Saturday, February 19, 2011

Hall and Skinner Are Well Ahead Of The Curve



In terms of players fresh off their draft year, Taylor Hall and Jeff Skinner project to be among the top of the class in terms of goalscoring in the last 10 years. Hall currently is on pace to score 28 goals by years end on the heels of his first career hattrick and Skinner projects to score 30 goals by years end. This is where they would rank among rookies coming directly into the league after the draft in the last decade.

1) Sidney Crosby 81 games 39 goals
2) Jeff Skinner 82 games 30 goals (On Pace)
3) Ilya Kovalchuk 65 games 29 goals
4) Jordan Staal 81 games 29 goals
5) Taylor Hall 82 games 28 goals (On Pace)

Both are on pace to best straight out of the draft goal totals from John Tavares (24), Matt Duchene (24), Steven Stamkos (23), Patrick Kane (21), Marian Gaborik (18), Rick Nash (17), and Eric Staal (11), not too bad of company.

Of course we won't know exactly how good both of these players will be long term, but we do know that they are looking like they will be in the better half of rookies in the past decade unless they really hit the skids. Here's to hoping that Crosby has some company in the 30 goal club by years end!

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