I think you have to put up points to be "basically a two way monster RIGHT NOW". And you have to play physically. He's a one way, "meh monster" as far as I can tell. That "way" is everything except offense and physicality, a pretty limited player in the playoff picture or if you need offense. Sure, sometimes it looks like he's doing good things, and he's scored some beautiful goals. But most of the time, which is the issue, he's making a nice move ina series of wasted and/or empty moves, that don't led into the net for he nor his teammates. He scored 7 and 11 this season in 43 games I think, averaging 15+ min a game. That's less than 0.5 ppg. Sure, that goal the other night was nice. But for a winger, he's obviously lacking going forward, into the opponents zone.
Let's be real, he's not scaring anyone going forward and no one is worrying about him trying "crazy things". And with 8 hits on the season, I'm not sure "monster" is the correct word. Maybe if he did try some crazy things and played more physically, he'd be a lot scarier.
He is very strong on the puck, conservative, "safe" as you say. But you can't get "outmuscled" or use your muscle for that matter, if you always run from contact. He's strong on the puck because of his skating and stickhandling and sure, he's got strong arms and wrists obviously, a firm grip. I think wants goals and point production. Which would be one reason why he wouldn't be overplaying Kakko. 15 min a game for the regular season for a player producing at his clip is really probably more than he should be getting. And this is the playoffs, which explains perfectly why his minutes are down. Because they need better out on the ice for as many minutes as possible. And Kakko simply isn't cutting it for more time.
