LW Luke Tuch - Boston University, NCAA (2020, 47th, MTL)

[montreal]

 

[yianik]

For those who watch him a lot , how is his skating ? He looks able to keep up, but not an asset ?

 

[Favin]

For those who watch him a lot , how is his skating ? He looks able to keep up, but not an asset ?

Looks fine to me. He has been good in close to the net.

 

[montreal]

For those who watch him a lot , how is his skating ? He looks able to keep up, but not an asset ?

needs some work but i'd say it's maybe above average.

 

[yianik]

needs some work but i'd say it's maybe above average.

Could he keep up in the NHL ? Would he be average in the NHL ?

 

[montreal]

Could he keep up in the NHL ? Would he be average in the NHL ?

we'll see how much he progresses over the next few years

 

[Favin]

Could he keep up in the NHL ? Would he be average in the NHL ?

Skating ability or speed? No issue with skating ability. Hard to make comparisons on speed. I think he will be fine.

 

[HOPE]

we'll see how much he progresses over the next few years

good news is with the depth we have we can take our time BIG time.

 

[montreal]

Skating ability or speed? No issue with skating ability. Hard to make comparisons on speed. I think he will be fine.

skating

 

[montreal]

 

[montreal]

 

[montreal]

not the best game from him or BU, not that he played bad, just wasn't overly involved.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I have to credit him for the season he’s having. I thought 2nd round was ridiculous for a player of his ability, but he’s having a good season. He’s proving me wrong. I guess I still doubt the upside. He’s scoring goals and putting up points, but does he have second line winger upside? I’m not sure, but evidently they saw scoring upside when drafting him second round and he’s doing well so far.

 

[montreal]

nothing much going on but thought some that don't get to see him much would like to see some shifts. There's some shots on goal, a boarding penalty, a goal against.

 

[montreal]

 

[robert ethan]

Brady Tkachuk didn't score his first goal as a HE Freshman until his 14th game, Tuch has 6. Also Luke is listed at 6-3, 207, by BU. Brady was listed at 6-3, 197, the year he played for them, although he would have been a few months younger at that stage.

 

[HOPE]

I have to credit him for the season he’s having. I thought 2nd round was ridiculous for a player of his ability, but he’s having a good season. He’s proving me wrong. I guess I still doubt the upside. He’s scoring goals and putting up points, but does he have second line winger upside? I’m not sure, but evidently they saw scoring upside when drafting him second round and he’s doing well so far.

I'd realy like to be wrong here but also realy doubt Tuch has top 6 upside. I don't think Montreal thought that either that's why i don't see your second round point. The 2nd rounds that ends up top 6 players are usually the boom are bust prospect who either have huge holes in their game or are undersize and still adjusting. Montreal went safe with an effective role bottom 6/top 9 forward with size and a scoring touch, of course being an NHLer even in a poorer role is nothing certain.

 

[Favster]

Brady Tkachuk didn't score his first goal as a HE Freshman until his 14th game, Tuch has 6. Also Luke is listed at 6-3, 207, by BU. Brady was listed at 6-3, 197, the year he played for them, although he would have been a few months younger at that stage.

This is why only using stats is wrong when evaluating prospects. Tkachuk has extremely soft hands for a big man, Tuch does not. I still really like the Tuch pick though.

 

[robert ethan]

This is why only using stats is wrong when evaluating prospects. Tkachuk has extremely soft hands for a big man, Tuch does not. I still really like the Tuch pick though.

Tuch has the second most goals so far for BU. Two less than Jay O'Brian who is a 21 year old first round draft pick from a couple years back. Last season Luke was top goal scorer for the U18 team in the USHL. Don't know about his hands, but he finds ways to score. He has more goals through his first 14 games than players like Zegras, Farabee, Newhook, and Boldy among others, managed in the same conference recently.

 

[robert ethan]

I'd realy like to be wrong here but also realy doubt Tuch has top 6 upside. I don't think Montreal thought that either that's why i don't see your second round point. The 2nd rounds that ends up top 6 players are usually the boom are bust prospect who either have huge holes in their game or are undersize and still adjusting. Montreal went safe with an effective role bottom 6/top 9 forward with size and a scoring touch, of course being an NHLer even in a poorer role is nothing certain.

Habs top goal scorers, currently, are Toffoli (2nd round), Anderson (4th), and Gallagher (6th?). They don't score pretty goals as a rule, mostly grind out garbage from just outside the crease. I think Tuch could be that type of forward. He's going to be the size of his brother once he finishes growing, and plays a grittier game.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I'd realy like to be wrong here but also realy doubt Tuch has top 6 upside. I don't think Montreal thought that either that's why i don't see your second round point. The 2nd rounds that ends up top 6 players are usually the boom are bust prospect who either have huge holes in their game or are undersize and still adjusting. Montreal went safe with an effective role bottom 6/top 9 forward with size and a scoring touch, of course being an NHLer even in a poorer role is nothing certain.

I think the difference between picks 15-45 is never that big. And this was supposed to be a deeper draft, so you could say that might end to 47OA. I think at 47 you are still attempting to draft a player that you believe has upside to be in the top half of the league among NHL players. At 47 you are probably still picking players you gave a first round grade. But you aren't wrong that Tuch's game is pretty safe and he'll probably make a lot of money playing hockey.

I guess I'm still not sure though that he'll do that playing in the NHL. We can say that he has good size, works hard, can score some goals. However, that usually isn't enough to stick long-term in the NHL. Even bottom 6 players usually need to have great speed, be great on face-offs, be able to play up and down the lineup, be great on the PK to be more than a player whose in and out of the lineup for a few seasons before making the rest of their money elsewhere. Tuch still feels like a player that'll get himself to the NHL because he's good enough for that with some of the things I mentioned, and then he plays about 75-100 games of being ineffective at the NHL level before leveling out somewhere in Europe.

But maybe I'm wrong. He's having a season that I didn't think he'd have right away.

 

[GammaAway]

Tuch still feels like a player that'll get himself to the NHL because he's good enough for that with some of the things I mentioned, and then he plays about 75-100 games of being ineffective at the NHL level before leveling out somewhere in Europe.

But maybe I'm wrong. He's having a season that I didn't think he'd have right away.

I think he'll have a longer career than that, I have him getting closer to a Nicolas Deslauriers/Shawn Matthias type of career where he ends up playing 400+ games for 3-4 teams over 8-9 seasons but rarely more than 70% of a season and only around 0.2-0.3 ppg.

 

[supsens]

Brady Tkachuk didn't score his first goal as a HE Freshman until his 14th game, Tuch has 6. Also Luke is listed at 6-3, 207, by BU. Brady was listed at 6-3, 197, the year he played for them, although he would have been a few months younger at that stage.

To be fair Brady did that before being drafted and scored 22 goals in the NHL as a 19 year old

 

[robert ethan]

To be fair Brady did that before being drafted and scored 22 goals in the NHL as a 19 year old

Tkachuk would have been 6 months younger as a Freshman at BU. Not a huge difference. Both players came off 2 seasons with the NDTP.

 

[Gopher13]

Tuch plays the pro game and will be a great 2nd or 3rd line player and one of those guys that has a 15 year career in the NHL. Reminds me a bit of Charlie Coyle. Just a big solid NHL player.