Wow... Some of the these posts are really hyping up Tavares.
He has a lot of things to work on in his game to get to these levels.
120 points???? WOW... Easily better than Joe Thornton?? WOW...
JT has to work on getting stronger and improving his skating/quickness to
get close to these levels. It is a long way to go... IMHO...
Tavares does have great hockey IQ and a great sense to be in the right
place but in order to be at the star level in the NHL he has to work
on his weaknesses. His glaring weakness is skating... Everyone knows this.
I can see Tavares getting 30 goals 30 assists this year.
His best year could be 50 goals 45 assists or so...
I can see Tavares being a consistent top 15-20 point producer
in the NHL which is not bad at all...
one thing I am not sure you know about JT is he is a very determined young man. He knows his weaknesses, his first year he just sat in the weeds and took everything in. i do recall a ton of chances he set up only to have guys whiff or basically not expect to get the puck. JT's playmaking skills are almost elite IMO as well.
I see Joe Sakic numbers one day. Sniper/playmaker mix with a ton of determination. Joe was not the greatest skater as well IMO. Used his edges like an art form to which hopefully JT can master. If so, guys like Okposo, el Nino, Moulsen, comeau, Bailey, Schremp, Kabanov and co better learn to be finishers or the Isles will bring in hired guns to play with JT. Very underrated in this department I feel and was quite shocked it was this good
the folks who studied his game in junior, did he set up plays all game or just pounced on chances and buried them, because JT was a magician just about all year with limited help
good thread