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RW Kaapo Kakko - TPS, Liiga (2019 Draft) Part 3

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mazmin said:
I can't fathom how Hughes is ranked higher consistantly. Great player in his own right but Kakko is something else. How many more times will GM's be wrong by passing over a European at #1OA?
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It's odd, especially considering how extremely well his skillset should translate. Just the agile skating and incredible hands under pressure and in tight spaces is very very valuable in NHL and he should also be able to do great with board work. He even has a bit of a mean steak.
 
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There are not many players who are able to just skate the puck into net in tight space against men like Kakko. Incredibly exciting player to watch every game. And best thing is that those hands do not come at the expense of smaller frame.

I've probably brought this up in the past also but one of the main reasons why I'm so excited about Kakko is due to him reminding me so much about my favorite hockey player.



Some of those plays on the video are literally the same Kakko has already shown in Liiga.
 
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Today once again Kakko received a ton of slashes to the hands. I guess it's the European style of play and style of officiating. Kakko draw at least one penalty, but also missed some chances because of the uncalled hacks and whacks. Seems to me that Kakko somewhat suffers because of the officiating in Liiga. His key strength is the stick handling in tight spaces. His physique is already more than adequate to compete in Liiga, but the fact that only fraction of stick to the hands plays get called makes the opposing team defenders life a lot more bearable.

In this regard Kakko actually will find more room to shine in NHL, because the slashes and hooks are not tolerated. Of course more speed and strength is required, but he isn't very far from the level needed to be competitive straight from the start.
 
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khf said:
Today once again Kakko received a ton of slashes to the hands. I guess it's the European style of play and style of officiating. Kakko draw at least one penalty, but also missed some chances because of the uncalled hacks and whacks. Seems to me that Kakko somewhat suffers because of the officiating in Liiga. His key strength is the stick handling in tight spaces. His physique is already more than adequate to compete in Liiga, but the fact that only fraction of stick to the hands plays get called makes the opposing team defenders life a lot more bearable.

In this regard Kakko actually will find more room to shine in NHL, because the slashes and hooks are not tolerated. Of course more speed and strength is required, but he isn't very far from the level needed to be competitive straight from the start.
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He took so much punishment today it was ridiculous. It's a good sign that he can take it, because his play style will get him bruised up. Couple of missed calls for sure, one pretty ugly interference hit that was completely missed. It would be nice to see how many penalties he has drawn.
 
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kelsier said:
Honestly though, while I've observed him I've thought he's been incredibly unlucky as far as production goes. And it feels weird to say this as I've always been saying there's no such thing as "luck" in hockey. Then again, when you look at these past games, and the scoring chances he's created not only for himself, but team mates you'll see a pile of posts mixed with missed high-end scoring chances.
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Ofcourse there is luck in hockey. People who say there is no such thing as luck in hockey generally don't understand anything about probabilities and percentages. But the larger the sample size, the less of a role luck plays. Kakko has played 43 games in the regular season now. That's a large enough sample size to get a pretty reliable result.

I've also noticed that when people are big fans of a certain player, all logic often flies out of the window. If a Finnish player sets up four quality scoring chances in an NHL game, you can see Finnish fans commenting on how he should/could have had four assists but his teammates are just horrible. What they don't understand is that if you set up four quality scoring chances, that isn't likely to result in more than one assist, because the opposing teams have goaltenders in professional hockey.
 
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FinnishSniper said:
Yup. Kakko is a really special talent, the kind of talent that I've never ever seen before.
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I would definitely consider playing him at center. He set up in the office behind the net and had IFK flailing even though they had the game in hand. Budish was brutal last night, pretty much everybody on TPS was.

They have to slash Kakko because other than setting picks, they couldn’t really slow him down, let alone stop him.
 
TheWhiskeyThief said:
I would definitely consider playing him at center. He set up in the office behind the net and had IFK flailing even though they had the game in hand. Budish was brutal last night, pretty much everybody on TPS was.

They have to slash Kakko because other than setting picks, they couldn’t really slow him down, let alone stop him.
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Yup, he certainly can drive a line really well.
 
Lepardi said:
Ofcourse there is luck in hockey. People who say there is no such thing as luck in hockey generally don't understand anything about probabilities and percentages. But the larger the sample size, the less of a role luck plays. Kakko has played 43 games in the regular season now. That's a large enough sample size to get a pretty reliable result.

