JasonMacIsaac said:
If you pick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 odds are you will not win.
Nash is one dimentional, the guy doesn't play defense, has little to no assists. He can score goals like the best of them, a similar player to Andreychuk in his early days. Ovechkin is a much more complete player.
Look, your entitled to your opinion but I get a little tired of the Nash "lack of defense" bashing. If you gonna call him out, you might as well call out the majority of every offensively gifted player to come along in the NHL in the past 15 to 20 years b/c almost all of them struggled early on in their careers with their defensive games.
Here is a list of stats from, how should we say, "decent" offensive players who have graced the NHL with their presence as young adults. I tried to pick players that were in the relative same position as Nash currently is w/ the CBJ (i.e. a young offensive franchise type player who was taken early in his draft year playing on a weak team). These stats are from the player's first season and I also included their +/- from their second season.
Mario Lemieux
1984-1985 Penguins 73 43 57 100 -35 54 11 0 2 0 209 20.6
NOTE: He was a -6 even with scoring 141 points in his 2nd season.
Joe Thornton
1997-1998 Bruins 55 3 4 7 -6 19 0 0 1 0 33 9.1
NOTE - Joe had a total of 7 points as a 18/19 year old. He was a +6 in his 2nd season.
Wayne Gretzky
1979-1980 Edmonton 79 51 86 137 21 0 13 1 6 4 284 17.96
NOTE - Oh yes, even the greatest player of all time didn't have a positive +/- even with his point total early in his career. He was a +41 in his 2nd season while scoring 164 points - that is impressive.
Ilya Kovalchuk
2001-2002 Thrashers 65 29 22 51 -19 28 7 0 4 1 184 15.8
NOTE - He was a -24 in his 2nd season
Steve Yzerman
1983-1984 Red Wings 80 39 48 87 -17 33 13 0 2 1 177 22
NOTE - He was a 0 in his 2nd but a -24 in his 3rd season
Joe Sakic
1988-1989 Nordiques 70 23 39 62 -36 24 10 0 2 1 148 15.5
NOTE - He was a -40 (yes, worse than Rick!!) in his 2nd season.
Eric Lindros
1992-1993 Flyers 61 41 34 75 28 147 8 1 5 1 180 22.8
NOTE: He was a +16 his 2nd season.
Vincent Lecavalier
1998-1999 Lightning 82 13 15 28 -19 23 2 0 2 1 125 10.4
NOTE - He was a -25 in his 2nd season.
Rick Nash
2002-2003 Blue Jackets 74 17 22 39 -27 78 6 0 2 0 154 11
NOTE - He was a -35 in his 2nd season
I will be the first one to agree Nash needs to improve his defensive game and I believe it will improve in time, especially as he matures and the team improves.
It will be very interesting to see how Ovechkin does in his first year. I don't think I am going out on to much of a ledge here to say his numbers (especially +/-) will be similar to these players at the same age.
Stats provided by nhl.com.