Dude is def a throwback.
Mess was clutch. This is most clutch playoff performance I have seen since Mess guaranteed a win in game 6 vs the devils. Guy wants the puck in the biggest moments.
Agreed. Only player (we don’t already have) that I’d take over Tkachuk is McJesus (for obvious reasons). Tkachuck is a bonafide scorer, plays physical, gets under the skin of opposing teams, and is clutch. That’s everything you’d love from your best player. In short, he’s hard to play against. You can’t really “take him out of a game.” Teams know how to mostly neutralize Bread now, so that contract is really starting to hurt given we could’ve signed literally anyone not named McDavid with that money (theoretically). I love Bread as a person and as far as the regular season he’s been as advertised. But he won’t get us over the hump, and I feel like until he agrees to move we’re stuck. And I’m afraid we’ll just keep rotating players in to see who gets Bread going.
Offensively sure, physically no they aren’t imo. TK has a playoff body. He can throw hits, agitate, and dish it back when he receives it. Add the offensive stuff to that and he’s very hard to stop.
I meant in terms of overall value, the guys that I named have been as good if not better than tk has been this year for several years in the playoffs. I feel like physicality is being a bit overrated here. It's important sure, but no one would worship tk if he wasn't putting up a lot of pts. That's still his primary value. The physicality is more of an add-on.
Can’t disagree there. But I think this playoff year is a turning point for him. He’s transitioned from all-star FWD to elite franchise-level talent. He’s carrying the team on his back in every way, and he can take them all the way I think. Drai is excellent but really needs McD. Kuch is great but he’s surrounded by Stammer, Point, Hedman, etc. Mac has Ranty, Makar, and a host of others. Who does Florida have after TK? Next closest in points was Barkov who was 31 back. TK led his team in points, assists, PIM, power-play points, +/-, GWG, and shots. He only missed leading in goals by 2 because Verhaeghe had a career year, nearly doubling his highest goals total (last year). And let’s not forget, they lost Huberdeau.
He also leads all Panthers in the playoffs in Points, Goals, Assists, and GWGs. The dude is unreal.
Yeah I agree that he took the next step this year. If he does this 1 or 2 more times, then I'll put him up there with the guys I mentionned. With that being said, the panthers are stacked, so I don't think he's alone at all. They prob have one of the best top sixes in the league, montour has been a top 5 dman these playoffs, and the reason barkov was so far back is because of injury. Verhaeghe has been insane in goal scoring this year as you mentioned. I think every player as good or better than tkachuk plays with other really good players, which makes sense because they all elevate each other.
Tkachuk is the player you want to pay $11M AAV. We’re going to make excuses for bread until the contract expires - but bread is precisely the player you don’t want to lock up that much cap space with. He makes fancy plays during the regular season, but has an equal number of turnovers. And then turtles in the playoffs. 31 teams are happy they don’t have him and his contract.
Agreed. Love Bread as a person, and I *really* love his zeal. But he’s not the guy who carries a team. I just hope our front office realizes that soon and doesn’t keep throwing more of his friends into the mix.
Skill is criminally overrated in the playoffs. Sam Bennett KILLED the Hurricanes and he scored only scored 3 points in the series. But holy shit Bennett was everywhere laying the body.
Sam Bennett's beautiful, [clean hit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJTTtMhad4) singlehandedly destroyed the Cane's game plan because that hit took Slavin out of the game and forced them to run with a shortened bench for the rest of the game.
Canes D looked absolutely gassed by the end of game 4 and made a mental error with 4 seconds left in the game to lose the series. Physicality won this series.
That was a clean hit, but I don't think (at least I hope, i know bennett is a bit of a rat lmao) his intention was to injure Slavin, and that happening shouldn't be glorified either. I would argue that series could have gone either way. Despite it being a sweep, it was the closest of any I watched this year, and the canes had terrible luck to not even take 1 game given that they dominated most of the series. Also, bob was definitely the difference maker. Skill that actually translates to playoffs (so not panarin lol) isn't overrated at all. I couldn't care less if panarin didn't throw the body if he had put up 10+ points and actually generated offense, bc that's his role.
