Joined: May 2017
Posts: 517
Likes: 214
The stuff about playoff performance here is just nonsense. Stamkos at his best was at a time when the team around him was not good enough to be in the playoffs, first of all. In 2010-11, his one prime playoff appearance, he had 13pts in 18 games. That’s not spectacular, but it’s certainly not a crazy disappointment. Overall, he has 53pts in 70 playoff games. Malkin’s production would scale to 73pts in 70 playoff games, but Malkin got to play during his absolute prime in the playoffs, while Stamkos really did not. I’m not saying it’s an invalid consideration, but it’s being way overblown primarily because Stamkos scored 1 point in the SCF and missed the following playoffs injured, and he’s also a superstar so he’s the easiest to blame when things go wrong (as well as Kucherov, who also gets blamed despite actually being one of the highest producing playoff performers in the League), so when we haven’t won a Cup, it seems that the common idea is to blame him. That’s just wrong, though; he’s just had a couple of really bad series and bad luck with injury, and he’s certainly not overwhelming in the playoffs, but overall, he’s been fine.
As for the debate right now, I don’t recall a 60 goal season from Malkin. Stamkos has readjusted to a new role on a changed team after his injury, but prime Stamkos (who won the listed awards and everything) was pretty much the best shooter in the game. Malkin is a great player, but I don’t think he ever excelled quite like Stamkos as a shooter.