Dr Beinfest
Registered User
Calling Mason Marchment a “2nd line scorer” is such an absurdity. He was the #8 point getter last year on his team and #7 forward, and that’s #9 when you factor per game metrics. He was the #7 scorer. He’s the #6 per game scorer this season and #5 in points, negating Granlund. He's literally the last forward in the pack. He’s scored over 20 goals one time in his career and he’s rounding 30 years old. He's been asked to play with two linemates who have lower production than him for only 17:00 minutes this year, and unsurprisingly did nothing with that time. The majority of his time has been played with Duchene and Seguin. He’s absolutely a middle-6 player who won a top-6 contract from a historically inflated offensive season in Florida, not some rare find you’re making him out to be.
Meanwhile, for the same overall ice time, Luostarinen sees two minutes per game on the PK and very little on the PP. He is also a middle-6 player and is routinely the “next man up” from injuries, but he isn’t being asked to fill a top-6 role. His career offensive year had 150% the points per game, and unsurprisingly he had 150% the pp time. He was regularly on the second line when Duclair was injured for 3/4ths of the season. He was 23 years old at the time lol. I’m sure if you deducted 2 minutes of PK time and added 1.5 minutes of PP time and played him on the Panthers second line now at the age of 26, he would have absolutely zero problem matching a 20 goal, 50 point season. He’s not just a “bottom 6 grinder” as you call him. If you think the 3C position is that, you’re wrong.
Ask a 20-goal scorer used to 40% offensive zone starts to play 70%+ offensive zone starts with the world’s best player in the prime of his career and secondarily with a top-10 player in the league, double his PP time and eliminate his PK time… and don’t be surprised when he pots 50+ goals.
