Strongly disagree. Hyman fits like a glove no matter what line he plays on and that to me suggests that he is likely to fit like a glove on any team he plays on.
There was an interesting discussion on overdrive recently on the possibility of Hyman being on the Olympic team. We'll see but at this point in time, I'd say that he is more likely to be chosen for the team then Tavares, would you agree or disagree? We'll see but if he is picked, that would decimate your theory that much of his value comes from his fit with Marner and Matthews.
Source? Like I said, there is no definition so everyone can choose their own meaning. If I had to do it I'd probably say it has to do with making the biggest contribution to getting/maintaining possession and by that standard, Hyman concedes nothing to his linemates. And if you look at your criteria, there's really not much of a gap between Hyman and the other two either. Point shares is an interesting stat, by that one the three players (Hyman, Tavares, Nylander) are in a virtual tie.
IMO deciding who's best has nothing to do with what label you put on them (playmaker, glue guy, scorer etc.). Do you really think Hyman would be easy to replace?
I look at it this way - if we were to begin a PO series tomorrow against a good team, WPG, COL, TB, whoever and you had to to choose play the series without either Nylander, Tavares or Hyman, who would you choose. That's how you decide who the best player is today. And I'll bet that if we were to set up a poll on this today, the results would be ... interesting. Hard to predict the results but if you think that a strong majority would choose to play without Hyman, I'm pretty sure you'd be wrong. In fact I would guess that most people would say that as of right now, we need Hyman more then the other two.
As far as fleeting career, wear and tear etc., I agree with you there. I'm just talking about value as of right now.
