RW Patrik Laine - Tappara, Liiga (2016 Draft) III

[IComeInPeace]

Please come to Vancouver.

 

[LoveNHL]

His performance is steadily improving on all fields. His development rate is simply the best.

 

[behemolari]

Laine plays absolutely nothing like Pavel Bure LMAO

The goal I was refering was extremely Bure like, no? Did someone stated he plays like Bure?

No slight against Laine, but he doesn't compare to Bure's breakaway speed.

The goal, especially that deke

Wow you must be a true hockey fan to be able to make such an accurate comparison.

Sure, I was watching hockey back then and saw that breakaway deke so many times

 

[Mestaruus]

30 points in the Liiga now, which is defensively much tougher than Switzerland's league wink wink .

 

[Artorius Horus T]

30 points in the Liiga now, which is defensively much tougher than Switzerland's league wink wink .

with way better goaltending.

 

[synobyte]

Oh boy can't wait to see him in canucks colors this june

 

[Battle Lin]

theres some poor man's jagr in his game

 

[kunekune]

Laine definetly ain't anyone's "poor man".

 

[wings5]

Laine definetly ain't anyone's "poor man".

Mario Lemieux is a poor man's Patrik Laine.

 

[HockeyHistorian]

Mario Lemieux is a poor man's Patrik Laine.

I think you're overestimating Lemieux.

 

[kunekune]

Mario Lemieux is a poor man's Patrik Laine.

Comparing players between generations is really hard. Especially when Mario played during era whencyou could smoke, drink, practise with jeans on and play golf the whole summer.

 

[heretik27]

Comparing players between generations is really hard. Especially when Mario played during era whencyou could smoke, drink, practise with jeans on and play golf the whole summer.

Pretty sure he did that during the hockey season too.

 

[Loffer]

Pretty sure he did that during the hockey season too.

Some exceptional talents can do the **** they want and they are still best in the biz. Lemiuex was one of them. An artist of the superior class. Salute!

 

[kunekune]

Some exceptional talents can do the **** they want and they are still best in the biz. Lemiuex was one of them. An artist of the superior class. Salute!

In the 80s but definetly not today. Not in any professional sport.

 

[Fazkovsky]

It's gonna be hard for Habs to draft him Because

No pain, no Laine

 

[Stolie the Goalie]

If the Leafs miss out on Mathews and finish with the 2nd pick in the draft I would love to see them pick Laine.

 

[DaJackal]

If the Leafs miss out on Mathews and finish with the 2nd pick in the draft I would love to see them pick Laine.

I sincerely hope that the Leafs won't pick either Laine or Puljujärvi. Babcock (as much as I think he is a great coach) would just bury them in the AHL for 2-3 years, which is definitely not where they belong.

 

[The Thin White Duke]

I sincerely hope that the Leafs won't pick either Laine or Puljujärvi. Babcock (as much as I think he is a great coach) would just bury them in the AHL for 2-3 years, which is definitely not where they belong.

Babcock has never had a prospect of this calibre, hard to say how he'd use Laine. Whats there to learn in the AHL? Hes big and strong enough for the NHL and he already has a top-6 skillset. Not to mention that wing is the easiest position to break into the NHL. I can't see him not finishing the year in the NHL if we draft him.

 

[Ippenator]

I sincerely hope that the Leafs won't pick either Laine or Puljujärvi. Babcock (as much as I think he is a great coach) would just bury them in the AHL for 2-3 years, which is definitely not where they belong.

I absolutely agree. This is the main reason why I don't like Babcock as a coach. Horrible overly safe approach in most things with his coaching. I believe in some courage and risk taking at least (to an extent). With top prospects you should understand that high risk, high reward - approach would still be worth because with top prospects the risks are still relatively small, but the reward is usually substantial with the player's development. When you get to play against the best players already when you are young, you have much more time to accomodate your skills to that level. Only then I see Babcock's development system good if the prospect is quite weak physically. Otherwise it is just wasting the time and development potential of true top prospects.

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Babcock has never had a prospect of this calibre, hard to say how he'd use Laine. Whats there to learn in the AHL? Hes big and strong enough for the NHL and he already has a top-6 skillset. Not to mention that wing is the easiest position to break into the NHL. I can't see him not finishing the year in the NHL if we draft him.

Have to echo this - you can tell that Babcock is implementing his ways, but it's clear that he is up for a 'new' challenge. He took this job knowing that he needed to be apart of the build from the ground up and he wasn't going to have Lidstrom/Dats/Zet to shoulder the load anymore.

I am confident the timeline for prospect graduation will be much different than we saw in Detroit. We aren't in the same position as them, and haven't built a core that can only accept overbaked prospects.

 

[Patmac40]

I absolutely agree. This is the main reason why I don't like Babcock as a coach. Horrible overly safe approach in most things with his coaching. I believe in some courage and risk taking at least (to an extent). With top prospects you should understand that high risk, high reward - approach would still be worth because with top prospects the risks are still relatively small, but the reward is usually substantial with the player's development. When you get to play against the best players already when you are young, you have much more time to accomodate your skills to that level. Only then I see Babcock's development system good if the prospect is quite weak physically. Otherwise it is just wasting the time and development potential of true top prospects.

List the players that Babcock has had that could be described as "true top prospects" right out of the draft.

List of first rounders since he became the head coach in Detroit:
2005 - Jakub Kindl
2006 - No first rounder
2007 - Brendan Smith
2008 - Tom McCollum
2009 - No first rounder
2010 - Riley Sheahan
2011 - No first rounder
2012 - No first rounder
2013 - Anthony Mantha
2014 - Dylan Larkin

None of these players were NHL ready after their draft year. The only guys that could have been seen as true top prospects that were kept down for a while were Nyquist and Tatar who cracked the lineup full-time as 22/23 year olds and they went in the 4th and 2nd rounds respectively. They seemed to turn out pretty well, hard to say if anything would've been different if they were brought into the lineup more regularly earlier on.

 

[613Leafer]

As others have already said, Babcock has NEVER had a teenage prospect the calibre of Laine, not even remotely close. Detroit was either picking in the late 1st, or not picking in the 1st at all.

Do other NHL teams put late 1st, 2nd, 3rd round, etc prospects in the NHL at age 18-19 with any kind of regularity? No.

 

[HockeyHistorian]

First penalty of the season in game #38 (if my memory serves me right). Two penalties today. He is out of control! No discipline!

 

[McMatthews]

I sincerely hope that the Leafs won't pick either Laine or Puljujärvi. Babcock (as much as I think he is a great coach) would just bury them in the AHL for 2-3 years, which is definitely not where they belong.

If they're not ready to play full time minutes in the NHL, they belong in the AHL.

Babcock, Lou and Shanahan would give Patrik/Jesse a fair shot.

Also, I'm not sure if fans are aware but the AHL in Toronto is a 10 minute drive from where the NHL club plays.

It's not like they'd be sent to Idaho.

That said - Babcock has never had a player the calibre of Laine, so it's impossible to definitively say that he would automatically be sent to the AHL.

 

[BB88]

How do Leafs fans right now compare him with Nylander/Marner?