Everyone in here hating on Abby, Holmer, McCarty and such. It's safe to say we as fans dont evaluate some of the peripheral top 2 lines guys the way management does... Abby and McCarty are for sure heart and soul guys on their teams, just look how the rest of the team lights up when they score a goal, also abby was a captain for some US international team so it's not just Detroit management that sees it.
On the other hand guys like Holmer and Cleary got rewarded with contracts until they were like 90 because they did a job no one else wanted and a job guys like pav and Z couldn't have done.
I'm not saying it always made sense to me but the fact that it was consistent lends itself toward there being a method to the madness.
Also I know it's been mentioned but the old NHL for sure favored size. Everyone seemingly had a Tkachuk or Lapointe on their top lines.
