Prospect Info: Welcome to Montréal, Jesperi Kotkaniemi (1st round pick, 3OA 2018 - signed ELC)

[Garbageyuk]

Who said you can't have an opinion? You voiced an opinion on a DISCUSSION board and it's being challenged..... That's kinda the point.

Some people got needlessly emotional and hostile. It's funny to see grown men get all flustered and emotional over an 18 year old they've never met though But it's also sad haha.

 

[BB88]

It’s not, really. His technique needs work but his top speed is just fine.

You couple an improved technique with his shot, vision, IQ, size and willingness and you got yourself a player.

I'm watching the u18 games again and his straight line skating looks good speed wise.

His father gave a good interview, seemed to address the same weaknessess as posters have here and the plan to keep building that frame in the following years.

To posters who say he hasn't dominated a level yet, only Barkov really dominated in his draft year, so that's 1 kid. Laine started to dominate at the end of season.

Compare
Aho
Laine
Rantanen
Vesalainen
Heiskanen's
Draft and +1 seasons, the players they were. You'll see massive jumps in everyones game& points that I listed.

I think we all hope he's viewed as a Petersson in a year.

Pettersson was a risk move by Vancouver, today I'm sure they are happy as hell they made that.

 

[HomeAndHome]

Some people got needlessly emotional and hostile. It's funny to see grown men get all flustered and emotional over an 18 year old they've never met though But it's also sad haha.

If you find it sad that people can be passionate about prospects (or hockey/NHL for that matter) I think you're in the wrong place.

Throw your opinion out there but don't whine when it starts discussion because it's all just speculation at this point what he'll be in 2, 5, 10 years, he's still 17 as of now and has potential to break out.

 

[Kriss E]

It’s not, really. His technique needs work but his top speed is just fine.

You couple an improved technique with his shot, vision, IQ, size and willingness and you got yourself a player.

Top speed means little if you can't manage to get to it.

Don't doubt he can be good. That's not what I was responding to.

 

[Garbageyuk]

If you find it sad that people can be passionate about prospects (or hockey/NHL for that matter) I think you're in the wrong place.

Throw your opinion out there but don't whine when it starts discussion because it's all just speculation at this point what he'll be in 2, 5, 10 years.

Not whining about discussion, that's what I come here for. Not a fan of the hostility, veiled insults, and emotional temper tantrums by grown men who are mad someone doesn't see something exactly like they do.

 

[FerrisRox]

lol, it's hard to find anything about David Fischer these days. Nobody remembers who he is.

So you concede, that, once again, you just made something up and passed it off as a fact.

 

[Mrb1p]

His skating for one is obviously lacking. Outside of that, I haven't watched enough to breakdown his game. But even in highlight reels, his skating appears to be quite mediocre.

But hes a better skater than a lot of high end centers at the same age

 

[schnapshot]

Top speed means little if you can't manage to get to it.

Don't doubt he can be good. That's not what I was responding to.

I mean, sure but some known poor skaters usually have poor acceleration AND low top speed.

It’s a matter of mechanics for JK, which are improvable. Especially with a prospect that isn’t even 18 yet. I’m not too worried about it anyway.

I’d rather have a prospect with average speed but high IQ (Vilardi, Kotkaniemi) than one with tons of speed but average IQ (Virtanen, Kupari).

 

[NotProkofievian]

I'm watching the u18 games again and his straight line skating looks good speed wise.

His father gave a good interview, seemed to address the same weaknessess as posters have here and the plan to keep building that frame in the following years.

To posters who say he hasn't dominated a level yet, only Barkov really dominated in his draft year, so that's 1 kid. Laine started to dominate at the end of season.

Compare
Aho
Laine
Rantanen
Vesalainen
Heiskanen's
Draft and +1 seasons, the players they were. You'll see massive jumps in everyones game& points that I listed.

There's even more examples of these D, D+1 jumps than I had previously thought. Unfortunately Liiga only started to track TOI stats in the 2014-15 season, so we lose Rantanen in a way (late birthday, played in his D-1, and AHL after), but from 2014-15 to 2015-16 alone there's Saarela, Hintz, and Tammela in addition to Aho. I was comparing EV P/60 for draft year and post draft year in an attempt to project Jesperi's post draft performance. A 0.6-0.8 EVP/60 jump appears to be quite typical. I'm conservatively projecting Jesperi at 2.5 EVP/60 next year. With average PP numbers he should eclipse 40 points on a 45 game season.

