Patience takes a vacation for fans of NHL draft

Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images

What’s the most entertaining fallout from a National Hockey League draft?

Rampant speculation.

Year after year after year, we get loads of it once the picking gets done.

When the Ottawa Senators snagged Boston College forward Brady Tkachuk with the fourth overall pick Friday night in Dallas, the reaction from media and Ottawa’s fan base was decidedly mixed.

The hue and cry from the ‘negative’ camp was immediately in full throttle, exclaiming that the Senators goofed big time by not selecting Halifax Moosehead sniper Filip Zadina ahead of Tkachuk.

Skilled and swift, Zadina caught the fancy of many a fan – most who have never seen Zadina play – as the guy to take this moribund franchise to the promised land.

Central Scouting disagreed with said fan (not vehemently) and had Tkachuk rated as the No. 2 North American skater over Zadina at No. 3.

"Tkachuk brings both a skill game and a power forward game," Central Scouting director Dan Marr said. "He can dictate and control the play with his speed and physical attributes while creating and finishing scoring chances. Both he and Zadina have the skills and assets to be difference makers."

Still, the hockey boards lit up with angst and anger.

A sampling:

“Can't believe we passed on Zadina. Awful.”

“We were 7-th to last in scoring goals for last season and so far we addressed this by trading away best goal scorer (for obvious reasons) and then drafting "character guy" while best scorer of the draft was still on the board.”

“im so pissed! Zadina was kucherov 2.0”

“Awful decision to take him over Zadina. Just brutal.”

More?

“His shooting % is brutal because his shot is poor. If he's having trouble beating NCAA goalies, how do you see him being able to beat NHL netminders?”

“. . . I would be less upset if Zadina wasn't available. As it stands, I'm pretty furious. Not to mention Zadina is headed to Detroit.. damn!!!”

“If this kid turns into a 4th liner, the fans will literally run him out of town. If we blew the highest pick we've had since 2002 on a 4th liner, the fans will literally revolt. Those kind of players are a dime a dozen. Not 4th overall worthy.”

To be fair, there seemed to be (nearly) an equal amount of fans encouraged by the Tkachuk pick.

Stepping away from the fan base, U.S. coach Bob Motzko coached both Brady and brother Matthew (Calgary Flames) and had this to say to Sportsnet:

“There’s something in the DNA there that they’re putting together with these boys, because they’re playing the game hard and heavy with a lot of talent,” Motzko said. “No question, as (Brady) goes through his career, the sky’s the limit, because No. 1, he’s got the size and he’s got an unbelievable skill set and hands. But his motor is what catches everybody. When this kid starts his motor, he goes from 0 to 100 real quick and he wants to do everything at a high pace and heavy and hard.”

Which takes us to this summary: Any sort of prediction on where an 18-year-old kid will end up career-wise while he’s still an 18-year-old kid is foolish.

Unless you’re Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid – which Tkachuk and Zadina are not – a projection of excellence/generational player at this point is suspicious and arguable.

At the present, Brady Tkachuk and Filip Zadina are prospects.

Very good prospects.

In reality, Zadina – a Detroit Red Wing at No. 6 – could turn out to be the next Henrik Zetterberg . . . or the next Fred Williams (fourth overall, 1975). Or he might fall somewhere in between.

Ditto for young Brady.

I’ll give Ottawa this – in light of where this Titanic of seasons has gone, optics plays a huge role.

Picking Brady Tkachuk creates the right optic.

From all reports he is a gung-ho, cocky personality. That we know for sure at the age of 18.

And that is unlikely to change.

The Senators definitely need some snarl and arrogance right now. This is an organization that can’t seem to put one foot in front of the other without stumbling.

Ticket sales are reportedly, and justifiably, not going swimmingly for next season.

Tkachuk’s big personality should help drive the numbers.

Management is saying all the right things, too.

“Part of our short, medium and long-term planning is to add players like this,” GM Pierre Dorion said to Postmedia. “A player with this character, a player of this nature, a player who can score goals in the way a lot of the goals are scored in the NHL, all around the net.”

Was Tkachuk the right choice?

Depends on who you ask.

Maybe more importantly, it depends on when you ask.

Patience, people. Patience.