What is the most important position in hockey? There’s a strong case it’s centre. More often than not, if a team possesses one or two high-end centres on their roster, they’re going to be a competitive team. History backs up this claim as well, offering a glimpse into how much elite centres translate to success in the NHL. If you don’t have one, the odds are stacked against you when it comes to winning.
A history of mediocrity at centre
It’s no secret the Calgary Flames have lacked success over the past 25 years since the turn of the century. It’s also not a secret the team has failed to find a truly elite number-one centre since Joe Nieuwedyk was traded all the way back in 1995.
Coincidence? Probably not.
The Flames have tried an exhausting list of names as their number-one centre over the years, with only one or two hits. Apart from a couple of superb outlier seasons, the Flames really haven’t had consistently elite centre play in 30 years. Take a look at the 10 best seasons by a Flames centre since 2000.
*Elias Lindholm’s 2018–19 season was excluded as he played right wing that season.
| Season | Player | Points | P/GP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018–19 | Sean Monahan | 82 | 1.05 |
| 2021–22 | Elias Lindholm | 82 | 1.00 |
| 2006–07 | Daymond Langkow | 77 | 0.95 |
| 2023–24 | Nazem Kadri | 75 | 0.91 |
| 2001–02 | Craig Conroy | 75 | 0.93 |
| 2007–08 | Daymond Langkow | 65 | 0.81 |
| 2000–01 | Marc Savard | 65 | 0.84 |
| 2017–18 | Sean Monahan | 64 | 0.86 |
| 2022–23 | Elias Lindholm | 64 | 0.80 |
| 2015–16 | Sean Monahan | 63 | 0.78 |
Since 2000, the Flames have had just two point-per-game seasons at centre, and none over 82 points. Sean Monahan’s 82 points in 2018–19 and Elias Lindholm’s 82 in 2021–22 are the only two occurrences, both coming in the last six years.
In fact, if we go even further back, the last time a Flames centre averaged a point per game before Monahan’s 2018–19 season would be Robert Reichel’s 93 points in 1993–94. That’s a shocking 24 years without a single point-per-game season from a centre.
No true success at finding an elite centre
The problem with Monahan and Lindholm’s seasons is they were outliers for both players too. Both players’ next highest point total while playing centre in Calgary was just 64 points. In other words, both were average to good number-one centres outside of their career years, but you’d be hard-pressed to call either an elite centre considering their lack of production in every other season. That’s not to say 64 points is not impressive, but it’s a far cry from elite territory.
It’s also quite telling that the third-best season by a Flames centre in the 21st century belongs to Daymond Langkow. Langkow hasn’t played a game for the Flames since 2010. Craig Conroy owns the fifth-best season by a Flames centre and he’s been retired since 2011 and is now the team’s current general manager.
They’ve also had just one single centre post 40 goals since 2000, Monahan in 2018–19, and not a single centre post at least 50 assists in a season. The last time a Flames centre hit 50 assists in a season would once again be Reichel in 1993–94. For context, there have been 59 instances of a 40-goal season by a centre since 2000, and the Flames have just one of those.
Since Reichel’s 1993–94 season, there have been 275 instances where a centre posted 50 assists in a season, and the Flames have failed to do it a single time. A shocking number considering the Flames employed winger Jarome Iginla who scored the most goals in the entire NHL between 2000 and 2013.
Elite centre production around the NHL since 2000
So the Flames have only had two point-per-game centres since the turn of the century, how about the rest of the NHL? Let’s just say it’s not the norm and the Flames are lagging well behind a number of teams when it comes to production at the centre position.
*Bolded teams have won a Stanley Cup since 2000.
| Team | P/GP seasons by a centre (since 2000) |
|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 27 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 14 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 14 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 14 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 11 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 11 |
| Dallas Stars | 9 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 9 |
| Boston Bruins | 7 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 7 |
| Washington Capitals | 7 |
| Florida Panthers | 6 |
| Ottawa Senators | 6 |
| Winnipeg Jets/Atlanta Thrashers | 6 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 5 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 5 |
| New Jersey Devils | 5 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 5 |
| San Jose Sharks | 5 |
| New York Islanders | 4 |
| New York Rangers | 4 |
| St. Louis Blues | 4 |
| L.A. Kings | 2 |
| Calgary Flames | 2 |
| Nashville Predators | 1 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 0 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 0 |
| Minnesota Wild | 0 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 0 |
| Utah HC/Arizona Coyotes | 0 |
All said, the Flames rank tied at 23rd out of 30 in the NHL for point-per-game seasons by a centre since 2000. The teams behind them aren’t too surprising. Columbus, Montreal, Minnesota, Arizona/Utah, and Nashville have all struggled to land elite centres just like the Flames. It is worth mentioning that the Blue Jackets have Adam Fantilli and Cayden Lindstrom in their system, Utah has Logan Cooley, Montreal has Nick Suzuki, and Minnesota has Marco Rossi.
