I disagree. They are quite close actually. Yakemchuk is a bit better in the offensive part.
Elick handles the puck like a hand grenade from what I’ve seen. Big time spazz. I was happy to look past this last season as he was D-1 but I was hoping to see improvement. I haven’t yet. But it’s still early. There’s time for him to take a step. His puck management is really bad. Too many turnovers and just dumping the puck into space. He acts much more quickly than he processes. He looks like a kid who wants to be anywhere in the world other than skating with the puck on his stick. I can relate. I’m also a panic prone spazz with the puck. We can smell our own.
Yakemchuk is supremely capable and confident with the puck. And I don’t think he’s less physical, honestly. He’s certainly more involved in all the extra curriculars after the whistle. Yakemchuk is also more sneaky dirty. He never misses a chance to lay the lumber when nobody is looking. Other teams want to tear his head off for a reason, and it’s not only because he has punch me face. There’s a little bit of Cory Perry blood in his veins.
I see Yakemchuk make a lot of mistakes too. But it’s not unthinking, panicky mistakes like Elick. It’s too much thinking and too much confidence. Trying to be too slick. And he also gets tired. Which is understandable because Calgary sends him out just about every other shift. I don’t think he even sits down.
There’s an obvious caveat here, which is I’m basing this mostly on 2nd half of last season and just a handful of very early games this season. Watching them head to head this weekend though, Yakemchuk looks like a kid who should go at least 20 spots higher in the draft. A full tier or two ahead. Totally different animals. A thoroughbred versus a packhorse.
He should be ahead. As a late-birthday he's a year ahead of Elick in development.
This can be a feature or a bug depending on your outlook and the specific players. For me, given their play styles and tools, I’d actually be glad for this if I’m picking Yakemchuk over Elick at the NHL draft.