Tkachuk pushing himself into Calder consideration

There’s little doubting Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson is the frontrunner.

There’s no debating that defensemen Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres and Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars have done enough to be mentioned in the conversation, too.

But Brady Tkachuk has firmly driven himself above the blueliners, and is pushing Petersson for consideration in the Calder Memorial Trophy conversation.

Tkachuk, who had just eight goals as a freshman at Boston University last season, has worked himself into second in NHL scoring among first-year skaters with 16 points. It’s a stone’s throw to Pettersson’s league-lead of 22.

Factor in that Tkachuk, 19, has skated in seven fewer games after missing 11 skates because of lower-body injuries, bridges that point differential. In fact, it gives Tkachuk, the No. 4 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, the edge in points-per-game over Pettersson, the No. 5 pick in the 2017 draft.

It’s helped the surprising Ottawa Senators’ standout close a wide gap.

And open some eyes.

“I wouldn’t say I wasn’t expecting this start but he’s definitely exceeded my expectations,” said Matthew Tkachuk, Brady’s brother, who three seasons ago finished seventh in Calder voting following a 13-goal, 35-assist rookie season with the Calgary Flames in 2016-17. “He’s putting the puck in the net like I’ve never seen him do before.

“I hope he keeps it up.

“He’s exceeding whatever people thought he was going to do. I want him to keep doing it.”

The expectations are changing.

Pettersson, who himself missed six games earlier this season because of an upper-body injury, jumped out to a commanding lead when he netted himself 17 points (10 goals, seven assists), mostly of the highlight reel variety, in his first 11 games of the season.

By contrast, Tkachuk had a quiet 10 points (six goals, four assists).

The latter has since maintained, netting six points (three goals, three assists) through his following seven games; Pettersson has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past 12 games.

Both, unquestionably, have impressed through their opening stints as freshmen.

But Tkachuk, who leads rookies in shots-per-game with 3.06 per game and is one off the rookie lead in plus/minus at plus-6, has made the race to the Calder, annually awarded “to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League,” a hotly contested battle through the first quarter of the season.

“He brings something a little different,” teammate Matt Duchene told the Ottawa Sun last week. “I don’t think we have a power forward quite like him on the team. When we drafted him, that was something I was excited about, to have a guy like that.

“I played with Gabriel Landeskog in Colorado and I told [Tkachuk] they’re very similar players in the stuff they do. They crash and bang, they have good hands and feet and they can see the ice at the same time. You can see the reasons he was such a high pick.”

The production, no doubt, helps justify Tkachuk’s draft status.

Other aspects of his game have simply heightened it.

He’s still producing despite being buried in his own end. Tkachuk starts in the offensive zone, at 5-on-5, just 42.86% of the time. Still, he’s a possession driver who turns in an impressive 54.10 SAT%. By contrast, Pettersson, who has a 49.24 SAT%, starts 67.01% of his shifts in the offensive end.

Tkachuk, 6-foot-3 and 191 pounds, is third among rookie forwards in hits-per-game, dishing out an average of 2.3. By contrast, Pettersson — not generally known for his physicality at a generously listed 176 pounds — has dolled out 14 total hits this season.

The numbers, should they hold, bode well for a Calder push.

It’s apparently not really on his mind, though.

Not with his Senators playing above expectation.

“It’s way too early to talk about that stuff,” Matthew Tkachuk said.

“He knows it.

“But he’s earned himself the right to be talked about as one of the best rookies so far. He’s the type of guy…he’d rather be in the playoffs one million percent than get an individual award like that.

“He’s going to work hard and help the team get wins.”