You’re looking at Demidov in 7 years at age 25, and Sanderson at age 21
Sanderson is not going to age over the next 4 years. Shouldn’t you be comparing them 4 years out.
fyi looking at 4 years out Demidov will be 22 not 25
Once again, you have failed to read.
Since the thread asked about MTL.
In order to do what you are suggesting I would have to:
Predict the destination AND outcome of draft picks 1-2 years out. (impossible with the lottery).
Predict how top prospects for all teams in the NHL who have never played a game will pan out.
Predict the development curves of young stars such as Sanderson
Predict the aging curves of older players in their late 20s and predict when they will fall off.
Predict where players who's contracts are expiring will sign
Predict any blockbuster trades that could fundamentally change cores (eg the matthew tkachuk trade)
For all 32 teams.
Most people could do it easily for their own team. Probably a couple of other teams, and if they wanted to look deeper on a case by case basis they probably could for any single team. But not the entire landscape.
So instead, I looked at the CURRENT NHL LANDSCAPE to ask the question. "how good does a core have to be to be above average.
So I looked at the Atlantic division and see who had the best top 4 last year/currently on their roster
Panthers currently best
Tampa probably 2nd
Toronto probably 3rd
Boston probably 4th
GAP
Detroit probably 5th
Buffalo probably 6th
Ottawa probably 7th
GAP
MTL 100% last rn
And so to be an average team, looking at the buffalo detroit and ottawa cores.
Suzuki lines up approximately evenly with what Tage, Stutzle, and Larkin
Caufield I'm not high on, but I'd say he lines up with Cozens, Batherson, and Raymond right now.
Slaf I'm pretty optimistic on, he can 100% reach or surpass the range of what Tuch, Tkachuk, and Debrincat are now
Demidov is the weird one, as he's a winger and the other core guys are dmen in Dahlin, Sanderson, and Seider.
So in all, if Demidov and Slaf hit, they fall right into the middle of the pack range for core 4s, probably above detroit but certainly not getting to the Pasta McAvoy Swayman Marchand level.
And so I project them around there. As an average core