Is the impact of #1 Winger criminally underrated?

[Bank Shot]

Exactly right. It has nothing to do with their potential impact. In a lot of ways a winger can have more impact than a center because they can cheat more and focus on offense and it’s harder to find offense than defense. kucherov is a great example here. The stigma from Canada that wingers are just inferior talents than centers is definitely a driver of the perception.

On the other hand we have seen some teams win Cups in the cap era with pretty underwhelming wingers.
Detroit had two centers and then nobody else over 50 points in the regular season.
Pittsburgh won with like Fedotenko and Kuntiz their first go around.
Boston with Lucic as the number one guy.
Kings had Justin Williams heroics, but he wasn't really a star.

What we really have never seen happen in the cap era is a team win with like 2-3 star wingers and a guy like Ryan Strome or Brayden Schenn or Sean Monahan or RNH as their first line center.

Every single team that has won the Cup has either had an elite offensive or two way guy (sometimes both) in that role.

Until we see a donut team win the Cup, people are going to see wingers as the least important role.

 

[1989]

Until we see a donut team win the Cup, people are going to see wingers as the least important role.

Doughnut team brought to you by Tim Hortons!

 

[WarriorofTime]

#1 winger helps a team win a cup but I wouldnt say its a must like a #1D or #1C is. Doesn't have to be a superstar, just good enough like Marchessault was.

Marchessault was not a true #1 winger, although he had two more playoff points and won the Conn Smythe that particular year, the Knights "Number 1 Winger" the last however many years has been Mark Stone.

 

[WarriorofTime]

On the other hand we have seen some teams win Cups in the cap era with pretty underwhelming wingers.
Detroit had two centers and then nobody else over 50 points in the regular season.
Pittsburgh won with like Fedotenko and Kuntiz their first go around.
Boston with Lucic as the number one guy.
Kings had Justin Williams heroics, but he wasn't really a star.

What we really have never seen happen in the cap era is a team win with like 2-3 star wingers and a guy like Ryan Strome or Brayden Schenn or Sean Monahan or RNH as their first line center.

Every single team that has won the Cup has either had an elite offensive or two way guy (sometimes both) in that role.

Until we see a donut team win the Cup, people are going to see wingers as the least important role.

I think Wings played Datsyuk and Zetterberg together a lot though, which makes one of them the wing in such instance. They'd split up more when they had stronger wingers like a Hossa or a healthy and productive Franzen or whatever, to run two great lines instead of two pretty good lines.

 

[Bank Shot]

I think Wings played Datsyuk and Zetterberg together a lot though, which makes one of them the wing in such instance. They'd split up more when they had stronger wingers like a Hossa or a healthy and productive Franzen or whatever, to run two great lines instead of two pretty good lines.

You're right that they did play together often during that run. They still had an elite center on the ice though since one of them would be playing there.

I don't think it disproves my point that you never saw a team win without that elite center. We have seen teams win without the winger, the dman, and the goalie. Haven't seen it yet without an elite center.

Closest example would be the Ducks who didn't have a true elite guy going into the playoffs, but Getzlaf decided to have a coming out party.

 

[Trojans86]

On the other hand we have seen some teams win Cups in the cap era with pretty underwhelming wingers.
Detroit had two centers and then nobody else over 50 points in the regular season.
Pittsburgh won with like Fedotenko and Kuntiz their first go around.
Boston with Lucic as the number one guy.
Kings had Justin Williams heroics, but he wasn't really a star.

What we really have never seen happen in the cap era is a team win with like 2-3 star wingers and a guy like Ryan Strome or Brayden Schenn or Sean Monahan or RNH as their first line center.

Every single team that has won the Cup has either had an elite offensive or two way guy (sometimes both) in that role.

Until we see a donut team win the Cup, people are going to see wingers as the least important role.

True, but generally speaking centers are stronger than wingers. I think it’s more accurate to say to win a cup you need 2 very high level forwards. Very few teams have 2 elite wingers and 0 elite centers.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I think there’s really only 3-4 teams where you can say their top line winger is the most valuable player that they have.

Pastrnak/Boston, Kaprizov/Minnesota, Kucherov/Tampa, and Raymond/Detroit.

Even with Florida who has two elite wingers, Barkov is still very clearly the mvp.

There’s Instances where teams won without an elite winger/goalie but I can’t exactly remember a time where a team won off of an elite winger leading besides maybe Tampa in 04.

 

[PensandCaps]

a winger like Pasta, kuch and Kaprizov are just as valuable as an elite centre/D