And I agree with that point. I’m not expecting Barzal to be a Matthews, McDavid, Eichel, Barkov, Mackinnon, Scheifele; those are the young likely franchise centers in this league. But Barzal has shown that he can produce like them. A legitimate #1C is a foundational piece even if they aren’t a “franchise” player. And we don’t know yet that Barzal is or isn’t, like you said; he could be, but let’s see if he can put up 85 points again. I agree with your counterpoint; my only point is that the Sharks deliberately skipped over a young #1C and they will pay for that mistake for the next decade.
I also think you have a looser definition of “franchise” than I do. In my view, franchise centers are limited to: Crosby, Malkin, Barkov, Scheifele, Mackinnon, McDavid, and arguably Bergeron. Matthews and Eichel are on their way there. Tavares, Stamkos, Kopitar are on the border for me. Thornton, Toews, Sedin, and Getzlaf were recently, but not in 2018. Until Giroux proves his resurgence isn’t an aberration, I won’t count him. Nor will I count Karlsson until he proves he isn’t a one-hit wonder.
To be clear, when I say “star #1C” in the context of Kuznetsov, I mean approximately top-12 or top-15. I’d rank centers approximately like this: McDavid, Crosby, Malkin, Barkov, Scheifele, Matthews, Mackinnon, Eichel, Bergeron, Kopitar, Tavares, Kuznetsov, Seguin, Stamkos, Draisaitl. I think the first twelve centers are Cup-caliber #1C’s, and the last three are borderline. But I wouldn’t consider them all “franchise”. I think Barzal could get to top-15, but maybe not “franchise”. Either way, it’s mostly semantics. The point is that the Sharks ****ed up big time.
I think players like Getzlaf, Toews, Sedin, Kopitar, and Giroux were definitely franchise-caliber centers for decent stretches in the past, which is why I include them.
A true #1C is a great piece, but it isn’t a foundational piece. Joe Pavelski was certainly at that level for a few seasons.
Think about the top centers on teams that have won a cup since 1990:
Messier, Lemieux x2, Damphousse, Messier, Broten, Sakic, Fedorov/Yzerman x2, Modano, Arnott, Sakic, Yzerman, Madden, Richards, Staal, Getzlaf, Datsyuk, Crosby, Toews, Bergeron, Kopitar, Toews, Kopitar, Toews, Crosby, Crosby.
Outside of Damphousse, Broten, Arnott, Madden, Getzlaf, Bergeron, and Toews in 2013, those were unquestionably franchise-caliber performances (and a case can be made for Getzlaf and Bergeron IMO).
The 1993 Canadiens received the finest goaltending performance ever seen in the playoffs from Patrick Roy.
The 1995 Devils had Stevens and Brodeur
The 2000 and 2003 Devils had Niedermayer, Stevens, and Brodeur
The 2007 Ducks had Giguere, Niedermayer, and Pronger
The 2011 Bruins had Chara and Thomas
The 2013 Blackhawks had Keith and (playmaking-winger) Kane
Outside of one team, those teams had superstars at other positions to make up for not having a superstar at center...
