Bourne Endeavor
Registered User
Hoglander made the transition from SHL directly to the NHL as a 20 year old (same age as Lekk), and had a pretty good rookie season. Lekkerimaki is way ahead of Hoglander as a 20 year old - as in Lekk was by far the best player on his team, and probly the best goal scorer in the SHL as a 19 year old - he scored 16.5% of the teams goals on a bad Orebro squad. By that metric, he was the best goal scorer in the league. One of the best U20 players of all time, so he has an excellent chance to make the team.
And we wound up sending him back down for a whole season because he very clearly couldn't handle the NHL level at 20. If anything, Hoglander and even Podkolzin, are examples why we shouldn't be rushing prospects.
If Lekkerimaki lights the world on fire, sure, give him a 9 game look and see what happens. It's very unlikely he does that though.