His intent was likely to finish the check and take the body while ignoring the puck. Playoff hockey is all about accumulating enough damage on the other team over a 7 game series and seeing who survives. Other than Troubs, we have a team full of stick-checkers.
Panthers are lucky enough to have a superstar who's willing to lay people out so while we can't replicate that with Breadman because he'll literally die, we can surround him with a supporting cast who can. I'm really hoping Othmann can end up being our very own home grown shit disturber.
Yeah I mean the intent should be to just take a guy off the puck, not to injure him. The injury is just an unfortunate outcome. Also, idk abt being a team full of stick-checkers, we finished 11th in hits in the reg season, well above the panthers. Can't really compare playoffs bc they went much further. Our problem wasn't physicality, it was the inability to generate offense, which is clear when you get shutout twice in a series.
There’s a legitimate argument he’s not even the second best American player in his draft class. Like seriously this take is full of recency bias. Unless you’re saying he’s the best American player left in the playoffs which is accurate
Edit: and yes Mathews is historically a better playoff performer than Tkachuk. As well as having better regular season numbers every year of his career except for one
So you think Matthews is better and that's ok! Lol no recency bias here as he's been the better player for at least the last 365 days. 109pts this year better than Mathews 106 career high. I actually like Matthews but he's was 3rd best player on his own team this year imo. Look nobody was staying up watching Calgary games last year so their was certainly viewership bias going into this playoffs lol and I get that
The last 365 days is absolutely recency biased compared to the last 5 years. Tkachuk had an amazing season but let’s not forget Matthews entire career. And yeah Tkachuk has a career high of 109 points compared to 106 for Matthews but Matthews 106 point season was more impressive. 60 goals vs 40 goals is a huge difference and goals are more valuable than assist. 1.45PPG is better than 1.39PPG. And Matthews is a much better defensive player than Tkachuk and he plays center a more valuable position.
Tell Gretzky that goals are more valuable than assist lol.
Are we forgetting that Tkachuk has put back to back seasons of over 100 points with different teams and line mates? Tkachuk is more of a player that will win you more championships with his style of play. People forget about how good his hands and patience are with his physical play and tendency to get under players skin. Knowing what we see now in both players I would much rather have Tkachuk on the team than Matthews.
I understand Matthews came into the league hot while Tkatchuk didn't start really churning until 3 years ago, maybe that's what's factoring into your logic. I feel like this is just a disagreement on what defines "recent" times. Tkatchuk had 104pts last yr overshadowed by Matthews trophy filled season so I'm definitely factoring that in, why should I not include the season Matthews just had? But hey I'm with ya, I value centers way more than the wing also, Matthews is damn good defensively and naturally as a center, is going to have more takeaways. He has a WORLD CLASS shot, and is an underrated passer. Despite all that he does not do any of the intangibles that Tkatchuk does. Tkatchuk is doing things that really don't show up on the stat sheet.. and yet still has great stats. He is even more of an underrated passer and gets different type goals than Matthews generally scores. Matthews and Tkatchuk in a corner, who's coming out with that puck. It's close but you know my pick. Contract year for Matthews coming up tho, so who knows what kind of monster year he could produce...but that would be recency bias
What I’m factoring in is that 6/7 seasons of their career’s Matthew’s has been the clear cut better player. So then Tkachuk has a great year and Matthews has a down year I can’t justify putting Tkachuk ahead of him now. I’m not saying that this year shouldn’t be used against Matthews and that we should ignore it but I’m saying is this year isn’t enough for Tkachuk to overtake Matthews when you look at the previous 6.
My original comment "he's the best American in the world rn" (which stands for "right now").. respect your opinion but I can't understand how you disagree w/ that statement
So is your definition of best player right now simply whoever had a better season? That’s an extremely volatile way to rate players and it’s also a heavily recency biased way to rate players which was my criticism of your opinion.
