Oula Palve was/is actually more of a scorer than a playmaker and he did net quite a few of them in the early season before being paired up with Kakko. Palve even caught the eye of some of the NHL teams and he was thought to go to the NHL before all was said and done. He chilled down from what some would consider a hot start though and I guess the teams that were scouting him kinda more or less recognized his flaws and the move never happened. He wasn't or isn't really a great playmaker even in the FEL standards and Filppula was much more highly regarded as far as puck distribution goes. Obviously Filppula slowed down towards the end, possibly hammered by some injuries or what not.
Naturally as soon as Kakko realized the "sad" fact of being more productive by doing it all himself, he transformed his game from pass first to shoot first. That panned out. Still, given better line mates - which he will get in the NHL - I'm certain he will use those line mates equally to create and to wrap things up. If anything, I find it amusing how Kakko is described or touted as "the Finnish sniper" in many of the scouting reports, when just a moment ago he was trying to set up chances rather than bury them.
Nonetheless, players like him that are capable of altering their games depending on the surroundings are the ones that carry a ton of promise & potential.
