It’s jot an indictment on him. It how the game has changed. There’s far less of a premium in size than there is on skill. His big frame and skill set would have been super desirable at a time when teams were building towards the LA/Anaheim/Boston Bruins model of big bodies who bang you up. Now the league is far more into speed and skill and don’t mind a smaller player because of the attention hooking and obstruction gets now to open up the game. Reminds of when we came out of the lockout and Gainey assembled a small, skilled team that was competitive with the new rules only to have them revert back to their old ways of officiating.
Today’s game, a skilled sniper like Zadina or Svetchnikov has more premium than a big body like Tkachuk, at least to the ones who have the newer mindset. The old school thinkers want that physicality. Neither is wrong over time but the pendulum is definitely on one side over the other right now, though things have a way of changing in short order.
