[EXTENSION] Nick Suzuki

[saucelife90]

Great deal for Suzuki.

His agent is well worth whatever he's getting paid, that's for sure.

[ross10019]

His agent is well worth whatever he's getting paid, that's for sure.

Question for you and Feenom. Have you guys watched lots of Suzuki, especially in the playoffs?

[saucelife90]

Question for you and Feenom. Have you guys watched lots of Suzuki, especially in the playoffs?

I watched nearly every Montreal playoff game, so if that qualifies as "watching lots of Suzuki", then yes, I've watched lots...

[rataylor22]

Quickly pulling together a list, I have 29C I would prefer over Suzuki right now (not necessarily long term), which doesn't include Wright and Bedard (who I already would take over him). Differing people could quibble with the bottom of the list, but at best Suzuki is a fringe 1C, not a "legit 1C". As for the selfless leader part (does all caps make it more true?), I don't know what evidence we have of that outside of wishcasting. He doesn't wear a letter (and at age 22 it wouldn't be unheard of for him to do so) and he's not a vocal media presence, so how would we have any kind of idea of what kind of leader he actually is?

[ross10019]

Quickly pulling together a list, I have 29C I would prefer over Suzuki right now (not necessarily long term), which doesn't include Wright and Bedard (who I already would take over him). Differing people could quibble with the bottom of the list, but at best Suzuki is a fringe 1C, not a "legit 1C". As for the selfless leader part (does all caps make it more true?), I don't know what evidence we have of that outside of wishcasting. He doesn't wear a letter (and at age 22 it wouldn't be unheard of for him to do so) and he's not a vocal media presence, so how would we have any kind of idea of what kind of leader he actually is?

He is a total character player, that's what i meant by selfless leader, and no need for snark on the allcaps bud. YOu can just tell from the way he talks, the way his teammates talk about him, when you hear and read about his family, a total character guy and super mature for his age. Kind of maturity like Toews (Captain Serious) showed at the same young age.

List your 29, that would be an interesting debate.

You know his point per game production at his age compares to some pretty high end Cs, right? That's without even factoring in his really impressive playoff numbers - 16 in 22 during the run last year.

I think Suzuki will always have his naysayers, and my guess is he'll just quietly go about his business and prove them wrong.

By the way interesting 32 Thoughts podcast episodes where Friedman and Marek have been interviewing players - during the Doughty interview, they asked him the one player he was looking forward to playing against now that the divisions are back together. He said Suzuki, on the basis that he's intrigued how good a player he already is and what he can become.

[tweetdrivr]

Snark is ratay's milieu. He's a bit of an artist really.

[2014olympicgold]

It can be a slippery slope to justify a contract based off of 1 playoff run and someone's personality. However Bergevin has shown he rather bring in the right person than the better person.

[saucelife90]

Snark is ratay's milieu. He's a bit of an artist really.

[tweetdrivr]

I don't know what this means.

Edit: got it. Thanks!

[rataylor22]

McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Matthews, Barkov, Crosby, Malkin, Hintz, Scheifele, Aho, Backstrom, O'Reilly, Bergeron, Zibanejad, Eichel, Kopitar, Couturier, Tavares, Point, Barzal, Pettersson, Hughes, Hischier, Dach, Toews, which is 25. I personally would also include Lindholm, Couture, Eriksson Ek, and Cirelli. So you have him in the range of Hertl, Horvat, RNH, Kuznetsov, Larkin. Now in a couple years might he be better than some of those 25? I mean maybe, but he isn't right now.

[rataylor22]

https://theathletic.com/2878100/2021...ivan-provorov/

FWIW The Athletic also has him at 29. Different list, but at the end of the day he is a fringe 1C.

[Axeman33]

McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Matthews, Barkov, Crosby, Malkin, Hintz, Scheifele, Aho, Backstrom, O'Reilly, Bergeron, Zibanejad, Eichel, Kopitar, Couturier, Tavares, Point, Barzal, Pettersson, Hughes, Hischier, Dach, Toews, which is 25. I personally would also include Lindholm, Couture, Eriksson Ek, and Cirelli. So you have him in the range of Hertl, Horvat, RNH, Kuznetsov, Larkin. Now in a couple years might he be better than some of those 25? I mean maybe, but he isn't right now.

This is why I mentioned Hischier earlier as a comparable. Most consider Hischier as a solid 2C, which I am fine with; most dont consider Hischier 1C. Suzuki's overall stats today lines up almost perfectly when comparing overall numbers (career ppg, ATOI, PPTOI, SHTOI, PPP, shp) with Hischier.

Suzuki is a 1C based on necessity in MTL, not on overall performance. Thats just my opinion, and clearly I am not alone in that thinking. Now could he eventually surpass some of the names rataylor listed above, possibly, but I will be surprised if it happens in the next few years.

[Feenom]

Question for you and Feenom. Have you guys watched lots of Suzuki, especially in the playoffs?

Of course, I mean what else was going on? The Habs were playing great (although got a bit weee lucky) and Suzuki played well with Caufield. I hope for Habs fans and ultimately the Habs organization that he lives up to his contract. 3 years from now maybe I'll be saying it was a great contract for the Habs or maybe not. Right now it is a great contract for Suzuki.

[Invictus]

As for the selfless leader part (does all caps make it more true?), I don't know what evidence we have of that outside of wishcasting. He doesn't wear a letter (and at age 22 it wouldn't be unheard of for him to do so) and he's not a vocal media presence, so how would we have any kind of idea of what kind of leader he actually is?

He's done hour long interviews. He's like a Carey Price type leader.

[2014olympicgold]

He's done hour long interviews. He's like a Carey Price type leader.

Or he likes to talk lol.