Kevin Forbes
Registered User
Certainly not by me. Crosby was never the kind of player to float around in the neutral zone for two minutes waiting for the puck to squirt out past a pinching defenseman. Crosby went down to block shots and helped out his D deep in his own end. And when Crosby did gamble, he had the explosive acceleration to recover and get back into position.
That is why he was a markedly different junior player than Tavares IMO. And, incidentally, these are the same attributes that put Crosby on the World Junior team at 16 years old, and stopped Tavares from even coming close.
You are right, they are different players, but when it all comes down to it, at 16 years old, it is understandable for a player to have holes and faults in his game. Hell, at 18 it is understandable for a player to have holes and faults in his game. (I personally disagree with your assessment of Crosby's defensive game when he was younger, but that's irrelevant).
There's no doubt Tavares has a long way to go before he can contribute regularly at the NHL level and too often people see gaudy stats at junior and think the player in question is already prepared for the jump to the next level. That said, it is undeniable that Tavares has been stellar so far in his hockey career and he definitely has the makings of becoming a special player.
Writing him off at this point because of flaws you see in his playstyle seems a bit abrupt, especially if you begin to assume that these flaws you see aren't addressed in the next two years before he is drafted (or in the time that follows before he makes the NHL).