Corn Flake said:
Potvin29 said:
Clarkson has never put up a season of PPG like Roberts did in his season before joining the Leafs, or his first season with the Leafs. Roberts first 2 seasons in Toronto he had PPG's of .65 and .70. Clarkson's career best is .58 so far, and that wasn't even his lockout shortened season.
For Gary Roberts, these were seasons when he was 35 & 36 and were lower than when he was younger.
You think Clarkson is going to all of a sudden start producing more than that in his early 30s?
53 points in 69 games (his final year in Carolina) is not PPG.
Do I think Clarkson can meet or exceed Roberts' point record of 53 as a Leaf? Uh, yes. He also put up 29 goals with Mats Sundin as his centre to get there. Let's play it safe here and assume Clarkson didn't have a centre of that ilk to play with in NJ.
Clarkson suddenly started producing in his very late twenties. What's to say he won't get a little bit better? He really doesn't have far to go on the points side. The assumption he will suddenly decline because he is now 30 isn't really realistic. Clarkson was also on a team that produced the 3rd least goals per game in the league. Coming to the team that produced the 6th most isn't going to help his point totals? Yes. Yes it will.
Comparing talent.. Clarkson has more speed and better hands than Roberts did. That's all I meant. All the other intangibles are basically the same.
I never said his season in Carolina was point-per-game.
Well I'm safe in assuming Gary Roberts continued to put up points because of his skill in doing so as he had done his entire career beforehand, not simply because he had Mats Sundin in Toronto. Clarkson hasn't, and he won't have a centre the ilk of Mats Sundin in Toronto to help his stats anyways.
If Roberts, with a track record of putting up way more points than Clarkson, even at age 34-35, needed Mats Sundin to reach 50+ points with the Leafs, how do you figure Clarkson is going to meet or exceed that number without a player like Mats Sundin? There's no basis for thinking that, nothing in Clarkson's numbers to suggest it.
Clarkson has had two seasons where his PPG came somewhat near some of Roberts' worst seasons. Who said Clarkson was going to suddenly decline? We were debating whether or not he is as good as Gary Roberts was when he came to the Leafs. He doesn't need to decline to be not as good as Gary Roberts was, he has to improve to come close to as good.
As others have pointed out, maybe he was part of the reason they were offensively challenged. I don't know, I didn't watch all of their games (I know as a team they were unlucky, and didn't have Kovalchuk all season).
Maybe he does have better hands and speed, but all I care about is how he can produce, and he has never shown, and I don't expect he will now, that he can produce at the same level as Gary Roberts.
I'd be ecstatic if he did, though.