2018-19 Player Report Card: Matthew Tkachuk

Matthew Tkachuk: Forward

Regular Season: 80 GP, 34 G, 43 A, 77 Pts, 62 PIM, +14, 4.6 CFRel%

Playoffs: 5 GP, 2 G, 1 A, 3 Pts, 18 PIM

Individual Grades

MarkParkinson14= (A) It’s hard to look at Matthew Tkachuk’s 2018-19 season and not see dollar signs. After obliterating his career highs as part of Calgary’s offensive juggernaut, he’s lined himself up for quite the payday. He set career bests in goals (34), assists (43), points (77), PPG (11), games played (80) and shots (207). What was also noticeable was his role as an associate captain on the team. Tkachuk provided one ice leadership for the Flames and his reputation as an instigator continued this year as well. While Tkachuk is a master at drawing penalties, he continued to spend less time in the box. Over the regular season he collected 62 PIM, which was one more than last year, but in 12 more games. With all that said, Matthew Tkachuk did have a LONG dry spell this season when it came to putting the puck in the net. From January 18th to March 7th (a stretch of 20 games) he only had two goals and despite leading the Flames to victory over the Avalanche in Game 1 of their playoff series he really was a non factor over the final four games. With all the said you’d be out of your mind to think he isn’t getting locked up long term or that he’s not a MAJOR part of the Flames future.

Madeline Campbell = (A) Yeah, this is a pretty easy grade to give. Tkachuk had little short of a massive season, as Mark broke down above, smashing his career goals and points totals, driving play well, while still getting up to his old instigating and penalty drawing tricks. Consistency was something of an issue down the stretch, and you do have to wonder what was going on there, if it was due to injury or just a badly timed funk, but the season totals still work out to impressive. He took a huge step forward this season, and it’s hard not to get really excited about what’s to come for him. The kid’s going to get paid this offseason, and he certainly deserves it.

MGMacGillivray = (A) Just a friendly reminder that our good friends in Edmonton and Vancouver both passed on Tkachuk. How nice of them. There’s no doubt Tkachuk is about to get paid this summer, but we’re also somewhat heading into unchartered waters with him. There have been very few players like him in the NHL who have done both the pest and scorer role like him, especially at just the age of 21. He’s already cemented his reputation around the league, to the point where guys will literally just punch him whenever he goes towards the crease. Calgary has an antagonizer we’ve craved for so long, and now he’s scoring at nearly a point per game. What an exciting time and bright future.

by Mark Parkinson