Tavares might be the best C in the game, and definitely head and shoulders above who's conceivably available. 26 years old with 10 prime years ahead of him, shut the front door and get out of town.

It sounds greedy, but I don't think the Canucks do the deal. Horvat's age and salary fits the roster composition much better, where the team is no more than a middle-weight until a bunch of prospects graduate to the NHL in 2-3 years.

Um, I think someone named McDavid is slightly better

Vancouver says no way jose. Tavares is a pending UFA that would never resign in Vancouver, so we'd just lose Horvat for nothing

McDavid is not conceivably available. Ditto Crosby, Eichel, Getzlaf, Benn etc.
Stamkos flirted with leaving, and Johansen was traded, but Tavares is better.
Maybe one day cap space problems and broken rosters invite offers for Matthews, Toews, Kopitar, etc. but I'd rather have Tavares

If you want to quibble with me saying Tavares might be the best C in the game today, I consciously said might just to put him on the same level because there are different dimensions to his game from faceoffs, to a 220lb frame that drives straight to the net, to a guy who keeps it going in bad times and good.

I also turned down the trade of Tavares for Horvat. I wanted to make the point clear that I'm not a moron trying to lower the perception of Tavares' value.

He's one of them, but better than McDavid and Crosby?

Crosby is 29
Tavares is 26
McDavid is 20

You can't prove any one of them isn't _the_ best because we'll never see them swap teams, or play in the same time at same age. You can tally up stats and correct them to even out circumstances, but you can't factor all the contributions they make directly and through their teammates. You'll never distinguish them beyond 1C because no one ever gets the chance to repeatedly choose between them. You would build an entire team around any one of them.

McDavid is a phenom, but Crosby has won more than even Scott Niedermayer. How could you say you'd draft 18 year old McDavid over 18 year old Crosby 100% of the time. Top 5 or Top 10 C is precise enough for me, beyond that accuracy is a matter of fooling yourself.

Drafting a player doesn't correlate with the idea of who is the best 1c in the game. Same goes for winning. Winning is a team effort, and also doesn't correlate with best or most valuable. Same with the age argument. It just doesn't correlate with the contention. If you just look at the stats and team impact, you don't even need to know the name of the player, or the age. It's all based on advanced analytics and the eye test.