I think Duchene is vastly overrated. I might trade Galchenyuk straight up for him but he is not remotely worth what Sakic believes he is. Can't blame Sakic because the laws of averages dictate that some idiot GM will sell his team's future at the deadline for him. Sergachev is not being moved period.
Galchenyuk can get to PPG. So far, it is pretty doubtfull that Duchene will ever get at PPG pace.
He may never get 70 points again.
At 26 years old, players have already show their best baring a few exceptions (one over 100).
So far Galchenyuk has one 30 goals season at 22 while Duchene had one 30 goals season at 25 years old.
One must remember that Duchene always had top line icetime and top PP TOI during his whole career while Galchenyuk only had top PP TOI since mid-season last year.
To me: Galchenyuk > Duchene (offensive upside >>, Defense <)
and two years from now we may find that
Galchenyuk >> Duchene.
One thing for sure Galchenyuk has being doing better year in year on.
At his age, he still has room to improve.
Give him a full season on top line and top PP before judging.
I am pretty confident that he could get top-10 a few seasons and stick around top-20 most of his career.
For now, he has a pace of 64 points and by the end of the season he might very well have a pace of 70+ points.
Was Duchene ever a top-10 scorer in the league?
I don't think he will ever be in the future.
Back in 2012-13 he was 26th and in 2013-14 he was 18th (9 points behind the 10th player).
Finally, Galchenyuk is taller, heavier and stronger than Duchene.
He's not scoring 65 points a year. His year to year scoring resembles Plekanec at that age quite closely.
He is a little bit better than Plekanec (54 points pace vs 62 points pace) but Plek had more defensive responsibilities.
Plek was not the first center when Koivu, Gomez first two years, DD for a few years and Galchenyuk last year.
Meanwhile, Duchesne was a top PP TOI year in year on.
So the real difference might be even lower than 54 vs 62.
This season, Duchene is not impressive anyway: 34 points (pace of 51 points is less than Plek last year).