Well... here we are at the All-star break (almost), and Matthew Tkachuk is 6th overall in points, with 25 goals, 41 assists and 66 points in 49 games. The next closest to him in Florida is Barkov with 47 points and then Verhaeghe and Montour with 43 points each.
The guy who would be "useless without Gadureau pumping up his stats" is scoring goals in 51% of his games, while averaging 0.84 assists and 1.35 points per game. He's on pace for 42 goals, 69 assists and 111 points - which is even better than last season. He just turned 25 last month, and is in the first year of an 8 year contract at 9.5M per year.
Yes, as someone here keeps reminding us, Florida is possibly going to miss the playoffs... but this isn't basketball is it? One player can't win a team a Stanley Cup (just ask Jarome and/or Kipper), so I don't see how Florida not making the playoffs is going to be Tkachuk's fault. If anything, I see this as Bill Zito recognizing very early that his roster wasn't built for the playoffs, and choosing to retool now vs re-signing two players that were part of the "not built for the playoffs" group.
Matthew Tkachuk is a 100pt superstar in this league, and while he didn't do much for us in his early playoff games, his 10 points in 12 games last season show (as with a lot of young players) that he's starting to figure that out as well. People forget that one of his big attractions as a draft candidate was his play in big games and in the playoffs. He was the captain of the London Knights and scored both the opening goal and the OT winner in the Memorial Cup final to win it all before going into the draft.
I mean, look at his playoffs stat line that season: 18GP 20G 20A 40P 42PIM +23. 40 points in 18 games in the playoffs as the Captain of his team, ending with the OT winner in the final game. There is no doubt in my mind that he's going to become just as dangerous in the NHL playoffs once his comfort level gets there.
Just remember that even Iginla wasn't Iginla until he became Iginla. Some players, like Crosby and McDavid, just hit the ice flying and put up points from day one. Others, like Iggy and Tkachuk, need time to grow into their skates a bit before they realize how good they really are.
Johnny was entertaining and fun and obviously very very good in his own right, but losing Matthew Tkachuk is the one that really hurts. You don't get to draft a player like that very often, and you get to trade for them even less often. He should have been our Captain and the guy we should have started to (re)build this team around going into this season.
Anyway, I know there's a few people here that are going to have fun tearing this post apart... but I'm not an idiot, and neither are all the media who commented on how good Tkachuk is when the trade went down.
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