Matthew Tkachuk came as a pleasant surprise to the Calgary Flames in 2016-17. The first pleasant surprise was that he was available at sixth overall in the draft to begin with, the second was that he was ready to be a full-time NHLer, and the third was that he wasn’t just ready to be a full-timer – he was ready to be a top player.
Part of that came from his linemates. Of the 930 5v5 minutes Tkachuk played over the regular season, 780 of them were spent with Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik. When the team was still trying to find itself, Tkachuk was placed on a line with the team’s best two-way players, and the three pretty much instantly clicked.