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Players that really developed their skating after being drafted

Pitaya said:
Draisaitl’s skating surely improved from his rookie year

But there is no need to exaggerate. He is nowhere near one of the fastest players in the game, like probably not even in the top-50
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He won the fastest skater competition in the Oilers all-star competition when McD was out. (Including Hall)

Watch him, he's extremely fast.
 
Pitaya said:
Draisaitl’s skating surely improved from his rookie year

But there is no need to exaggerate. He is nowhere near one of the fastest players in the game, like probably not even in the top-50
Click to expand...
This is just your opinion though based on your feelings towards the Oilers and that one time you saw him play. It's not fact. Leon Draisaitl is factually one of the fastest players in the NHL.
 
His career hasn't amounted to anything but Freddie Gauthier year over year has really improved his skating. He will never be fastest or smoothest skater but seeing him when he was drafted vs last couple years was a huge improvement
 
Tyler Toffoli is an average skater now when he looked like he was bent over trying to get a truck out of the mud at first.

He'll never be confused for a burner and he's not the guy you want lugging the puck through the neutral zone but with his smarts he's almost always in the right spot now where he used to almost always be behind the play.
 
Draisaitl and Tavares were the 2 big names I thought of immediately.

Draisaitl especially went from being a poor skater to being very good.

Mikael Granlund is another guy who’s main concern was skating. He definitely improved over his time in the NHL.
 
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You would think guys would work on their skating diligently. Pavel Bure said he never stopped working with a skating coach, his entire career.
 
Riddum said:
You would think guys would work on their skating diligently. Pavel Bure said he never stopped working with a skating coach, his entire career.
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Pavel Bure also didn't have Fortnite and Twitter, so..........
 
Also, on-topic, Olli Maatta really developed his skating ability a lot. It was his main problem, and he worked a lot on increasing his efficiency and stride as a skater. I noticed a major difference throughout his time here in Pittsburgh.
 
I’m 58 years old so will claim defective memory if wrong
But at a summer hockey camp (pocumtuck maybe)
Our skating instructor talked about how much Steve Schutt had improved his skating allowing him to become the scorer he was in Montreal

maybe the coach was just trying to push us though:laugh:
 
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Llamamoto said:
He won the fastest skater competition in the Oilers all-star competition when McD was out. (Including Hall)

Watch him, he's extremely fast.
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To be honest, the fastest skater challenges at those type of events are not really an accurate measurement of effective in-game speed. MacKinnon hasn't done great at the fastest skater contests, yet is one of the fastest players in a game in the league. It is really about how fast you are over your first 3 strides, and ability to change direction while maintaining speed. Not to say Drai isn't a good skater now, or hasn't improved significantly. But, how fast a guy goes from blue line to blue-line from a flat start is much more important in an in-game scenario than how fast someone can circle a rink. I don't think Ovi ever did great in those things, but he'd be top 5 in the league in his prime for explosiveness over his first 3 steps, and once he turned the corner on you, it was almost impossible to make up due to his strength on the puck.

If you gave me these two theoretical prospects who were equal in everything but skating, but player A had a faster top speed, but took 5 or 6 strides to get there, whereas prospect B was didn't have a great top speed, but was explosive out of his first 3 strides, I'm going with prospect B. It's better to be quick than fast.
 
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not post-draft, but there's a story about michel goulet being a bad skater so he stole the key to the rink in high school and worked on his skating every day between 5 am and when he had to go to school and he eventually became a really powerful skater in the NHL and scored 50 goals a year for a good stretch.
 
Geoff Sanderson (Jake's dad) was cut from the Whalers because his skating wasn't good enough for the NHL. He came back next season and was known for being one of the best skaters in the league for his entire career.

The difference between Jansen Harkins skating between last season and two seasons ago is night and day. I said often watching him in the AHL that his skating wasn't good enough to play in that league, then somehow during that offseason he went from not being good enough for the AHL to good enough for the NHL.
 
Sean Couturier. His skating was choppy during his first few seasons. It's fine now though. Although, I think part of it has to do with him knowing where to be and not trying to chase the puck around the ice.
 
HansonBro said:
I kinda figured it would be the taller/larger players. Bo Horvat was a surprise to see mentioned, although I dont see him much or know his past well. I figure Chara must be up here too
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Yes Chara for sure is a strong candidate. He skating was awkward in junior and combined with his size led to many derogatory statements in the stands. Now it's true he never became a graceful or powerful/speedy skater but he was a capable one which is a substantial improvement.
 
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