Speaking of thwarting stupid comments......
@Notsince67
Since you seem to think Tkachuk was a reach at 6th overall, just want to provide you some stats.....
As previously mentioned (which you naturally ignored), the last player drafted 6th overall to outscore Tkachuk in his first 2 NHL seasons was Peter Forsberg in his D+5 & D+6 seasons. The last (and only) player to be drafted 6th overall and outproduce Tkachuk in his D+1 and D+2 seasons was Don Murdoch, who was drafted in 1976
trashing Tkachuk isn't bright for sure - in a redraft I think he either stays at 6th or moves up to 5th: Matthews, Laine, I think there's a case that Columbus stays PLD because of the need for a center, Sergachev, Keller, Tkachuk. But I think Tkachuck has shown more than PLD in the NHL so far, so on results I'd say that he moves up a spot and I don't see an argument for him moving down
Similarly with Nylander, I think he would go 5th or 6th in a re-draft: Ekblad, Draisatl, Point, Pastrnak, Ehlers/Nylander interchangeable
Tkachuk started a year younger than Nylander so I think that Tkachuk's 2nd and Nylanders 1st full years are what should be compared, and they're very similar - both very productive possession players with Tkachuk being more-so, both with 60pt seasons (I'll give Tkachuk credit for being able to maintain that pace for another 14 games), both played better than their boxscore totals would indicate because they had low OIsh%'s for guys playing with really good linemates with Nylander being more unlucky. Tkachuk averaged about 40 seconds more PP time per game than Nylander at the same age, and is 6 months younger in his birth year (2 drafts, late 1997 bday vs. mid 1996 bday)
Nylander was not as good in his 2nd full season than he was in his first, but was in the ballpark and development isn't linear so I don't think Tkachuk can be reliably projected to be better than he was last season in the coming one, but if he is then I think there's an objective case for Tkachuk>Nylander
for intangibles, Tkachuk has the grit aspect going for him and looks like a better possession player, Nylander might have the ability to move to center
personally I don't think these guys can be separated in value right now, and they might both fit better with the team they're on. Nylander is a playmaker that plays with a guy who's really good at scoring from inside the home plate area in Matthews and Nylander is really good at clean zone entries & making space for himself along the RW boards to look for Matthews in the middle. Tkachuk I think plays more of the Matthews role on his line, being the one who will receive those passes in the home plate area
if someone has an objective way to say one is better than the other, they're better at this than I am. For every item that counts in the favour of one guy, there seems to be another item that goes the other way
calling either one overrated or implying that the other team doesn't want them is just silly, they're both 1st line forwards in their early 20's, every team wants both of these guys
