Quoting: The_Rocket
Here’s why I don’t think it’s a coincidence
At 5v5, jt miller scored 2.82 points per 60 plying with garland. He didn’t achieve that with any other linemate. His average for the season was 2.45.
For Pettersson, it’s even more pronounce. 2.52 points per 60 with garland, 1.6 per 60 season average. Again, his best production came with Garland compared to any other player. For example, with Chiasson EP scored 2.15 per 60, and with JT miller he scored 2.38.
So even though petey can still score really well without Garland, his best production came when they were together. Ditto miller.
I think having a guy that gets the best out of your top players is very valuable
I can see why you think that based on those numbers. Based on what I saw this season, I would attribute those bumps in production with Miller and Pettersson getting hot and Garland happening to be the winger with them. Those two guys were the clear play drivers on the line making things happen.
With Miller the increase in production isn't that significant. Consider that Miller also played with an ice cold Boeser for a long time; that likely pulled Miller's numbers down and then Garland restored them back to normal, and then JT was also on a tear during that time too. Playing without an anchor and simply being on a hot streak are two things I would consider as reasons for that increase.
For Pettersson, comparisons to his season average are meaningless because he really had two seasons this year; one where he was abysmal and one where he was the best player on the ice every shift. The first 50ish games pull his season numbers down considerably, so whoever he was playing with at that time will suffer as a result. He was so red hot that it didn't matter who he was playing with.
To be honest, the numbers don't mean that much to me because I am falling back on the eye test from all of the games I watched this year. There were a lot of games where Garland was lackluster and didn't do much. He was consistently late to battles, throwing the puck away, making bad reads off his teammates, losing puck battles and in general just chasing the play. He had a hot streak to start the year and to end it, but for a while he was not as good as advertised. However, that can be attributed to coming to a new team, learning new systems, establishing chemistry with teammates, which is all on top of whatever was going on behind the scenes in the first half of the year and a coaching change to boot. Given all that, I would expect him to be better next year and personally I will hold him to a higher standard for all of the games I see. I'm not sure if he actually will be better, but if he's not it would be a disappointment in my eyes.
On top of that, I think both Podkolzin and Hoglander are young wingers who play a similar style to Garland and would fill a similar role. You can't have enough energy on your team, but that's a reason why I think trading Garland would be easier to recover from as an organization compared to trading Boeser.