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Prospect Info: Kasper Pikkarainen (RW - #85 Overall - Round 3 - 2024 Draft)

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My3Sons said:
He played five games in the men's league so you'd think a CHL stint would be a bit of a downgrade for him if he could play a full season in the men's league in Finland.
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Playing in the CHL may give him more of an opportunity to grow his offensive game and skills rather than just mostly holding his own and keeping up in a men’s league.
 
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My3Sons said:
How many cracks did teams have at Shuravin and pass on him? For some reason he went fairly late for a guy who checks all the boxes. Something was off there.
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Michkov was only 7th, Demidov was only 5th, chernyshov dropped into the second round, there were tonns of late rounders who will have better career or already have it with pro experience in front of early rounders who will never play nhl, or even prove themselves on the pro level. Some gms are ready to draft some players, some don't. The one who win is the one who is drafting better players with higher ceiling no matter they are coming from.

From tapes of Traff and Pikkarainen I think Fitz missed. And if we take trades into account - missed many times. Its not about Shuravin. Kos, Wetsch, Moiseevich, He, Marques. Thats I remember and watched, We can ask Steve and Evan about their better candidates.
And I don't wanna repeat myself with Kol and Krutov wuth picks in later rounds but I can't. Especially when rivalry team from our division is doing it.

Right winger for a team with tonns of right wingers, I don't understand why he can be better than Lenny. Lenny is very smart and creative in decision making, Pikka 2.0 is very inconsistent.

Its a stupid feeling that I like Devils last pick more than any pick outside first two rounds. Like it was in 2021 and 2023. Now it is about three drafts in four years. And still Melovsky wouldn't be my favorite decision for his pick.

I wish Pikkarainen all the best. As a trade asset potential... When I think about third round pick - its a good asset - you can trade 2nd and 3rd for really good NHLer. Pikkarainen should work really hard to be at least worth this 3rd round pick level asset.

I don't like the pick. But if course I will root for him and I hope he will learn the game on the fly.
 
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Guadana said:
Michkov was only 7th, Demidov was only 5th, chernyshov dropped into the second round, there were tonns of late rounders who will have better career or already have it with pro experience in front of early rounders who will never play nhl, or even prove themselves on the pro level. Some gms are ready to draft some players, some don't. The one who win is the one who is drafting better players with higher ceiling no matter they are coming from.

From tapes of Traff and Pikkarainen I think Fitz missed. And if we take trades into account - missed many times. Its not about Shuravin. Kos, Wetsch, Moiseevich, He, Marques. Thats I remember and watched, We can ask Steve and Evan about their better candidates.
And I don't wanna repeat myself with Kol and Krutov wuth picks in later rounds but I can't. Especially when rivalry team from our division is doing it.

Right winger for a team with tonns of right wingers, I don't understand why he can be better than Lenny. Lenny is very smart and creative in decision making, Pikka 2.0 is very inconsistent.

Its a stupid feeling that I like Devils last pick more than any pick outside first two rounds. Like it was in 2021 and 2023. Now it is about three drafts in four years. And still Melovsky wouldn't be my favorite decision for his pick.

I wish Pikkarainen all the best. As a trade asset potential... When I think about third round pick - its a good asset - you can trade 2nd and 3rd for really good NHLer. Pikkarainen should work really hard to be at least worth this 3rd round pick level asset.

I don't like the pick. But if course I will root for him and I hope he will learn the game on the fly.
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I don’t like the transition away from forwards with a base of good skating. Of course we need guys with size, physicality, and board play, but over-correcting and taking a bunch of plodders isn’t the answer.

Like I said in the main draft thread, if this is a one-off draft like that it’s one thing. But I want them to focus back on guys that are already profiling with the team speed we were playing with in 2022
 
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Jersey Fresh said:
I don’t like the transition away from forwards with a base of good skating. Of course we need guys with size, physicality, and board play, but over-correcting and taking a bunch of plodders isn’t the answer.

Like I said in the main draft thread, if this is a one-off draft like that it’s one thing. But I want them to focus back on guys that are already profiling with the team speed we were playing with in 2022
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Speed isn’t the only thing. They should focus on iq, decision making, creativity and compete level. There were much more players who were players with higher potential but become role players because of lack of something that and something this. It’s not that hard to gain mass and teach forecheck for a player who is thinking the game well. On the other side players with lack of hockey iq even with good shot, skating and physics are struggling.

When people are saying “you can’t teach size” they are wrong. Because you can’t teach fast decision making. And I have this issues with this year draft. And previous year draft outside Lenny.
 
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Guadana said:
Speed isn’t the only thing. They should focus on iq, decision making, creativity and compete level. There were much more players who were players with higher potential but become role players because of lack of something that and something this. It’s not that hard to gain mass and teach forecheck for a player who is thinking the game well. On the other side players with lack of hockey iq even with good shot, skating and physics are struggling.

When people are saying “you can’t teach size” they are wrong. Because you can’t teach fast decision making. And I have this issues with this year draft. And previous year draft outside Lenny.
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You can’t make not like the Melovsky pick lol.
 
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Guttersniped said:
Maybe it’s my desperation for centers but I like that pick.
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I don’t remember where, but I said in some topic that I like Melovsky pick more than all our other picks outside 1-2 rounds. Even if Melovsky wouldn’t be my choice in the same situation. But I still like him more than Traff, Pikka, Graham, Veeti as a pick. As I liked our last 2021 Bardakov’s pick more than others outside 1-2 round, as I liked Karpovich’s pick more than others outside 1-2 rounds. Barabosha could be my top later pick in 2022, but I liked Orlov more. Still silver medal. I should admit that Vilen was a good pick too in 2021 and he looks like a player with real NHL potential.
Why we cant start to draft in 3-7 rounds for potential before our latest choice is coming?
 
