the top 10 candidates be at left wing? That’s the question we’ll try to answer here, looking solely at statistics from this season. Here are our current top 10 performers of 2015-16.
1.*Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars (51GP | 28G | 30A | 58PTS)
2.*Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals (46GP | 28G | 14A | 42PTS)
3.*Taylor Hall, Edmonton Oilers (51GP | 18G | 31A | 49PTS)*
4.*Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames (48GP | 20G | 27A | 47PTS)*
5.*Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks (50GP | 21G | 23A* 44PTS
6.*Mike Hoffman, Ottawa Senators (47GP | 22G | 18A | 40PTS)
7.*Michael Cammalleri, New Jersey Devils (42GP | 14G | 24A | 38PTS)
Cammalleri is one of the few reliable offensive options on a top-heavy New Jersey team. He leads the club with 38 points and is one of four forwards with more than 30. After those four, centre Travis Zajac has 23 points and no other forward has even 10. Cammalleri’s on-ice shot metrics are also significantly better than the team average.*Last month: 8
8.*Alexander Steen, St. Louis Blues (53GP | 15G | 27A | 42PTS)*
9.*Artemi Panarin, Chicago Blackhawks (54GP | 18G | 29A | 47PTS)*
10.*Rick Nash, New York Rangers (45GP | 12G | 21A | 33PTS)
And more importantly than stats above, is availability! Nash is probably the only other one Ana could get but he's making $7.8M for 2 more (almost $3M more than Cams ) and the Rags can't eat too much so your probably looking at 5.5-6.5 retained
This was the first list I found and I'm sure there are others he won't be on or not as high on. You can criticize his age and games missed but he still has skills
Sorry to the OP for high jacking your post