Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
Huberdeau = line 2 for the last two years.
Kyle Connor - lead WPG F's in TOI this year, but played mostly with Dubois and Svechnikov/Perfetti...and also killed penalties.
You have to make the same excuses/arguments in good faith across the board. Tkachuk gets a lot less TOI than most of these guys...but that's been true across three coaches, including the current HOFer...maybe it is actually just a fair criticism that you can't rely on Tkachuk to excel playing ~22 mins a night?
Tkachuk being Top 15 isn't an insult...sooner or later he'll hopefully improve his consistency (like the rest of the Flames) and climb the ranks as guys like Ovi and Kane inevitably decline. Pasta/KK/MM/Rantanen/Connor are all within a year or so of his age, though, and younger guys are always coming up.
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Huberdeau has been top 2 for forwards at EV TOI, if not THE top, every year of the last four. Whichever line he’s on is the top line.
And I’d argue he’s better than Kyle Connor anyway.
These aren’t excuses, they’re facts. You can’t compare something like linemates with something like some vague allusion to how coaches rely on him. If you’ve watched the games, you know exactly why he’s been on the second line. From coming up behind Gaudreau and clicking with Backlund, to the reliance on “pairs” within the forward group.
It’s not that it’s an insult for him to be top 15 (if anything, you seem to think it’s an insult to call him top 10, or why put up the fuss? Dom from the Athletic isn’t changing his mind cause you spit out one line of stars), it’s that there’s plenty of argument for him to be considered top 10.
You don’t see it, and that’s fine, but based on what you presented, that may be more due to your narrow view of a player than anything close to objective.