Flames Top 25 Under 25: #4 - Sean Monahan

#4: Sean Monahan

Position: C

Age: 22

Team: Calgary Flames

Drafted: 2013 #6 (Round 1)

Last Year Rank: #2

Sean Monahan has been the definition of consistency since arriving on the scene in Calgary back in 2013-14. It has especially rung true in the last three seasons as Monahan has hovered right around 60 points. His faceoffs have also improved in every season since his rookie year, finishing at 51.4% in 2016-17.

Monahan did have a slow start in 2016-17, but picked it up halfway through the season to finish with similar numbers to what he’s had in his career thus far. Monahan then scored in each of the four playoff games against Anaheim and gave us another exciting glimpse about what’s ahead.

In an interview earlier this summer with Pat Steinberg of the Fan 960 Monahan said that he had one of his best summers of training camp and feels quicker on the ice. Some may say that it’s worrisome that Monahan hasn’t continually upped his point totals each season, but his quick jump to the NHL showed that he may have actually been somewhat ahead of schedule these last few years.

As we enter Monahan’s fifth season in the NHL, he could be poised for a big season as he was recently ranked the 20th best centre in the NHL right now. He’s always been a strong finisher and with Johnny feeding him the puck, he should continue to get plenty of scoring chances.

Monahan still leads his 2013 draft class in games played, points, and is a whopping 32 goals ahead of second place Nathan MacKinnon despite having only played 19 more games.

There’s a lot to like about Sean Monahan and while he may not fully possess the flash of some other players, what he does have is consistency and that’s so hard to find in the NHL especially at his age.