Prospect Info: Oliver Kapanen, RHC, KalPa U20 (U20 SM-sarja), 64th Overall

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They both have more offensive ability than Lehkonen and Danault. Lekhonen only looks good because he plays on a line he doesn't belong on with MacKinnon.
Why Me Emoticon
 
Said it a hundred times before, and I’ll say it a thousand times again: Habs fans would be rioting if we had prime Mackinnon saddled with a sub-0.75 PPG winger shooting 23%

Think about that. He’s only burying 23% of Mack ‘n’ Mak’s backdoor tap-ins ( :sarcasm: )
 
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Feel like Kapanen is being slept on. He treaded water in his NHL cameo but besides that he's trended the right direction at every level and what he's doing in Sweden right now is impressive.

Still not sure which of him or Beck will be better but it's a good problem to have.

At least he's honest. The majority of this forum considered Lehkonen a 4th liner prior to the trade.
Lehkonen is and has always been a middle 6 two way winger who can drive play but who's finishing never came together enough to be more than that.

You can't fairly judge his numbers on Colorado (the same way I still don't trust Drouin either) although I'd still take him over say Newhook.
 
They both have more offensive ability than Lehkonen and Danault. Lekhonen only looks good because he plays on a line he doesn't belong on with MacKinnon.
Lehkonen and Danault can produce offensively with good offensive players, in a way not like other pkayers of their skill levels can. Because they have great wheels, motors/energy and effort levels, and intelligence with the puck. So, they get to pucks first to keep the offense going or start a good break out the other way, and beat defenders to open ice. This is a type of offense creation that leads them to put up points.

It's why they probably can put up more points than an offensively gifted player like Joshua Roy.

We'll see where Beck and Kapanen lie on the the spectrum.
 
Feel like Kapanen is being slept on. He treaded water in his NHL cameo but besides that he's trended the right direction at every level and what he's doing in Sweden right now is impressive.

Still not sure which of him or Beck will be better but it's a good problem to have.


Lehkonen is and has always been a middle 6 two way winger who can drive play but who's finishing never came together enough to be more than that.

You can't fairly judge his numbers on Colorado (the same way I still don't trust Drouin either) although I'd still take him over say Newhook.
Lehkonen had 18 goals in his rookie season. The role they gave him after did not help his production in MTL.
 
At least he's honest. The majority of this forum considered Lehkonen a 4th liner prior to the trade.
Had him in my keeper league. I think I gave up on him the year before he was traded. I think idiot coaches in Montreal made him look worse than he was offensively. MacKinnon makes him look better than he is. He is a decent 2nd line forward.
 
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Lehkonen had 18 goals in his rookie season. The role they gave him after did not help his production in MTL.
His rookie season was his best in MTL. He looked very promising, but after that, he struggled to bury his offensive chances and never worked his way into an offensive role on the team.

He was traded as a solid 3-line winger with a strong defensive game and limited offence. People are acting like he was never given a chance in Montreal, the guy played almost 400 games here and never scored more than 31 points.
 
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What kind of precedent is there for what Kapanen is doing? PPG at 21 in the SHL is not necessarily rare, but players are rarely rookies in the league at that point.
 
His rookie season was his best in MTL. He looked very promising, but after that, he struggled to bury his offensive chances and never worked his way into an offensive role on the team.

He was traded as a solid 3-line winger with a strong defensive game and limited offence. People are acting like he was never given a chance in Montreal, the guy played almost 400 games here and never scored more than 31 points.
He was locked on a 3rd line, sometimes 4th. And if a guy can score 18 as a raw rookie, he can produce more if given opportunities.
 
What kind of precedent is there for what Kapanen is doing? PPG at 21 in the SHL is not necessarily rare, but players are rarely rookies in the league at that point.


 
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He was locked on a 3rd line, sometimes 4th. And if a guy can score 18 as a raw rookie, he can produce more if given opportunities.
Can/ should but didn't, unfortunately. The closest he got to scoring 18 again in MTL was 13 goals in a season.

I really liked the guy, but from memory, he was missing a lot of grade-A chances, so he was not making good on the chances he got.
 
What kind of precedent is there for what Kapanen is doing? PPG at 21 in the SHL is not necessarily rare, but players are rarely rookies in the league at that point.

It's one of the highest PPG for a 21-year-old in SHL history, but it should be noted that players have had comparable PPG at younger ages and then are in North America by their 21-year-old season.

Players with similar SHL numbers at age 21:
Carl Soderberg - Went on to be a good 50-point NHLer
Linus Omark - Had some NHL games but is much smaller and wasn't suited as well to NHL game.
Jakob Silfverberg - Actually a pretty good comparible. Became a nice 40-point two-way player.
Mats Zuccarello - Scored a bit more but was smaller. Scored at a higher rate in earlier seasons as well though.
Andreas Johnson - Smaller and had two prior SHL seasons. Became a 20-goal scorer.
Viktor Arvidsson - Scored slightly less and became a top-6 NHLer.
Calle Jarnkrok - Lower PPG than Kapanen and became good two-way NHLer.

That's literally it, I'm not omitting 100's of busts or anything. I would be very surprised if Kapanen doesn't become a good middle-six NHL forward.
 

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