I've also noticed that when people are big fans of a certain player, all logic often flies out of the window. If a Finnish player sets up four quality scoring chances in an NHL game, you can see Finnish fans commenting on how he should/could have had four assists but his teammates are just horrible. What they don't understand is that if you set up four quality scoring chances, that isn't likely to result in more than one assist, because the opposing teams have goaltenders in professional hockey.
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Well sure, suppose you can look at it that way as well. Then again, lets say some elite sniper hits the post three times in a game without scoring, or has more post clicks than goals in a playoff series. Now naturally the first impression from a fan or viewer is damn, what a bad luck. The practical part of that is a simple fact of the shots, while accurate, still not being good enough.

And yeah, of course the fans have tendencies to curse the line mates when they fail to convert a perfectly executed first grade scoring opportunities. It happens a lot, but oftentimes it's still kinda warranted especially when you see this occur time and time again. Yeah, 43 games makes a good sample size (especially when a player starts a season in the top six/gets the minutes) and although I haven't really bothered to check any statistics I've kind of felt he could actually be closer to a PPG than some points shy, based on the way he's played and how many near-goal plays and scoring chances he or his team mates have had. Then again, reality is reality and Kakko still has admirable production for his age and could potentially soon be the sole record holder for goals in this league what comes down to D-eligible players who started the season as U18.

The playoffs are just behind the corner and the way he's been trending post WJC, it's going to be entertaining to see what he's made of once the big games begin. Oh and lets not forget about the WHC since there's no way they're not getting this guy the ticket.
 
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Either way Kakko is easily better than Hughes idc what haters say. I guess it hurts seeing EU prospects beig better:huh:
 
Hokinaittii said:
There are not many players who are able to just skate the puck into net in tight space against men like Kakko. Incredibly exciting player to watch every game. And best thing is that those hands do not come at the expense of smaller frame.

I've probably brought this up in the past also but one of the main reasons why I'm so excited about Kakko is due to him reminding me so much about my favorite hockey player.



Some of those plays on the video are literally the same Kakko has already shown in Liiga.
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Kakko definetely has a lot in common to Forsberg in a way he controls the puck in tight places with great hands and gap control. Forsberg was also known as shifty skater with sharp turns, wraparound tries and reverse hits that made him really hard to contain. Kakko is having these same manners and even that hesitation to shoot if we name one con at the early ssn reminded of Peter who always seemed to look for a beauty goal instead of easy decision on his own.

So all in all I wuld say Forsberg is the closest comparison to style that Kakko plays obviously.
 
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ijuka said:
It's odd, especially considering how extremely well his skillset should translate. Just the agile skating and incredible hands under pressure and in tight spaces is very very valuable in NHL and he should also be able to do great with board work. He even has a bit of a mean steak.
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Brady Tkachuk is the player comparable then.
 
Meh, when TPS fans who've followed this team for 30 years say that they haven't seen an offensive talent like Kakko on the team ever, that's an indication that he's something special. Notable NHL forwards who've come from TPS: Saku & Mikko Koivu, Mikko Rantanen & Jere Lehtinen.

I know a lot of ignorant people here shit on Jack Hughes without having seen him play a single game, but i feel like there is also some SERIOUS underestimating of Kaapo Kakko going on. Point totals never tell the whole story, if it was that easy, then teams would have no reason to send their scouts around the globe to watch the players actually play. I see Sam Reinhart & Tkachuck comparisons and i can't help but shake my head.

Not sure why people are so damn afraid to hype up these prospects. I remember when nobody believed that Laine could score against NHL goalies. People were talking about Matthews scoring like 25+25 in his rookie season. Pettersson's too skinny for the NHL. Brady Tkachuck is overrated, he only has only 8 goals in NCAA. Kotkaniemi who? Montreal screwed up! This is a young man's league. These kids will succeed and they'll be kids when they do it.

Hughes and Kakko will be going at it in 2019-2020 Calder race. And the same people underestimating these players will be underestimating the next crop of youngsters.
 
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Kaako Kappo said:
Not sure why people are so damn afraid to hype up these prospects. I remember when nobody believed that Laine could score against NHL goalies. People were talking about Matthews storing like 25+25 in his rookie season. Pettersson's too skinny for the NHL. Brady Tkachuck is overrated, he only has only 8 goals in NCAA. Kotkaniemi who? Montreal screwed up! This is a young man's league. These kids will succeed and they'll be kids when they do it.
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To be fair, he is having trouble scoring against nhl goalies ;)
 
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