BUT. It does not mean that he will deliver in the NHL. We have seen young guys tearing it up before the NHL and not all of them become NHL Allstars. I have to say that he is looking more and more like the real deal. He should however hit the gym in the summer and get some more muscle. He needs more strength, and he will probably have to change his playing style in the NHL because he can't be pulling all those fancy moves on NHL Caliber defensemen.
I like the fact that he has started to produce more goals. I'm still a bit puzzled over the fact that Granlund rarely goes 1+3 or 1+1, its often 2+0 or 0+3 or something...
I kind of agree. The guy has some serious skills, but all this hype isn't gonna make him look better in his first NHL season. It's tough, he'll have to gain quite a bit of muscle (like most young players) not to mention that he'll be moving to a new country with new stuff to get adapted to. Life outside the rink largely affects your performance on the ice. That said, Minnesota is probably one of the best teams he could end up in for that. I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble but I can kind of recognize this from when Hedman was getting drafted, it was the same kind of hype. You can't really compare positions and so on, but Hedman isn't really a Norris Trophy contender yet, even though he's shown good promise in general. Young players take time to develop so I hope that Granlund won't feel the weight of the world on his shoulders.