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after a couple weeks of mysteriously being DTD w an injury, pikkarainen finally debuted for red deer. out for most of the day so only saw the 3rd, but didnt wanna not comment on it. for context, oil kings were up 5-0 when i tuned in
  • couple aspects to his game that already look like theyre gonna give major junior kids trouble: his puck protection/physical instincts/raw strength on the puck, his ability to thread tight passing lanes against softer defenses (saw a few of these, including a long stretch pass on the breakout), and his bite/agitator nature (at one point he visibly aggravated sawchyn with a drive-by shove to the face lol)
  • pace of play looked to be giving him trouble. coasted too much, skating looked a little sluggish, and outside of the aforementioned puck protection, he didnt have much of an answer for higher pace backchecking or defenders closing in on him. looked very...upright/stationary as well, which made him easy to cover offensively and easy to get by defensively
  • too lax on the puck, didnt seem super responsive to pressure coming his way. led to some turnovers
i imagine there could be an adjustment period here (both from jumping to NA major junior as well as from missing a little time) so nothing to really read into yet, just preliminary impressions
 
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after exactly one (1) game, pikkarainen is back injured again, timeline TBD. finally confirmed that the previous one was lower body (as is this one) so i imagine he re-aggravated it in the game he played
chl.ca

WHL Weekly Report - Western Hockey League

The WHL Weekly Report provides the latest information and updates on injuries and transactions across the WHL.
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evnted said:
after exactly one (1) game, pikkarainen is back injured again, timeline TBD. finally confirmed that the previous one was lower body (as is this one) so i imagine he re-aggravated it in the game he played
chl.ca

WHL Weekly Report - Western Hockey League

The WHL Weekly Report provides the latest information and updates on injuries and transactions across the WHL.
chl.ca chl.ca
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I didn’t know that Kasper Pikkarainen’s season took a dark turn until today when I noticed he still only played one game for Red Deer.

From TBD…
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to Indefinite.
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So very bad then. Cool.
 
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Was just checking up on how our prospects were doing and noticed that Pikkarainen has still only played 1 game so far this season. Can't find any info on his injury, but obviously not good that he's missed so much time already. Sucks as he probably would've been considered for Finland for the WJC's.
 
Andrey Krutov
(who was born in April of 2006 - not overager, he is 18yo, 5'11, 182) was drafted by Carolina with 220 pick last year.
He scored 3 goals in 7(6 in real) games in KHL as 18 yo player and produced 18 points and scores 12 goals in VHL(Russian AHL analog) in 30 games.

I don't know will he ever be NHLer, but still I hope our scouts can find more talented players with more skill and potential to be something more. I don't remember when I started to chant about him. I don't remember from which round I started to hated our picks(it was definitely Graham and even with understanding Melovsky pick, I still saw more obvious candidate), but I really hope that Fitz n Co will start to draft for ceiling at least right from the next draft.
 
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Guadana said:
Andrey Krutov
(who was born in April of 2006 - not overager, he is 18yo, 5'11, 182) was drafted by Carolina with 220 pick last year.
He scored 3 goals in 7(6 in real) games in KHL as 18 yo player and produced 18 points and scores 12 goals in VHL(Russian AHL analog) in 30 games.

I don't know will he ever be NHLer, but still I hope our scouts can find more talented players with more skill and potential to be something more. I don't remember when I started to chant about him. I don't remember from which round I started to hated our picks(it was definitely Graham and even with understanding Melovsky pick, I still saw more obvious candidate), but I really hope that Fitz n Co will start to draft for ceiling at least right from the next draft.
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They course correct too hard. No right handed defenders in thr pool? Nemec and Casey and a couple of others in a span of a couple of drafts. No big physical players in thr pool? We get last year’s draft. It won’t shock me if this draft is all centers.
 
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My3Sons said:
They course correct too hard. No right handed defenders in thr pool? Nemec and Casey and a couple of others in a span of a couple of drafts. No big physical players in thr pool? We get last year’s draft. It won’t shock me if this draft is all centers.
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It's not like we didn't draft right wingers before 2024 draft. We drafted plenty for different job with different potential.
And I still that drafting for need outside first two rounds is reasonable at all. In first two rounds you can find combo of talent and positional need at least. After that I just can't believe that Brown, Hauser, Hurtig, Graham etc were drafted for higher ceiling. And I don't understanding to waste the pick for players like them because even if they will develop you can easily find player for this role of nhl level for free.

Problem is so big that I don't even want to spent an hour to track some defensemen no matter how their ceiling is, or physical wingers if they can't control the ice, can't score goals and can't skate at least above average.
I really don't like the fact that Fitz did nothing on the draft for plan B for the tail of Hischier's deal. Outside the first round only Hameenaho was the forward who was drafted for ceiling. I do really think that Traff is outplaying what they expected. Our best "Forward prospect" is Gritsyuk from 2019 draft, two most young forwards from NHL were Zetterberg and Sharangovich who were useful and had some cost. Both were drafted before. Second best forward outside first round was Bardakov who was drafted from 7th round and traded for scrub.

And the strangest part for me is analyzing process.
Fitz was a chief of 5 drafts. Its time to understand what they did right and what they did wrong. Lack of center depth in nhl, in ahl and in prospect pool isn't not a new thing of this season.
And I thing it is starting to bite our team. We were bad for too long to not have any forward depth and support from AHL and prospect system at all.
 
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