I highly doubt he's at 8.5% body fat at 216 and if he actually is, it's stupid to want him to lose more weight, unless he's dropping muscle. That would be like asking Hornqvist to lose weight so he could get faster. There's very little fat left to lose. Hell, you'd need 5-6% at the very minimum to be able to perform well as an athlete.
I don't trust any article or even team stats about a player's weight or even height, they've shown time and time again that even measuring height is too complicated for them or they just flat out lie about it. Body fat % is even more difficult to tell. 8.5% would be pretty damn shredded, especially at 216 lbs which means he'd have to be carrying around significant muscle mass so he'd look even more shredded. Nobody would look at somebody like that and say "You need to drop the weight, fatty! We need more veins!"
Yeah, with the rigors of the NHL, it's almost better that these guys carry a bit of weight towards the beginning of the season as a couple pounds won't make that much of a difference in speed. I remember an article regarding Sid and how much weight he loses by the end of the season because his body is basically munching on pure muscle by time it's all said and done.
I have always said, Phil has something right in not being this chiseled athlete. Have good endurance, but maybe carry a few more pounds than necessary. These guys get way too obsessed with being ripped up, but when the season gets going and they start losing mass that is when they are risking injury.
I think the height inaccuracies probably originate from when a player is just a prospect and an inch or two difference can have a pretty significant impact on how they’re rated, where they’re drafted, and subsequently their earning potential. I generally trust what comes out of the combine because it’s a neutral source but they’re churning through so many players it’d be easy for mistakes to happen, and I also wouldn’t put it past a player (and their agent/parents) to put lifts in their shoes or something like that because $$$.
I think the NHL is moving away from the height thing though - it still matters, but it's not the be all end all. I remember playing as a kid in the 90's and 00's and it was a foregone conclusion that if you weren't 6'0 you couldn't play past maybe some mid-level college. I was 5'11 217 and I was called small at a college tryout, so I think it's pretty safe that if I were called small, these guys good enough to go pro were scrutinized even more.
Jake kind of crushed the size thing for me. Build is so much more important and Jake is small, but the better word is probably compact. He doesn't get muscled around. He can throw checks. He has been healthy. Jake probably wouldn't have even got a shot in the old NHL.
