I want to say of course that I appreciate your effort. Obviously, any list of 200 people is going to be wildly inaccurate. However, it is a fun exercise, and I enjoy reading it.
I think fans struggle greatly to understand the value of a player like Tkachuk because obviously they only look for the things that are most immediately apparent. And I don't want to seem above that, I certainly do that as well. What makes Tkachuk so good? He rarely handles the puck. All the goals he makes are kinda easy, just stands in front of the net mostly and deflects stuff or snipes stuff from up close. He's not fast. He's not doing all these dangles left and right. He's not really a long distance sniper. I wouldn't say he's particularly athletic. People love to use the word offensive potential. He doesn't have the tools, it seems, therefore he doesn't have the offensive potential.
Recently the USHL top prospects game was played, and the corresponding combine. Martin Pospisil, pre-season B-list draft prospect finished top 5 in skating forward, with the puck, skating backwards I believe as well, he got the third highest combine score. Incredible skater, one of the fastest guys. When I watched him earlier in the season in the USHL, I said he looked slow and I said that because he did. His production has picked up as he's adjusted to NA hockey, but he started the season with something like 4 points in 20 games. He's just one example of many individuals. Most the kids who come from Europe don't struggle with the skills, in fact they're often some of the best in terms of skills. They don't struggle because they don't skate fast enough or stickhandle well enough or shoot hard enough. The ones who struggle, often struggle because they don't think the game fast enough. That's why, outside of a handful of exception, players who have played senior level hockey in Europe outperform players that haven't by a strong margin. They're accustomed to having to think the game at a high level.
Brady Tkachuk thinks the game at a high level. At the higher levels of hockey, you have to make decisions under extreme pressure, often physical, and with extremely limited time, often instantaneously. You have to make decisions with limited knowledge, often from precarious positions, and you have to make correct decisions. Tkachuk makes correct decisions at a relatively high frequency, and not only that he makes them look common sense. When you watch him, every good decision he does people think "Well that's the obvious correct choice. His teammate was right there. The puck was right there. He was just in the right place at the right time." But the reality is, in the same situation most other athletes won't be standing in the right place. They won't pass to the right guy. They'll shoot when they should pass, pass when they should shoot, try to make a move when they should find an outlet, look for an outlet when they should just make a move. Tkachuk makes making the right decision look easy.
And I'm not saying he never makes incorrect decisions, or other elite prospects make poor decisions with great frequency. However, when someone keeps getting lucky over and over again it's probably because they're not just getting lucky. People, myself included, love athletes who are active with their skates, so much so that we discount or disregard players who are active with their minds instead.
. I agree though, thanks for the continued support.