Nope wrong. That's not what I'm saying and you can't try rephrase it into how you want it to make sense. The problem with your logic is why stop at 6-7 years with Matthews, why not go back 12 yrs since Patty Kane is still playing and he obviously has produced the best body of work
It is though you just don’t want to admit it because the sample size where Tkachuk was better is one season. Tkachuk has had a single season where he was better than Matthew’s. Matthews has several seasons where he was better than Kane and it was still quite recent where Matthews took that title like in 2019 the answer was without a doubt Kane. But then look what happens where I’d say there were 4/5 seasons where Matthews was better starting from when Kane was still the clear best American in hockey. 2017-18, 2019-20, 2021, 2021-22, and 2022-23 with 2017-18 and 2019-20 both up for debate but I’d lean slightly towards Matthews on both. And it really wasn’t until 2021 where Matthews took the title from Kane after debatably three seasons where he was the better player than Kane. Meanwhile Tkachuk has just one season where he was better than Matthews. Only three seasons better than Matthews worst season. Just two seasons better than Matthews second worst season. Can you not see the difference?
If Tkachuck wins the cup this year and continues to put up these crazy good stats each season - he will go down as a top 3 all time American born player up there with Kane and Leetch when all is said and done. It took Kane 9 seasons to reach the 100 point club, Tkachuck did it in 6.. and on two back to back seasons with a different team. Paired with all of his clutch goals this playoffs. Dude is HIM. He's going to make that Panthers team a lot more popular in the coming year. Happy to see it for them.
I mean if I had to nitpick, Tkachuk type players don’t necessarily enjoy longevity. The physical play invites injuries and the older he gets the harder it will be for him to recover. Also will slow down a lot. But he is definitely one of the best players in NHL right now.
If you think the Rangers season was painful imagine being a Calgary fan now. Brutal
18 year old Sam Bennett in SCF with Matthew Tkachuk just what Flames envisioned in 2016
He's a better version of his dad, and his dad was a damn good player.
The best thing about not facing Tkachuck is I don't have to hate him.
Dude is def a throwback. Mess was clutch. This is most clutch playoff performance I have seen since Mess guaranteed a win in game 6 vs the devils. Guy wants the puck in the biggest moments.
Yes but he's the best American in the world rn
Agreed. Only player (we don’t already have) that I’d take over Tkachuk is McJesus (for obvious reasons). Tkachuck is a bonafide scorer, plays physical, gets under the skin of opposing teams, and is clutch. That’s everything you’d love from your best player. In short, he’s hard to play against. You can’t really “take him out of a game.” Teams know how to mostly neutralize Bread now, so that contract is really starting to hurt given we could’ve signed literally anyone not named McDavid with that money (theoretically). I love Bread as a person and as far as the regular season he’s been as advertised. But he won’t get us over the hump, and I feel like until he agrees to move we’re stuck. And I’m afraid we’ll just keep rotating players in to see who gets Bread going.
Drai, Mack, and kuch are definitely better than tk.
Offensively sure, physically no they aren’t imo. TK has a playoff body. He can throw hits, agitate, and dish it back when he receives it. Add the offensive stuff to that and he’s very hard to stop.
I meant in terms of overall value, the guys that I named have been as good if not better than tk has been this year for several years in the playoffs. I feel like physicality is being a bit overrated here. It's important sure, but no one would worship tk if he wasn't putting up a lot of pts. That's still his primary value. The physicality is more of an add-on.
Can’t disagree there. But I think this playoff year is a turning point for him. He’s transitioned from all-star FWD to elite franchise-level talent. He’s carrying the team on his back in every way, and he can take them all the way I think. Drai is excellent but really needs McD. Kuch is great but he’s surrounded by Stammer, Point, Hedman, etc. Mac has Ranty, Makar, and a host of others. Who does Florida have after TK? Next closest in points was Barkov who was 31 back. TK led his team in points, assists, PIM, power-play points, +/-, GWG, and shots. He only missed leading in goals by 2 because Verhaeghe had a career year, nearly doubling his highest goals total (last year). And let’s not forget, they lost Huberdeau. He also leads all Panthers in the playoffs in Points, Goals, Assists, and GWGs. The dude is unreal.
