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Player Discussion Kaapo Kakko: Part II

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Yeah I think apart from the truly generational players, hardly any rookie playing in the NHL as an 18 year old gave impressed much. Not much progress next season would be the right time to worry.
 
His D zone play really leaves alot to be desired. He doesn't have the awareness of where to be just yet, and doesn't have the quick first step to make up for it to get into position to make a play on the puck. By next season both issues should have improved a bit to help with this. When 8 out of his 11 minutes are spent chasing his tail in the D zone how can we expect him to put forth his best effort in the O zone? D zone play is extra tiring always chasing, I feel the rest will fall into place once this is corrected.
 
Let's face it - he looks lost out there. Too much standing around, not engaged in the play enough. He has his flashes, but he doesn't have the puck on his stick nearly enough, he's not sniffing out opportunities to get it and he just isnt skating with a purpose all that much. He's not playing his game at all, he's letting the game play him.

Alas, he is 18 and it's a wonder that any kid at his age can compete at this level. But one starts to wonder if his frustrations and reduced minutes at the NHL level are doing more harm than good at this point in his development. I'm sure if he went down and got his game back in the AHL and started to dominate the game like we know he can, things would be different as soon as he got back up with the big club.

But it's tough for me to sit here and speculate if that's the right move for him. The coaching staff and team management obviously have a much more intimate view into him, his development and what he expects from himself and the club.

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a little concerned about how things are shaping up for him at this point in the season. It's one thing to simply be missing the offensive output and it's another to be consistently ineffective, being a defensive passenger and not manufacturing any offensive chances.
 
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Seems like he and fellow 18 year old Jack Hughes are producing at the same rate..... neither are generational talents like Crosby, Malkin or Ovechkin. Kaapo will grow and learn. Give him some time. Maybe give him some time with Hartford to get bigger minutes and improve his confidence.

start worrying in year 3. Not month 3 of his NHL Career.
 
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jniklast said:
Yeah I think apart from the truly generational players, hardly any rookie playing in the NHL as an 18 year old gave impressed much. Not much progress next season would be the right time to worry.
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Top 2 picks that become stars to superstars are typically invisible their first year?

He's supposed the cornerstone of the franchise.

Kakko is lucky he's not a defensemen because Rangerstown would be on his ass
 
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jniklast said:
Yeah I think apart from the truly generational players, hardly any rookie playing in the NHL as an 18 year old gave impressed much. Not much progress next season would be the right time to worry.
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Nah, thats a cop out. Plenty of non-generational players looked good at 18. Hischier is one. Nugent Hopkins, Landeskog, Skinner. None are generational or even elite.
 
KirkAlbuquerque said:
Nah, thats a cop out. Plenty of non-generational players looked good at 18. Hischier is one. Nugent Hopkins, Landeskog, Skinner. None are generational or even elite.
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And plenty others didn't. Barkov as a fellow Finn, Seguin, Draisaitl just to name a few.
 
KirkAlbuquerque said:
Nah, thats a cop out. Plenty of non-generational players looked good at 18. Hischier is one. Nugent Hopkins, Landeskog, Skinner. None are generational or even elite.
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Dude are you just going to come here and bash Kakko non stop the rest of the season because he didn't meet your expectations? Give it a rest. Not every 18 year walks in and dominates. Come back and see where he is at 20.
 
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KirkAlbuquerque said:
Nah, thats a cop out. Plenty of non-generational players looked good at 18. Hischier is one. Nugent Hopkins, Landeskog, Skinner. None are generational or even elite.
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Nugent's Hopkins struggled after his rookie year and had only found his role after McDavid and Draisitl have led the team, but he is far from the number 1 generational pick he was hyped to be, but he is a solid number 2 center.

In fact, outside of Hischier all the guys you mentioned struggled for a few years.

Barkov had 24p in 54g and 36p in 71g.

People watched Kaako play at his peak last year in short tournaments and thought he was going to start off as a PPG in his rookie year.

Hes never played on an 82 game schedule outside his home country. Theres just as many adjustments off the ice than in the ice. Maybe he should pull and Ovi and have his parents live with him and cook for him...
 
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Amazing Kreiderman said:
My point is that he has already won the WJC, and the WC. He has nothing left to prove.

He just needs to fight through this tough patch
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Agreed. KK is 18 living in a different country and playing in the biggest city in the world.
He has shown flashes of brilliance.
Be patient he’s 6’ 3” and 200 pounds. he may fill out to 220 by 21!
he’s also developing in the NHL where most others are in the minors or juniors.
He’s very competitive and used to being the go to guy. He’ll be fine. This will make him work harder on what he has to.
 
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noupf said:
Seems like he and fellow 18 year old Jack Hughes are producing at the same rate..... neither are generational talents like Crosby, Malkin or Ovechkin. Kaapo will grow and learn. Give him some time. Maybe give him some time with Hartford to get bigger minutes and improve his confidence.

start worrying in year 3. Not month 3 of his NHL Career.
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well said!
 
WojtekWolski86 said:
People watched Kaako play at his peak last year in short tournaments and thought he was going to start off as a PPG in his rookie year.
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No one was (or should have been) expecting that, aside from a few of the more enthusiastic Finnish fans. I was hoping for at least a Svechnikov type year, modest in the production but a steady improvement as the season went on. The fact that KK has gotten worse as the season has went on has been alarming.

Chytil hasn't really put up many points but he's playing well. Even when KK was scoring early on, he wasn't playing well. Now he's not playing well and not scoring. And now he's getting bottom six minutes. Don't really see how he breaks out of his slump down there.
 
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KirkAlbuquerque said:
No one was (or should have been) expecting that, aside from a few of the more enthusiastic Finnish fans. I was hoping for at least a Svechnikov type year, modest in the production but a steady improvement as the season went on. The fact that KK has gotten worse as the season has went on has been alarming.

Chytil hasn't really put up many points but he's playing well. Even when KK was scoring early on, he wasn't playing well. Now he's not playing well and not scoring. And now he's getting bottom six minutes. Don't really see how he breaks out of his slump down there.
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Only person who seems alarmed is you. Doesn't that alarm you?
 
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ReggieDunlop68 said:
Could you give me something more than "OK" so that I can determine how little thought you gave to my post ?


All I can assume is that you think they are keeping him up because he's doing well, and that you think there wouldn't be a backlash to managers for sending down the no. 2 overall even if he needed it?
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your hysterics don’t deserve more than an ok
 
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As far as 18 year olds go, Kakko is doing better than 99 percent of his peers.

But the problem is that we aren’t measuring him against his 18 year old peers, we’re measuring him against our fantasies, his projected potential, and a league of established NHL talent - some of whom are in their primes.

Those latter measurements tend to be losing propositions for most 18 year olds — even if said teenagers are included in the top 1 or 2 percent of their age group.
 
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Edge said:
As far as 18 year olds go, Kakko is doing better than 99 percent of his peers.

But the problem is that we aren’t measuring him against his 18 year old peers, we’re measuring him against our fantasies, his projected potential, and a league of established NHL talent - some of whom are in their primes.

Those latter measurements tend to be losing propositions for most 18 year olds — even if said teenagers are included in the top 1 or 2 percent of their age group.
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So he's doing ok for a far less good player than we hoped for?

I think that's what people are saying.

We made 2 huge signings in the summer which was supported by the fan base because they felt we were pretty close after getting the missing link in Kakko.

And if he's not, were the signings ok?

Why isn't having a good player having him learn to be good? Now having a elite Russian isn't enough. People are talking about bringing in Finns to make him look happy

Is it ok that we probably will end up picking outside the top 10 this year?
.

Whats the real story here?
 
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