Quoting: BuFfaLOFaN
I thought I remember you saying one time that Teuvo is a top winger in the game ... And he plays with Aho as well as Svechnikov do idk how Aho drags them to the finals. Now you also have a lot better dcore which stands for it self I mean our top 2 d are bottom 6 pretty much on carolina. Aho also didn't need to take as many defensive zone draws because you have Jordan Staal. Eichel doesn't have that. Eichel is the better player all around no questions asked. Im not gonna sit here and say I'm not a little biased but my bias is definitely pretty much gone with the sabres lately because of their lack of success. I really am wondering though what your opinions would look like without bias.
Defensive zone faceoff percentage
1C (Aho) 45%
2C (Trocheck) 25%
3C (Staal) 20%
4C (Geekie) 10%
Aho took the brunt of D zone draws so that point is invalid.
As for TT, yeah TT is a great winger. One of the most underrated forwards in hockey. He's not a star. Svechnikov is a great talent. He's still 19, analytics don't really work well in smaller sample sizes so when I say anything about Carolina, it discounts Svechnikov and Necas among others. That said
xGF With Aho 4.51
xGF Without Aho, 1.65
That is per 60 mins
For Buffalo
xGF with Eichel 5.53
xGF without Eichel 2.84
again per 60 mins
Aho has a bigger impact on the team that Eichel does. He plays on a much more defensively oriantated team and is one of the reasons the team works. Offensively, Carolina have about as much scoring depth as Buffalo. Lines 2-4 are underwhelming as all hell. But the effect on the team between Aho and Eichel favours Aho.
You go on about the D core. Fine, Carolina have some great names on defense. But vatanen played 6 games, Hamilton missed 5 months. Pesce missed everything from the Ayres game onwards. Carolina's d core was beaten black and blue. Edmundson is a black hole (I'm so glad he's gone) Gardiner defensively the less said the better (and I am one of his admirers)
As for bias, I don't think you're being biased, I understand your point. That being said, I prefer to weigh the analytical side of the game more than the base stats that so many others do. I still think Eichel is a great player. Top 10 C? Probably, I'd have to go through and list them. I just think that Aho gets severely underrated and he's better than Eichel because it's what analytics dictate.