Joined: Jun. 2017
Posts: 373
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The amazing thing about all these players is they're all great in slightly different ways. I'm not sure there's really a great way to really say which player is the best, but they're all amazing.
Tarasenko is the only one who is a winger, and has consistently score in the upper-30s in goals since his rookie year on about 13.5% shooting. His career has been shorter than the other three, so we don't have as much data to use; however, he also has been the weakest possession player of the three. That may be due to the choice of his center, but regardless, we've seen wingers be able to significantly drive play.
Stamkos is the player most similar to Tarasenko, but has reached even loftier heights, with multiple 50 goals seasons and a 60 goal season, while shooting a league-leading 17.1% career shooting percentage. He's had better teammates around him than most, but the numbers he has accrued don't happen by accident anymore. He is the best shooter in recent memory, and while the title of greatest goal scorer may go to Ovechkin, even he hasn't been able to match the career shooting Stamkos has. Hopefully injuries won't continue to steal us of Stamkos' talent.
Seguin profiles somewhere between Stamkos and Tavares, as a center who somewhat drives play, but is still more of a pure scorer. His work with Jamie Benn has been outstanding, but even while Benn has been injured Seguin has been a clear top-flight center. In a lot of ways, he's underappreciated: He's been over a point per game since coming to Dallas, even after the down season this past year. He continues to become a more effective distributor of the puck, and while his goal scoring ability isn't on the level of the previous two, he's still a lock for 25+ goals a year.
Tavares is the player that most tilts the ice in a team's favor: even with a rotating, relatively weak class of wingers, he still dominates the possession metrics, all while racking up 70+ points a season. Like Seguin, I think Tavares gets somewhat overlooked by playing for a secondary team: he has made countless NYI wingers rich. Of the four 91s, he's probably admired as the greatest leader and all-around player.
I chose Seguin, because whenever I watch him play, I'm always amazed at the blend of speed, skill, and power that I haven't seen in any other player. But all four of them are intriguing, amazing, take-my-money-to-let-me-watch-them players.
Now, I wonder what a Tarasenko-Tavares pair would look like in St. Louis?