Patches, over his first 5 seasons, scored 153 points in 246 games, for a PPG of 0.62, with 1 20+ goal scoring season.
Landeskog, over his first 5 seasons, scored 246 points in 356 games, for a PPG of 0.69, with 4 20+ goal scoring seasons.
Landeskog also received more Selke votes in his first 5 seasons than Patches did in his first 5 seasons.
So, over their first 5 NHL seasons, Landeskog is better in pretty much every aspect of the game. Are we supposed to assume that Landy has reached his full potential at 24 and can't possibly get better, when Patches took his game to a different level starting at age 25?
Context is important.
Colorado brought Landy in to play right away. The Habs usually bring their players along more slowly. Landeskog was given 18+ minutes per game starting in his rookie season. Pacioretty was only given 12+ minutes per game in his first 2 seasons and had such a horribly defence first oriented coach that he had to tell the Habs he would rather play in the minors than in the NHL on the 4th line. It is an organizational difference in philosophy. The Habs never play their rookies big minutes, where the Avs have done it with their top picks consistently over the time they have picked guys like Landeskog, Duchene, MacKinnon, etc... Look at the first full season the Habs finally allowed Pacioretty to play top line minutes (18+ per game). Suddenly he produces the same number of points as Landeskog, while scoring more goals. Ever since Pacioretty has been given the same opportunity to succeed as Landeskog, he has outproduced him.
In your comparison of raw numbers, you also conveniently leave out that Chara broke Pacioretty's neck in his 3rd season, slowing his development and point production down a bit in that season.
There are also the pathetic offensive line mates Pacioretty played with in his 1st 5 seasons to remember, along with defensive coaching that limited everything one could imagine. Don't you think having centers like a younger Stastny, an O'Reilly, and a Duchene to work with helped Landeskog a lot more than the LaPierre, Desharnais, Plekanec type of players Pacioretty started with?
How about the fact that Landeskog hit his best season and then declined over the next two, while Pacioretty either kept improving or maintained his previous excellence?
Where did you find the Selke votes they both received in their 1st 5 seasons? I could not find a comprehensive list that went back before 2014-2015. I would honestly appreciate a link, if you have one, please.
Finally, when considering a trade, you have to consider what you are giving up
right now as well as what you might gain down the road. We would be giving up the better player
right now in this trade. Could Landeskog improve and become better? Absolutely. He is terrific and has tons of talent. He might become better than Pacioretty is. Of course, he might not. There are no guarantees of anything, just ask the Oilers how great Yakupov worked out for them. So, looking at the FACT that the Habs are looking to compete for a Cup now, there is no way they trade the actual better player for a guy who is great and might become better in a year or two. Especially when that player would get stuck in Therrien's BS defence first system, something you and other Avs fans seem to state Landeskog has been playing in, thereby proving that he would NOT produce MORE points for our team than Pacioretty has.
Context is important to every hockey debate. Numbers in a vacuum are not enough. Compare apples to apples as best you can. Saying a player getting 6 less minutes per game produced less than the guy force fed top line minutes is worse offensively is being a bit disingenuous at best.