The Flames don’t have any centres with the talent level of those centres for the future. To no surprise though, all of those teams have also failed to win anything over the past 24 years, with 188 playoff wins between all five teams over 24 years and only two Finals appearances combined.
An outlier team in Chicago
There is however one major outlier worth mentioning. Shockingly, despite being arguably the most successful team of the 2000s, the Chicago Blackhawks have not had a single point per game season from a centre. This is however an extremely rare case and comes with some major caveats.
One, for most of the 2000s the Blackhawks deployed Jonathan Toews as their number one centre. Toews was never a huge point producer, but he was considered an elite top-10 centre for multiple years due to his strong two-way play. He also came extremely close twice, with 0.99 and 0.97 point-per-game seasons. He was also drafted third overall and had an elite tag beside him from day one.
As well, the Blackhawks now have Conor Bedard, who already has one 0.9 point-per-game season under his belt at 19 years old and will no doubt rack up point-per-game seasons over the next decade and beyond. In other words, the Blackhawks are a major outlier on this list and certainly not a sign that you don’t need elite centres to win. Four of the top five teams have won a Stanley Cup since 2000, with Pittsburgh, Detroit and Tampa Bay all having won multiple Stanley Cups.
Case in point, let’s review who each Stanley Cup winner since the lockout has employed at centre.
Stanley Cup Winners need elite centres
So when a team wins the Stanley Cup, do they typically employ an elite number centre at the top of their lineup? In short, yes.
| Team | Noteworthy centres |
|---|---|
| Florida Panthers | Aleksander Barkov |
| Vegas Golden Knights | Jack Eichel |
| Colorado Avalanche | Nathan Mackinnon + Nazem Kadri |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Brayden Point + Steven Stamkos |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Brayden Point + Steven Stamkos |
| St. Louis Blues | Ryan O’Reilly |
| Washington Capitals | Nicklas Backstrom + Evgeny Kuznetsov |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Sidney Crosby + Evgeni Malkin |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Sidney Crosby + Evgeni Malkin |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Jonathan Toews |
| L.A. Kings | Anze Kopitar + Jeff Carter |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Jonathan Toews |
| L.A. Kings | Anze Kopitar |
| Boston Bruins | Patrice Bergeron |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Jonathan Toews |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Sidney Crosby + Evgeni Malkin |
| Detroit Red Wings | Pavel Datsyuk + Henrik Zetterberg |
| Anaheim Ducks | Ryan Getzlaf |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Eric Staal + Corey Stillman |
Just look at that list of players. If you want to win a Stanley Cup, you absolutely need to employ an elite point-per-game centre down the middle. Dating all the way back to the 2004–05 lockout, every single Stanley Cup winner has had a prominent game-changer down the middle, in many cases they’ve had two.
The only outlier here would be the 2005–06 Anaheim Ducks who didn’t have a point per game centre. With that said, they had a 20-year-old Ryan Getzlaf who was on the verge of stardom and posted 82 points the very next season. The Flames don’t have anyone close to that right now.
Cup winners typically dominate at centre
It’s also worth noting that of the 19 previous Stanley Cup winners, 15 of them had a top 11 draft pick lining up as their top centre. The only exceptions are Getzlaf who was drafted 19th overall, Datsyuk who was drafted 171st overall, Patrice Bergeron who was picked 45th overall, and Ryan O’Reilly who was picked 33rd.
So if you aren’t going to be picking high up in the draft, you need to hit an absolute homerun later in the draft which is a complete crapshoot. For every Bergeron or Getzlaf, there are 100 other centres picked in the same range that never hit. Trying to luck out at the draft in order to increase your roster’s talent just isn’t a smart choice to win.
Elite centres are the path to victory
Whether it’s the current standings or historical results, every sign points towards just how important elite first line centres are. If you’ve got one, there’s a good chance you’re a contender; if you don’t have one, you’re going to be in tough when it comes to contending and going on deep playoff runs.
If the Flames want to get out of mediocrity and become a real contender in the NHL, they need to bring in some elite talent at centre however they can. Otherwise, we may be in for more of the same over the next decade.