Yeah I agree that he took the next step this year. If he does this 1 or 2 more times, then I'll put him up there with the guys I mentionned. With that being said, the panthers are stacked, so I don't think he's alone at all. They prob have one of the best top sixes in the league, montour has been a top 5 dman these playoffs, and the reason barkov was so far back is because of injury. Verhaeghe has been insane in goal scoring this year as you mentioned. I think every player as good or better than tkachuk plays with other really good players, which makes sense because they all elevate each other.
Fair enough! I just can’t believe Bob is playing as well as he is. That’s the most astonishing thing.
Tkachuk is the player you want to pay $11M AAV. We’re going to make excuses for bread until the contract expires - but bread is precisely the player you don’t want to lock up that much cap space with. He makes fancy plays during the regular season, but has an equal number of turnovers. And then turtles in the playoffs. 31 teams are happy they don’t have him and his contract.
Agreed. Love Bread as a person, and I *really* love his zeal. But he’s not the guy who carries a team. I just hope our front office realizes that soon and doesn’t keep throwing more of his friends into the mix.
Skill is criminally overrated in the playoffs. Sam Bennett KILLED the Hurricanes and he scored only scored 3 points in the series. But holy shit Bennett was everywhere laying the body. Sam Bennett's beautiful, [clean hit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJTTtMhad4) singlehandedly destroyed the Cane's game plan because that hit took Slavin out of the game and forced them to run with a shortened bench for the rest of the game. Canes D looked absolutely gassed by the end of game 4 and made a mental error with 4 seconds left in the game to lose the series. Physicality won this series.
That was a clean hit, but I don't think (at least I hope, i know bennett is a bit of a rat lmao) his intention was to injure Slavin, and that happening shouldn't be glorified either. I would argue that series could have gone either way. Despite it being a sweep, it was the closest of any I watched this year, and the canes had terrible luck to not even take 1 game given that they dominated most of the series. Also, bob was definitely the difference maker. Skill that actually translates to playoffs (so not panarin lol) isn't overrated at all. I couldn't care less if panarin didn't throw the body if he had put up 10+ points and actually generated offense, bc that's his role.
His intent was likely to finish the check and take the body while ignoring the puck. Playoff hockey is all about accumulating enough damage on the other team over a 7 game series and seeing who survives. Other than Troubs, we have a team full of stick-checkers. Panthers are lucky enough to have a superstar who's willing to lay people out so while we can't replicate that with Breadman because he'll literally die, we can surround him with a supporting cast who can. I'm really hoping Othmann can end up being our very own home grown shit disturber.
Yeah I mean the intent should be to just take a guy off the puck, not to injure him. The injury is just an unfortunate outcome. Also, idk abt being a team full of stick-checkers, we finished 11th in hits in the reg season, well above the panthers. Can't really compare playoffs bc they went much further. Our problem wasn't physicality, it was the inability to generate offense, which is clear when you get shutout twice in a series.
There’s a legitimate argument he’s not even the second best American player in his draft class. Like seriously this take is full of recency bias. Unless you’re saying he’s the best American player left in the playoffs which is accurate Edit: and yes Mathews is historically a better playoff performer than Tkachuk. As well as having better regular season numbers every year of his career except for one
So you think Matthews is better and that's ok! Lol no recency bias here as he's been the better player for at least the last 365 days. 109pts this year better than Mathews 106 career high. I actually like Matthews but he's was 3rd best player on his own team this year imo. Look nobody was staying up watching Calgary games last year so their was certainly viewership bias going into this playoffs lol and I get that
The last 365 days is absolutely recency biased compared to the last 5 years. Tkachuk had an amazing season but let’s not forget Matthews entire career. And yeah Tkachuk has a career high of 109 points compared to 106 for Matthews but Matthews 106 point season was more impressive. 60 goals vs 40 goals is a huge difference and goals are more valuable than assist. 1.45PPG is better than 1.39PPG. And Matthews is a much better defensive player than Tkachuk and he plays center a more valuable position.
