Increased Scoring

For me this is a 'it depends' answer. Some 30+ goal guys also have toys and the defensive ratings, so they're worth more than others, at least in the current year. For future years, it depends on my goals moving forward (ie, trying to compete vs knowing I won't be able to) and just want youth or good players to fill out my roster regardless of toys, or goals for that matter.

But an example of me holding off on making an offer was Scheifele. Theoretically since my team really could use another GOOD centre, I should have offered something, but by the time I considered making a good offer, he'd already been swapped. If he had a higher D rating, I would have likely jumped on it a lot sooner.

Also - a 15 goal guy has sometimes an incredibly good card for what the player is, and I find I don't even want to bother going after a theoretically better player due to the acquisition cost.

So I do think the top end players that don't have the higher D/toys on their card do get marginalized because at a certain point, there is 'enough' scoring on the card to make up for the higher shot numbers when they are better with higher D and toys.