I appreciate that it is not my most scholarly argument ever, but I've never seen any skill in him whatsoever. A few comments from WPG fans last night before the calamity was official served to underline what I thought. Great character guy, great wheels and intensity... but also a guy who had been getting a scoring bounce one should not expect to last. Goals coming off shots bouncing off of him, ass goals etc.
Surely those goals count the same and some are just good at being in the right place, but you'd like to see it for more than a season before you deem it skill rather than luck.
Derek Grant had 12+12 in 66 games the season before JR had a prayer on him, but most people here never expected that to continue either. Maybe you, Mr. Sunny Side Up, did however
? I don't recall.
Ziggyjoe: The reason Hagelin could play with Malkin despite a real lack of scoring touch is that he has the hockey IQ at least. He could handle and give a pass and had the positional awareness to help cover defensively a lot. Tanev is just as good a forechecker and has a much bigger physical impact obviously, but he doesn't have half (prime) Hagelin's alround ability. As we saw, when Hagelin looked like seriously declining in the last third last season it became a real waste to play him with Geno, his contract therefore became untenable and he was traded. If Tanev was to be played with Geno, 71 would lose his mind.