Joined: Mar. 2017
Posts: 24,028
Likes: 7,744
I'm not sure what everyone's freaking out about here, TBH. He's a very good young player but owes a lot to the fact that he plays primarily with Sebastian Aho, who is clearly the offensive driver on that line, and also the defensive anchor.
Last year: 55, 15-27-42 +1 - 67th in the NHL / 0.76 P/GP - 82nd in the NHL
Past 3: 205, 59-81-140 +10 - 77th in the NHL / 0.68 P/GP - 99th in the NHL
Hardly a world-beater. I get that he's young still and has lots of upside, but Brady Tkachuk has scored about as well without having the advantage of a superstar center. Here's a short list of all the players who have scored at similar rates or better in the 3 years after their draft:
2014
Draisaitl: 191, 50-87-137 0.72 P/GP
Pastrnak: 172, 59-64-123 0.72
Nylander: 103, 28-46-74 0.72
Ehlers: 154, 40-62-102 0.66
2015
McDavid: 209, 87-169-256 1.22 P/GP
Barzal: 84, 22-63-85 1.01
Eichel: 209, 73-104-177 0.85
Boeser: 71, 33-27-60 0.85
Marner: 159, 41-89-130 0.82
Rantanen: 165, 49-73-122 0.74
Aho: 160, 53-61-114 0.71
Connor: 96, 33-29-62 0.65
2016
Matthews: 212, 111-94-205 0.97 P/GP
Laine: 237, 110-74-184 0.78
Tkachuk: 224, 71-103-174 0.78
DeBrincat: 164, 69-59-128 0.78
Keller: 167, 37-77-114 0.68
Dubois: 164, 47-62-109 0.66
2017
Pettersson: 139, 55-77-132 0.95 P/GP
Makar: 57, 12-38-50 0.88
Hischier: 209, 51-84-135 0.65
2018
Hughes: 129, 11-86-97 0.75 P/GP
Svechnikov: 205, 59-81-140 0.68
Tkachuk: 198, 60-65-125 0.63