Is the impact of #1 Winger criminally underrated?

[Coffey]

Wingers are easily replaceable.

#1D and #1C are hard to get.

Oilers Decade of Darkness was just a bunch of finesse wingers.
Exposed and destroyed every game.

 

[JFedol]

The Flames are the perfect example of team that has been built down the wing and has not done really anything aside from a couple mid first round wins and 2 division titles. Iginla's prime was wasted with no true #1C being stapled to him.

Oilers Decade of Darkness was just a bunch of finesse wingers.
Exposed and destroyed every game.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was just Hall and Eberle right? Holy f***

 

[Coffey]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was just Hall and Eberle right? Holy f***

Paajarvi, Hemsky, Yakupov, etc.

That team may actually have done good now, since the NHL meta is all speed and finesse.
But back in those days with the grindy big body meta, they had zero chance.

 

[JFedol]

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm under the impression in Canada winger is seen more of a left over position and all the best forwards play center, even if if they were naturally more suited to wing? I might be off, but my gut feeling is talent like Kurri, Jagr or even Selänne, arguably the most natural winger of the bunch, would've been developed as centers in Canada. Or Rantanen as a more recent example. Likewise if McDavid or MacKinnon were euros, I think there's a good possibility they would've ended up as wingers.

Jagr and Kurri would've dominated as centres regardless on if they were hypothetically born in Canada. It's a disservice looking back that their respective coaches didn't utilize them more in that position lmao. Kurri even had that one infamous stretch in 1993 when Gretzky got injured and he played centre and torched the f***ing league for a solid 2 months. Just Imagine a Lemieux-Jagr duo or a post Gretzky Messier-Kurri duo down the middle in the early to mid 90s. Both Pittsburgh and Edmonton are locks for a cup for half a decade IMO. Just baffling

Your best player should always be a centre, look at Pittsburgh and Edmonton, too much control and dictation of the game, team, wins and playoff runs by those franchises with those players who play that position.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Oilers Decade of Darkness was just a bunch of finesse wingers.
Exposed and destroyed every game.

Better than having 2 franchise wingers that can't get out of the first round.

 

[19 for president]

There are very few wingers that can singlehandedly control the flow of a game. In the past 20 years I'd say probably a prime Ovie, Kane, and currently Kucherov. Elite wingers make winning a cup a lot easier, and are often that extra piece to put teams over the top, but I would still argue that their over impact is less than a center/ defenseman; outside of generational level guys.

A lot of this has to do with style. Good puck distributors tend to lean towards the center position. It is also where you typically see the better two-way players. So they have more of an impact on their team mates and defensively than most wingers. A guy like Kucherov is an exception because his shooting and passing games are both elite, and he logs minutes like a dman. Kane is another distributor/ shooter. Ovie is probably the greatest goal scorer of all time and added a really nice physical aspect in his prime that made him unique.

#1 dmen just typically play so many minutes that it makes them more impactful. They also again usually have more impact at both the offensive and defensive side of the game.

Like as much as I think Ray is the most skilled guy on the Wings, we can lose him for a bit and get by. Our offensive dies the minute Larkin gets hurt, and we would sink defensively without MO. Ray may eventually turn into that super elite Kuch lvl winger, but he is not there yet, and thus does not have the impact of Larkin on the team's overall game.