i don't care where the lists out there have him... there is no way he's available for us to pick unless we move up, and i'm perfectly ok with making that move to get him
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The thing I like about Tij is that he has so many different tools at his disposal to beat a goalie. With some goal scorers, you can watch their highlights and the majority of the goals look the same, but he has a lot of variation.
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i don't care where the lists out there have him... there is no way he's available for us to pick unless we move up, and i'm perfectly ok with making that move to get him
I think that's your desire for the player and the fear of missing out on him talking. In reality there is a pretty good chance he is still there at 9. And if he isn't that's fine, there are great players available. I totally disagree about spending assets to move up to try and get him, I would be very disappointed if we did that. This team can't afford to be throwing away assets.
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The thing I like about Tij is that he has so many different tools at his disposal to beat a goalie. With some goal scorers, you can watch their highlights and the majority of the goals look the same, but he has a lot of variation.
His underlying skill, compete and micro habits are exceptional. At worst he is Blake Coleman... An excellent 9th pick. At best he is... Well, you know.
Well, worst-case is obviously bust. Best-case is HHOF like his Dad. The reality is somewhere in between. I think getting a Blake Coleman-type at #9 would be disappinting. In a mid scenario, where does he land? Is he a 60 point per year player? 70? Less?
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Well, worst-case is obviously bust. Best-case is HHOF like his Dad. The reality is somewhere in between. I think getting a Blake Coleman-type at #9 would be disappinting. In a mid scenario, where does he land? Is he a 60 point per year player? 70? Less?
Tij looks like a goal scorer, like his dad. A 60 point and 30 goal physical power forward at #9 would be a huge pickup.
I have him ranked higher than 9th not because of his name, but because I see a fairly high ceiling, but also among the least likely to bust.
He has a wide-array of tools at his disposal, and he has the toolbox too. What are his weaknesses? I don't really see any. He is such a well-rounded player in all areas. There are no worries about health or injury worries, there are no character issues to worry about, there are no glaring weaknesses that makes you wonder if it will translate or not. He has literally everything you want without any of the drawbacks.
I have no idea how 'elite' he becomes in the NHL, and I am not even saying that he is any more guaranteed to become elite than any of the other top-ranked prospects. What I am saying is that this kid is much more likely to develop into a core piece for a team than to bust. That's why I pick him over most other names, even accounting for positional value. Lots of the available centres have question marks (like injury risk, or how their production translates, or even if they end up as centres anyway). A lot of the defencemen have question marks on something or other as well.
I don't know where exactly I have Tij listed, but is somewhere in the top 5 for me. I doubt he is there at 9, but I sure hope he is. I see a can't miss prospect to be a driving part of the core. I think it is going to have to be a crapshoot at the draft though. He may still be at 9. Other GMs might be wanting to pick a defencemen or someone else, but feel comfortable drafting down - they might play the 'we like Iginla' card at Conroy, trying to get him to bite and move up, or pay more than he should in order to move up.
This seems like a bit of a bizarre draft in terms of tiers and rankings this year. There will probably be a bit more clarity after the combine, but these kids this year have a lot of variability, and depending on what you are looking for, lists can drastically change. Silayev might be the 2nd name called at the draft, or he might not be called until 10 other names are called. A 6'5" centre that has a fantastic shot, very impressive speed and a mean streak might fall out of the top 10 (though I doubt it).
Walking out of that draft with Iginla at 9 would be great for this organization in many ways, but first and foremost it would be adding a solid core-piece moving forward.
Also, I disagree with the notion of 'building around a player'. You don't build around a player. You build a core with that player. Drafting Iginla doesn't mean that you are building around him, implying that he is your best player and all future moves are to be in support of him. You assemble the best core you can, period. My hope if you draft Iginla is that the next draft you add an even better core piece, and the next draft I will hope for an even better core piece than the previous. Hopefully at all different positions too.
Flames didn't win a championship (though it was in) with Iginla because he was a winger rather than a centre. They just didn't build a good enough core, even though they at one point or another had that core (Iginla, Regehr, Giguere (though Kipper is better), plus Savard and St. Louis).
This past rebuild, this team wasted too many years on poor coaching and didn't draft enough top-end talent. Gaudreau wasn't a problem. Neither was Tkachuk. The team just didn't have enough good players, period, especially at centre. You aren't going to leave Tkachuk on the board in the 2016 draft, in order to select the next centre taken which was Jost.
This is why you go BPA, irrespective of position. Tie-breakers go to positional value (or, at this point, you consider organizational need if you are full of centres or D). Then (in Tij's case) you look at emotional value (or whatever you want to call it) by having the Iginla name reattached to the Flames.
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Also, the more I watch him, the more I see him fitting into the modern version of a power forward. Much less about fighting and hitting, and more about just playing with power. Using his body for puck protection and separation, carrying the puck to the net, reverse hits on guys coming at him when he has the puck...
I would argue that while Jarome fit (and somewhat defined) the power forward role of the 2000s-2010s, Tij very much fits the power forward role of the 2020s.
Jarome was of the Cam Neely variety of PF.
Tij looks a lot like the Matthew Tkachuk variety of PF.
(Note that being an agitator is not a property of being a power forward, that's just a personality thing. I'm not comparing Tij to Chucky the player/person, I'm just using Chucky as the example of a modern power forward. Being an agitator is a trait that any player can bring to any role, but a power forward is just a role.)
