Shoulder injury.
If that shoulder injury gave him a lifelong PTSD then I don't know what to think.
One very likely thing causing this could in fact be that the best of the very young Finnish talents play in Liiga or Mestis already very young and those leagues are full of physically much stronger adult players. It can on the other hand be good for their development because of the tough competition, but honestly it brings a pretty big risk of injuries for young players who are not yet very much developed physically.
Not sure if it was just hearsay or possibly anecdotal, but remember a Finnish coach about 10 years ago telling me that players from Finland matured later than their Swedish counterparts; including when it came to growing facial hair and getting deeper voices.
Size isn’t issue with Kemell. He is built like pitbull with low point of gravity. Not quite like Crosby, but he is built in a similar way. Great balance, which is a underrated skill. I would be more worried about lack of elite skating and hockey sense. I can’t figure out any elite qualities in Kemell, but he is good at many things.
I am agreeing with you - what I was frustrated about was people were comparing they would always jump back and say yea well he has a great shot and larger on the wing so can take more wear and tear. What I was demonstrating was there are players like Savoie and Nazar - who have more tools & game but we’re being discounted to the supposed size difference as the main issue.
This is a joke post or something, right? Kemell goes into the corners willingly and plentily, and likes hitting and playing hard. He'll drive the net, backcheck and isn't a slouch in his own end either. I agree with you that he might go in 10-15 range, but holy if this isn't the most backwards assessment of a player I've seen in a while.
Honestly pretty hard to speculate. They could be playing a reverse psychology, or a reverse-reverse psychology game here. The combine is full of mental games between other teams.
I would have agreed completely with you before Kemell got injured quite early in his Liiga season. But unfortunately after his injury I would have to pretty much agree with @Erik Alfredsson. It was awful what Kemell’s game changed to after that injury. And his intensity and determination never came back for the rest of his season.
Agree to disagree. He played his usual physical game in the U18s. He's not a perimeter player, no matter how you twist it.
Yes, we sure agree to disagree. His U18 performance wasn’t really that good and impressive at all. Well, he got some points as his talent is still pretty good for that level, but generally his game was missing all the intensity and physicality that he had before he got injured. Just a a shadow of the great player he looked like in the beginning of the season.
I think he looked great towards the end of the season, pretty much back to his old self -- the goals just weren't going in. That said, he's not great in transition and he's 5'9", so I couldn't imagine he goes in the top 10 like he was projected to go when he was scoring a lot. I bet he goes somewhere around 11 or 12.
