[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

How do you figure?

Laine is established as probably the best pure goal scorer in the group, other than, arguably, Matthews. In his first two seasons he's scored at a 41 and 44 goal pace respectively. If not for his recent slump he's probably up there near the top tier at the 11+M price point, if slightly below it on account of being a winger. Even with that slump he's still on pace for 39, but will mostly be paid based on his body of work over 3 years rather than this season.

Goal-scoring is the only thing that Laine does better than Tkachuk. He is already one of the best in the League, but doesn't really do much else anywhere close to the same level. A counter argument could be made that where Laine looks like he could be levelling out after exploding into the NHL, Tkachuk continues to get better and better. Tkachuk presently has scored one-less goal than Laine this season, and he leads him by 22 points.

Point scored 30+ goals and 60+ points last year despite starting the year as a depth player and ultimately supplanting Johnson.

Tkachuk would most likely have gotten close to those numbers last year had he played the full season.

Now he's the best non-Kucherov player on the best offensive team in the league, and is on pace for 49 goals and 104 points. The only thing holding him back from 10+M (probably) is that he didn't have the pedigree of the top guys coming out of junior, which for some reason still matters.

Tkachuk has had two seasons scoring at a 52 and 59 point pace, and is now on pace for 37 goals and 88 points. He doesn't have the track record of production that either of the two guys above have, nor is he on pace to be a top 10 scorer (goals or points) in the NHL this year like Point. At the start of the year, I'd have put him below guys like Connor and Boeser, who both had 30 goal seasons coming in. Obviously this season has elevated Tkachuk above those guys, which is saying a lot, because they're still good... but he can't jump up with the elite just based on one season's performance.

Which is why I hedged on Point—I said "possibly," and because Point is a really good player. I will say, though, that as good as Point is, Tkachuk is almost two-years younger, and could have more room to grow. He was not far off from Point's production last year, all the while playing predominantly on the second line. Why could he not continue to take steps closer now and in the future?