Rhetoric means nothing, it’s just blather

Batherson is awesome

Hunt and Peart can both play the right side if they have to.

1) Fiala has always been a second-half type of player. It's where he's gotten the bulk of his production for his entire career.

I doubt that'll change wherever he goes. Bottom line, he comes out slow.

2) His assists go up when he has linemates of worth capable of playing at or near his level.

IE... top-six talent.

If they're not capable of finishing, why pass the puck? Better to do it himself at that point. Both Boldy and to that extent Stutzle are more than capable finishers. If they're on his line he'd be more inclined to pass the puck.

His assists won't go down if playing with someone like Stutzle. They probably go up.

Fantastic analysis! Thank you!!

I’ve heard this argument before, and how Bobby Ryan was good for 40 goals playing with Spezza

Boldy, Stutzle, and Fiala are far... far... better players than Bobby Ryan ever was.

Bobby Ryan is closer to Frederic Gaudreau or Ryan Hartman than a legitimate top-six player like Fiala.

They're not even close.

The difference is Spezza is Spezza, and Ryan rode his coattails. Fiala was a 70 point pace player before Boldy arrived and dealt with bottom six scrubs during that same timespan. He's closer to Stutzle than to Ryan.

C'mon.

You missed the point, you mentioned, "Both Boldy and to that extent Stutzle are more than capable finishers. If they're on his line he'd be more inclined to pass the puck"

I brought up Bobby Ryan because the same thing was said about Spezza and Getzlaf

As for Bobby Ryan, when Fiala has four 30+ goal seasons, then compare Fiala to him

Kevin Fiala (career 419 games)
419 games, 124 goals, 159 assists, 283 points, 0.68 PPG

Bobby Ryan (first 419 games of his career)
419 games, 165 goals, 159 assists, 324 points, 0.77 PPG

Ryan didn't ride on Spezza's coattails. They didn't even play together that much. People anticipated great things between them but they didn't have any chemistry so they were split quite fast. Ryan mostly played with McArthur and Turris in his first few years in Ottawa and that was a great line, until each of these players got derailed by injuries (MacArthur with concussions, Turris with the Gumby incident, Ryan with hands injuries)

Why people continue to talk without knowing has always been beyond me.



What a weird comment that was... Bobby Ryan was a 55+ pts / 0.70+ PPG player the first 8 years of his career. He did that in years where there was a lot less goals scored. That was first line numbers back then.

During his prime (2008-09 to 2015-16), he was the 37th best scorer among NHL forwards, with 437 pts in 584 GP (similar production to Bergeron, Duchene, Jagr, Couture, etc during that period of time)

Several hands injuries (and personal problems) is what made him decline in his late 20's. Who knows how long Fiala's prime is going to last? Or if teams are going to figure out ways to reduce goals against, once again.

Even if you don't account Fiala's first 4 seasons (0.48 PPG player with Nashville), Fiala has been the 27th best forward scorer since his "peak" started in 2019-20. It's great but the hyperbole was ridiculous

If you start comparing at the "same age" (21 years old), then Fiala has been 55th in forwards scoring since 2017-18

That was the point, his argument was that Fiala will do just as well with Stützle is the same as the arguments that Ryan would do just as well with Spezza. You’ll need to go back and reread the comments, it seems you didn’t get the point.




Again, you didn’t get the point.

I compared the same situation from the other side, the Bobby Ryan side. What a player did before a trade is not always an indication of how they will perform after a trade.

Bobby Ryan continued his PPG pace with Ottawa, he just changed his ratio of goals to assists, until the hand injuries occurred.

Uh... When I said "What a weird comment that was", I was not talking about your comment, but the other posters'

Sorry thought it was obvious. And if you read my post, it just gives more support to your argument.

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll go back and reread the comments, lol