Something I've been wondering is why Tanus has never been drafted. To me he always looks better than numerous high draft picks, and his individual skill and hockey IQ are amongst the highest on the team.
Then there's guys like Saarela who's never impressed me at all and who's always made me wonder why he's so highly touted.
Have to definitely agree with you here. Saarela brothers are in general classic ”tools without toolbox” type of players, and Antti is even more so than Aleksi. In addition some overconfidece and entitlement type of attitude problems, and it’s pretty sure that no Saarela brother will be a good NHL level player ever.
I’m not sure though if Tanus will either become a good NHL player ever, because he is really that small and lacking with strength, and I’m not convinced that his skating (especially top speed) will ever be the level that is usually needed for a really small player to make it at the NHL level. I don’t mean that he is by any means a bad skater. On the contrary, I think he is a pretty good skater in general. But for such small sized players it’s usually important to be a pretty much exceptional skater to make it big in the NHL. Unfortunately I’m not confident if Tanus has the potential to develop his skating to that level.
Otherwise I definitely agree with you - he has very good skills in general and he seems to also be an extremely high level hockey IQ player, and as I think that is still by a huge margin the most important skill that defines if a player can really become a top class player at the top level, I think he could really have some chances of making it in the NHL, even if he will not manage to develop his skating to an exceptional level.