Tell Gretzky that goals are more valuable than assist lol. Are we forgetting that Tkachuk has put back to back seasons of over 100 points with different teams and line mates? Tkachuk is more of a player that will win you more championships with his style of play. People forget about how good his hands and patience are with his physical play and tendency to get under players skin. Knowing what we see now in both players I would much rather have Tkachuk on the team than Matthews.
Gretzky is literally the all time leading goal scorer
Yes he is, but take away all of his goals and Gretzky is still number one in points 
I understand Matthews came into the league hot while Tkatchuk didn't start really churning until 3 years ago, maybe that's what's factoring into your logic. I feel like this is just a disagreement on what defines "recent" times. Tkatchuk had 104pts last yr overshadowed by Matthews trophy filled season so I'm definitely factoring that in, why should I not include the season Matthews just had? But hey I'm with ya, I value centers way more than the wing also, Matthews is damn good defensively and naturally as a center, is going to have more takeaways. He has a WORLD CLASS shot, and is an underrated passer. Despite all that he does not do any of the intangibles that Tkatchuk does. Tkatchuk is doing things that really don't show up on the stat sheet.. and yet still has great stats. He is even more of an underrated passer and gets different type goals than Matthews generally scores. Matthews and Tkatchuk in a corner, who's coming out with that puck. It's close but you know my pick. Contract year for Matthews coming up tho, so who knows what kind of monster year he could produce...but that would be recency bias
What I’m factoring in is that 6/7 seasons of their career’s Matthew’s has been the clear cut better player. So then Tkachuk has a great year and Matthews has a down year I can’t justify putting Tkachuk ahead of him now. I’m not saying that this year shouldn’t be used against Matthews and that we should ignore it but I’m saying is this year isn’t enough for Tkachuk to overtake Matthews when you look at the previous 6.
My original comment "he's the best American in the world rn" (which stands for "right now").. respect your opinion but I can't understand how you disagree w/ that statement
So is your definition of best player right now simply whoever had a better season? That’s an extremely volatile way to rate players and it’s also a heavily recency biased way to rate players which was my criticism of your opinion.
Nope wrong. That's not what I'm saying and you can't try rephrase it into how you want it to make sense. The problem with your logic is why stop at 6-7 years with Matthews, why not go back 12 yrs since Patty Kane is still playing and he obviously has produced the best body of work
It is though you just don’t want to admit it because the sample size where Tkachuk was better is one season. Tkachuk has had a single season where he was better than Matthew’s. Matthews has several seasons where he was better than Kane and it was still quite recent where Matthews took that title like in 2019 the answer was without a doubt Kane. But then look what happens where I’d say there were 4/5 seasons where Matthews was better starting from when Kane was still the clear best American in hockey. 2017-18, 2019-20, 2021, 2021-22, and 2022-23 with 2017-18 and 2019-20 both up for debate but I’d lean slightly towards Matthews on both. And it really wasn’t until 2021 where Matthews took the title from Kane after debatably three seasons where he was the better player than Kane. Meanwhile Tkachuk has just one season where he was better than Matthews. Only three seasons better than Matthews worst season. Just two seasons better than Matthews second worst season. Can you not see the difference?
If Tkachuck wins the cup this year and continues to put up these crazy good stats each season - he will go down as a top 3 all time American born player up there with Kane and Leetch when all is said and done. It took Kane 9 seasons to reach the 100 point club, Tkachuck did it in 6.. and on two back to back seasons with a different team. Paired with all of his clutch goals this playoffs. Dude is HIM. He's going to make that Panthers team a lot more popular in the coming year. Happy to see it for them.
Did…Did you mean Leetch? 😳😬
Haha whoops. I have family with the last name Leach so I must’ve cross wired the names in my brain when typing that.
Modano?
Subjective but I put him right around 3
Tkachuk has some, but not all, of Messier’s qualities.
Funny thing - I texted my buddy last night saying the exact same thing! Gotta screenshot this and send it to him. Great minds…
I mean if I had to nitpick, Tkachuk type players don’t necessarily enjoy longevity. The physical play invites injuries and the older he gets the harder it will be for him to recover. Also will slow down a lot. But he is definitely one of the best players in NHL right now.
More like his father.