Can't help myself.
How many players do you think have more goals than Rick Nash since 2002? Can I ask you to post your guess first, and then go look it up?
Now, obviously we have to take longevity & games played into account, so you let me know if you want to...
EXTRAPOLATE
those numbers
I personally HATE when people do this. You're basically expanding the sample size to normalize a bad player's performance and then find an "even playing field" where he looks good.
Nobody cares about 2002, unfortunately. If you go back to the beginning of the 15-16 season, Nash has scored 49 goals in 172 games. Fun fact, Zibanejad has put up the same number of goals in 173 games, on worse-constructed teams (those ottawa teams where he started his career were bad outside of Karlsson), in his first couple years in the NHL where he was still a development project, while playing the center position which is exponentially harder than winger.
Another Fun fact, Adam Henrique is a 3C on the Anaheim ducks, and he's scored 60 goals in that time span. Are we calling a 27 year old Adam Henrique elite now, too?
Using massive extrapolated numbers to validate your point is silly because again, as much as I hate it, hockey today is about the here and now. Here and now, Nash is going 6-12 games without showing up on the stat sheet at all. Now, I agree that some of this is AV's system, but the reality is that Nash's skills have declined. He's a good skater, but his shot is crap, hence the constant logo snipes. The low shooting percentage is not an outlier, but an exemplification of his declining skillset
Hagelin was a 30-40 point 3rd line player. he got a $4M * 4Y contract.
People RIPPED Edmonton when they paid Benoit Pouliot $4M over 4 Years--he was a 35 point player.
The former of these players has been crap outside of the first 1.5 years of that contract. The latter was BOUGHT OUT half way into the deal.
Nash is literally exactly that, except 2-4 years older than these guys mentioned, and Nash has a visibly declining skilklset. Paying him $4M?! f*** no.
Everything points to Nash's twilight years as a hockey player. Unless he comes in at under $2.5M over 2 years, I do not want him back, period--he hasn't earned anything more, and his current play is forecasting that he will continue to decline. There is no reason to keep a guy like this on your roster with a 4 year contract, not when you're where the Rangers are, which is still 1-2 years away from contending, at which point Nash would be nearing 36 years old.
f***...That...