He has multiple seasons of finishing top-10 in both Hart + Selke Trophy voting results, to say he was never a top 10 player in the league is kind of nuts honestly.
I said he wasn’t in my personal top 10 ever. Just because you finish Top 10 in Selke voting does not make you a better lockdown guy than Bergeron or Barkov. Just because you finish top 10 in Hart voting does not make you a more valuable player than McDavid, Crosby, Ovi or Kucherov.
During the time-period of his 5-year peak 2017-2022, He simply does not have an arguement against Crosby, McDavid, Drai,, Kucherov, Vasi or Hedman. I would argue MacKinnon won a Cup in that timeframe and his highs were better than Marchand’s during those times. Patrick Kane is just a more skilled and better hockey player than him. I don’t think you’ll find a single person that will take Marchand over Kane.
If you notice all the guys that are mentioned are HALL OF FAME LOCKS. You will find no one that disagrees with those players. I’d maybe have Marchand after those guys during his peak, although I still think I would have had Bergeron or Barkov over him. These were also the years where Matthews was starting to become the best regular season goal-scorer.
Again, he’s RIGHT there. I don’t think anyone could argue he’s NOT top 15. He played extremely well, but that’s also because he played with Bergeron and Pasta. Crosby, Ovi, Kane, Drai and McDavid had worse linemates from 2017-2022.
I think everyone just gets tainted by his style of play and his peak years. Which were PHENOMENAL. He’s making the hall. I think we can both agree on that. I don’t think it’s out of this world to say he was never a top 10 player in the league.