Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
You mean Taylor "Never Scored 30" Hall?
I think your perception of how good Hall is offensively is crippling your argument right now.
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Hall is 18th in PPG over the last 3 season among players with more than 50GP.
If Tkachuk was expected to score at that rate, with his physical attributes and pest game, he'd have gone in the top 3. I'm not saying he won't score like that, because a guy like Kyle Okposo (who is pretty much nothing special compared to the elite players imo) is at 17th.
I was trying to argue that Phillips ~= Tkachuk as hockey players today in a junior hockey game. After looking at it some more, I'm definitely wrong but it's not entirely far-fetched to say that. Then I went on a tangent about how I expect Tkachuk to do in the NHL after someone said 107 P in 57 GP are eye-popping #'s. They are, but they have less substance than they should, solely due to the situation Tkachuk was in this season. I know players can defy their junior #'s and outperform once they reach the NHL, but if I had to predict Tkachuk's future, I'd have him as a solid 1st liner (50-65 points) rather than superstar territory (70+ points, which his actual comparables have mostly hit, Stamkos, Spezza, Hall, Kessel, Tavares, etc.).
Tkachuk will likely underperform relative to his draft year stats, but he will still be a very good player.
And plus, if he's crap in the regular season, but goes full playoff monster every season, his contract will likely be cheaper than if he was a monster all year, and the Flames can reap the sweet playoff benefits.
