since when is this league on par with the NHL?
It's not. It's still an adult league and if we are nitpicking, he played as an 18/19 yr old against men. Look at the players who were alongside him. Youre faulting a player that didnt play in the NHL post-draft season when they were doing really well regardless.
Edit: the top 10 of that group that were NHLers are Sedins, Naslund, Forsberg, Backstrom, Sandstrom, Kent Nilsson...thats elite company. After Nilsson, he has the highest p%. You cant tell me what he did there wasnt impressive. This guys hype didnt just come out of f***ing no where.
We can compare this to actual post-draft seasons too if youre going to pull the small sample size bs. **Most of these guys were in their second season of the SHL, Kent Nilsson's post draft season wasnt actually his u20 season*
Pettersson -
D.Sedin -
Naslund -
H. Sedin -
Forsberg -
Backstrom -
Sandstrom -
Nillsson -