Tkachuk is thought of as a pretty sure fire 1st line winger. You heard it from Benning, from Chiarelli, from all the scouts who had him top 5 in a draft with a strong top end. I'm not sure we have anybody else in the system who can match his upside except Gillies. And Gillies being a goalie is much more of a question mark, much less of a sure thing. Wingers are probably the easiest position to project and thus Tkachuk is almost guaranteed to be an impact NHLer. Goalies are the hardest to project, take twice as long to develop and thus are more of a wildcard.
Once we had one of the best goalie prospects Trevor Kidd. Twice we selected another couple goalies in the 1st, Krahn and Irving. A couple years ago Ortio was one of our top prospects. Goalies are just so unpredictable that I think whenever close in rankings that the tie goes to the skater. Gillies hasn't proven much of anything in pro hockey yet. Yes he has a high upside but I think his chance of achieving it is lower than Tkachuk's. I'm a huge Gillies fan too.
What do people think Tkachuk would get in trade vs Gillies? Tkachuk gets you a top 10 pick IMO, I don't think Gillies would.
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