Yeah, nobody wants to admit that COVID has been a factor in development, but it has.
He's shown flashes here and there of offense. I don't think it's helped that he is yet to have a full season under his belt. 2x lockdown and long term injury are bound to put a dent in development.
You mean the fancy stats have lied to me?!? Honestly it doesn't matter if he's one of the best, one of the better, or just plain SOLID defensively to my point. He's very good defensively, very good possession wise, and shows scoring similar to Mika's over their first three seasons.
That's a fair take. I just have a bit higher opinion. I don't think he will be flashy but I think he will score. A bunch, though not quite ppg. Of course he could score less... or more.
He was establishing himself on the top line when he got hurt. Before moving up w Mika and Ck he was playing w strome/Panarin and generated the best results we’d had on that line before copp.
Actually Zbad was at .45ppg over his first 3 years. Kakko at .36 for his first three. That’s not a terrible comparison given Kakko’s other positives. Lower scoring environment? I haven’t researched Ottawas scoring from those years or his linemates, have you? But at the very least it wasn’t a COVID environment so let’s call it even.
Goals per game during Zibanejad's first 3 seasons were 5.4. During Kakko's they are 6, 5.9 and 6.2. This is irrefutable. Point being it's not a good comparison and you probably shouldn't be making extrapolations from it about the rest of Kakko's career.
The “COVID disruption” excuse needs to end. There are now several players in the Laf/Kakko cohort that don’t seem to be affected. This doesn’t mean that Kakko isn’t going to be good but COVID isn’t why he is where he is right now.
Because it hasn’t been for a lot of the kids in the same draft class.
What? And Mika didn’t deal with COVID disrupting his development. That’s also irrefutable, so? My point is it’s way too early to give up on 21 year old Kakko. I didn’t extrapolate his totals based off Mika. Youre arguing against something I didn’t say. I maintained that we’d be making the same sort of mistake Ottawa did. Other people started saying there was no comparison, I merely showed that there IS a comparison. I didnt say he’d be the the scorer that Mika is, in fact I said I thought he WOULDN’T but that he had other attributes in tandem that make me see him as an excellent future NHLer. Nothing you’ve said address that or gives me reason to reconsider. If you don’t think Kakko can score 65-70 points (as I already suggested he had a good chance to be a .8-.9ppg scorer) when he has developed, in addition to his defense and possession, and it’s no big deal to trade him, that’s no less opinion than my take.
Im not sure where I said only NYR prospects had to deal with it. where do you get that from? Where in this thread did I even compare Kakko to any other current prospect? You’re arguing against something I didn’t say. Also in one sentence you say it hasn’t been a factor for some, in the next you say every human has to deal with it. That’s contradictory. Has it affected everyone EQUALLY? Doubtful. Have some prospects dealt with it better than others? I’d say so. But yes it has affected development, it’s ridiculous to claim that restrictions, shortened seasons, less access to training, etc, in addition to possibly being infected and compromised, the stress of the situation, and who knows what other variables have all had no effect on development.
