Brady Tkachuk Or Aliaksei Protas?

[DitchMarner]

Who will have the better 2025 season?

Their stats are almost identical, but Protas gets no PP time...

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[Midnight Judges]

Surprising comparison.

You gotta give the edge to Protas so far - which is something nobody would have predicted. Major break out season for him. He's a puck hounding line fixer with a decent shot, decent playmaking, and good physicality along the boards. He also has a huge wingspan which enables him to steal pucks when guys think he's out of range.

Protas is also penalty killing 1:37 per game whereas Tkachuk does not PK.

This is also year 1 of a 5-year $3.4M AAV contract for Protas, which means if he keeps this up this is going to be one of the very best contracts in the NHL.

 

[strattonius]

Who will have the better 2025 season?

Their stats are almost identical, but Protas gets no PP time...


View attachment 963914

Protas is cashing in on an unsustainable shooting %.

Also, Tkachuk is getting matched against top pairing defensemen whereas Protas is getting cute little cushy minutes.

These two aren't even remotely close on their impact on the game; but if I were to say who was having a better season right now it would be Protas based on the relative expectations for each, and the fact that basically everything Protas is shooting is finding twine. Basically a 60 pt season for Protas is a better season relatively than a 75 pt season for Tkachuk. If you can't follow that logic that's why you might be surprised when Tkachuk landslide wins this poll.

 

[Korpse]

Protas is cashing in on an unsustainable shooting %.

Not just individual SH%. An on-ice SH% of 14.5% is a little crazy.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

37 even strength points versus 23. I'm taking Huge Pro for this season.

 

[geebster]

Protas definitely having the better season. Can't really argue with it, he PKs and doesn't get the PP minutes. But Tkachuk is the better player and it takes a much larger sample to prove otherwise.

Protas is cashing in on an unsustainable shooting %.

Also, Tkachuk is getting matched against top pairing defensemen whereas Protas is getting cute little cushy minutes.

I'm sympathetic to the argument that Tkachuk feels like he would get tougher opposition but surely teams should be line matching based on actual production and not on reputation.

Tkachuk is third on his team in points, Protas is second on his team. Surely you game plan for handling the other teams biggest threats and in this case if Protas is getting soft cushy minutes thats on the opposition.

(Also just checked the quality of competition splits and Protas plays higher quality competition across the board 5 on 5 than Tkachuk does)

 

[NyQuil]

Brady is currently in his longest points drought since his rookie season (7 games and counting).

I wouldn't say his offensive contributions lately are consistent with his larger body of work.

 

[Xspyrit]

What is a "2025 season" in terms of the NHL?

 

[RedHawkDown]

Tkachuk is obviously the far better player but hats off to Washington. Protas is a fantastic pick.

 

[Kegs]

Brady is one of my favourite players ever

 

[sr edler]

Brady Tkachuk is one on my least favourite players, but he's still (probably?) better than Protas.

 

[Kuz]

The impressive thing about Protas is he dont play on the PP. So all of his 39 points in 47 are even strength except for one SHG. While Brady only have 24 points outside the PP.

Also knowing how good Protas defensive game is and producing that much even with no PP its hard to say he is not having a better season than Tkachuck. He has been the Caps best forward this year.

The list of players ahead of Protas in even strength points: MacKinnon, Draisaitl, McDavid, Rantanen, Kucherov, Pastrnak, Marner, Konecny and Kaprizov.

 

[Xspyrit]

Tkachuk is having a really bad season for his standards. I think his defensive metrics are going to improve but it needs to be significant because he's delivering