Which Set of Players is More Effective?

[eva unit zero]

A.

Whitney is more impactful than all of the forwards in B combined.

That leaves Langkow, Pyatt, O'Sullivan, Aucoin, and Rosival vs. Michalek and Rundblad.

Even if you disregard Aucoin and Rosival as some have done, Michalek and Rundblad don't win.

[rt]

Wouldn't you expect to get at least as many points from the B group of forwards as the A group? Everyone is talking about the huge loss of Whitney. His 77pts, Langkow's 30, Pyatt's 19 and we will call POS 19 (which is generous given his 4 in 23). This gives you 145 in an 82game season-ish. Let's look at group B from the perspective of 82 games (for simplicity's sake). I'll go very conservative, here. 40 from Sullivan, 45 from Vermette, 30 from Lombardi and 30 from Moss. Gives you 145. The defense is fairly obviously superior.

[Machinehead]

Really, I just want Ray Whitney.

Keep in mind my team hasn't seen a good pass in 7 years so I'm a little swayed.

[Ivan13]

Originally Posted by LatvianTwist

The fact that on paper, they're a pretty terrible team but Tippett is one of the best coaches when it comes to regular season success. That's just how it works here. I think they'll be right around the same place they were last year, personally.

OEL, Yandle, Klesla, Michalek, Doan, Hanzal etc. They most certainly aren't terrible, in fact they have one of the deepest defensive groups in the entire NHL and they make up for their lack of top end talent up front by playing a smart team game with the help of their great defense.

[BleedinBlueSince1972]

Team B.

[SniperHF]

Originally Posted by rt

Wouldn't you expect to get at least as many points from the B group of forwards as the A group? Everyone is talking about the huge loss of Whitney. His 77pts, Langkow's 30, Pyatt's 19 and we will call POS 19 (which is generous given his 4 in 23). This gives you 145 in an 82game season-ish. Let's look at group B from the perspective of 82 games (for simplicity's sake). I'll go very conservative, here. 40 from Sullivan, 45 from Vermette, 30 from Lombardi and 30 from Moss. Gives you 145. The defense is fairly obviously superior.

Just playing devils advocate a bit here, I think you can make the argument that Whitney is effectively a game breaker. Someone who can reliably pierce even the best defenses and make passes to guys like Vrbata.

When you bundle up Lombardi, Sullivan, Moss and even Vermette you have basically a bag of crap from a bad trade proposal.
But if you look at team A, you can say Whitney is going to elevate the game of the rest of the team and will be a force other teams have to gameplan around. The Coyotes do not have such a forward right now.

Personally I think Whitney's contributions were important, but a tad overrated. I base this on the experience of the 09-10 team which was also excellent, and it had the same "problem" our current team B has.