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Prospect Info: Leafs' 2019 3rd-round (#84) -- D Mikko Kokkonen -- Liiga Finland 5' 11" /200 lbs

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stickty111 said:
He is playing the same way he usually does. Good solid safe game without much flash. I agree the points don't really mean much.
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Ya, he looked fine to me in this game but they Swiss really didn't make the Finns do anything special, a lot of taking the forward wide and squeezing them in the defensive corners to get the puck back with almost no pressure once they got possession. To me this meant nothing either way, almost like a rookie tournament game
 
Watched the first 30 minutes of the game.

Kokkonen was solid. Just made simple plays, a few good pinchs. Didnt play all that much. Can definitely see where he can improve on his footspeed.

Really liked Thomson (sick pick by OTT), Nousiainen and Erholtz.

Second time I've watched Honka and although his offensive skillset is good, dude routinely makes low percentage decisions and his defensive awareness is pretty bad.

This wasnt a great hockey game as the swiss were badly outclassed.
 
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weems said:
Watched the first 30 minutes of the game.

Kokkonen was solid. Just made simple plays, a few good pinchs. Didnt play all that much. Can definitely see where he can improve on his footspeed.

Really liked Thomson (sick pick by OTT), Nousiainen and Erholtz.

Second time I've watched Honka and although his offensive skillset is good, dude routinely makes low percentage decisions and his defensive awareness is pretty bad.

This wasnt a great hockey game as the swiss were badly outclassed.
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How’d Lopponen look
 
weems said:
Watched the first 30 minutes of the game.

Kokkonen was solid. Just made simple plays, a few good pinchs. Didnt play all that much. Can definitely see where he can improve on his footspeed.

Really liked Thomson (sick pick by OTT), Nousiainen and Erholtz.

Second time I've watched Honka and although his offensive skillset is good, dude routinely makes low percentage decisions and his defensive awareness is pretty bad.

This wasnt a great hockey game as the swiss were badly outclassed.
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so he basically looked like a third round pick
 
Heart Eater said:
fwiw he goes around 30th overall in nhl 19
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in Eastside hockey Manager he's ranked as going 5th overall. Game has no NHL licencing but a bunch of people go out of their way to scout and rank players for live roster updates. Trust their rankings much more than that of the NHL games. The people who do the rosters are also mostly Europeans so they watch them much more than we do.
 
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SeaOfBlue said:
He's doing about as well as you would expect on a poor team, and he was still able to make the Finnish U20 team as an 18 year old... And is one of the better defenders on that team no less.

He's been more than fine.
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Really hoping he comes to the Marlies next year. I have high hopes for him
 
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SeaOfBlue said:
He's doing about as well as you would expect on a poor team, and he was still able to make the Finnish U20 team as an 18 year old... And is one of the better defenders on that team no less.

He's been more than fine.
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I think making it as an 18 year old is very encouraging.
He can play again next year.

HockeyDB:
Height 5.10 -- Weight 190 [178 cm/86 kg]

IIHF:
1.81/5'11''90/198
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

So perhaps he hasn't finished growing?
 
My review on Kokkonen
Interesting case. He was barely noticable at times which means he is doing his job. You can see sometimes his best work is on the PK. Reading plays before they occur and then shutting them down. His positioning is terrific. Does well against tough competition.
With the puck, he's effective. Capable of handling the puck and making a breakout pass. At times showed puck carrying skill, but mainly made the safe play. Skates fine but lacks explosiveness. I feel there is more offensive upside but hasn't come out for variety of reasons.
I think he is a year or 1.5 away and should become a 3rd pair PK specialist type of player. Anything more depends on his offensive tools. Even without it, I will take him on my 3rd pair every time.
 
Ya there really is nothing sexy with mikko’s game. I don’t think I was ever wow’d by anything he did. That said, I think I only saw 1 time in the whole tournament where he got caught watching. I think he’s still got a ways to go, but it would not surprise me to see him in the show at some point
 
I think the thing with Kokkonen is that if there isn't offensive production, that tends to limit your viewed ceiling as a bottom pairing d-man.

Harder to judge how his defensive game will adapt at the higher levels. But if he's mobile, smart, and has decent puck handling skills the top 4 ability can be there. You just typically expect more offense at lower levels.
 
Kokkonen is solid defensively. Probably will never work the PP but he can be a stabilizing presence next to a more offensive guy.

Perhaps similar to a Carl Gunnarson. High IQ, defence first, good in transition.

The leafs haven’t had enough players like him in the system.
 
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Funny to think that when we drafted him, knowing nothing about him besides the stat-watching I had done, I was excited because his draft year production in Liiga was better than Heiskanen's. Kind of interesting that that's turned out to be the least notable skill in his toolbox.
 
Damn this kid is 5'11 and 200 lbs. Man must be built like a tank. Dubas got us a romanov type player with this pick. Probably not as high ceiling but he could play a similar strong defensive and shutdown game


Kokkonen and Kral were my two favourite defensive prospects in our system (Sandin and Lilijgren are sure fire NHLers for me at this point just a matter of when not if). Now Niemela is on that list and probably the highest of the three but these three guys can all be NHL defenders.
 
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