 

[HBDay]

Some people got needlessly emotional and hostile. It's funny to see grown men get all flustered and emotional over an 18 year old they've never met though But it's also sad haha.

Unfortunately at this point, you are the one who is displaying the most emotional and child like demeanor on this topic. That is the funny an slightly ironic bit!

 

[le_sean]

Top centre used in all situations for the gold medal winning team, over a PPG. “I only see a 2nd line centre!!’nkh”

3rd leading scorer on his team as a 17 year old in a men’s league. No other regular on his team was under 22 years old. “But his speed will limit him$!!&382@”

I know we are not used to having great centre prospects in our prospect pool, but we finally have one. So relax and accept it.

 

[Redux91]

Not sure why people are pissing over each other's posts about a 17yo prospect who just put up a .5ppg in Liiga.
Like, there is nothing definitive outside him showing some potential that still needs time to truly be determined.

The only thing I can confidentally say at this point is Kotkaniemi is not the future of the Habs. He's a good young prospect to have. Cool. We need plenty more of those and also have to add strong NHLers.

yeah holy shit lighten up

everything you keep knockin Jesperi for are actually things that make him stand out
0.5 ppg at 17 in THE highest fin league might not mean much to you but its a huge achievement for 17 yr olds of any size and ilk
hes going to surprise the shit out of you next year

 

[The Great Weal]

I think Galchenyuk was better draft time, but Kotkaniemi won't have Therrien as the coach and probably won't have Bergevin as the gm once he is ready.

 

[Garbageyuk]

Unfortunately at this point, you are the one who is displaying the most emotional and child like demeanor on this topic. That is the funny an slightly ironic bit!

You are contriving things to suit your agenda/narrative. I'm not emotional at all. I just find it funny how sensitive some people are about new prospects. If its not "OMG he played wit da menz!!! he is da best prospect everrrr, our franchise saviorr!!!!", then you are bashing him according to some on HF Habs.

 

[montreal]

First of all, he's 6'3''. Second, no, I don't think many thought he had 1D potential; he was projected to go in the 2nd and even 3rd round by some scouts and publications. There were red flags from the beginning with that pick, chief among them: he was playing on a high school team.

I'd have to look up scouting reports, I seem to recall him being 6'5 but it's not much difference at 6'3. I recall one team had him as a ND but that was because of his interviews. He was rated as a 1st rounder by CSB because he was a smooth skating blueliner that could move the puck and he was slate to go to the team that had the most NHL draft picks of any school in the NCAA. So clearly going to a top program like Minnesota is going to get scouts attention when you have offers to play for the USNDTP, are a great skater with size. Scouts are going to take notice of that.

As for playing on a high school team, like when he played in the State Championship vs Ryan McDonagh in his draft year? I know that picking kids from the USHS is risky but it didn't stop McDonagh or Anders Lee or Nick Leddy or Blake Wheeler, etc... from being great draft picks.

Back to Kotkaniemi; he was more of a reach than any of those top-10 Habs picks you listed. In fact, the only one who could be considered somewhat of a reach was Price, and look what happened there. Kopitar should have been the pick, not just in hindsight either, lots of people thought so at the time. Reaches usually don't work out, and the team who does it usually gets burned. Scheifele worked out great, but who else lately? The list of unsuccessful reaches is long and sad. Like I said, I think the Habs were influenced by the media with this pick, and this draft as a whole. That's not how you run a franchise. The Habs front office has no idea what they are doing, so excuse me for being skeptical about a reach pick in the top-3.

Price at one point was the best player in the NHL, so clearly he nailed the pick which is my point. Just as he did with Sergachev and Galchenyuk. Timmins very clearly has a proven track record when picking inside the top 10. If you want to believe this pick was influenced by the media, which just sounds flat out crazy to me, go for it.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Not sure why people are pissing over each other's posts about a 17yo prospect who just put up a .5ppg in Liiga.
Like, there is nothing definitive outside him showing some potential that still needs time to truly be determined.

The only thing I can confidentally say at this point is Kotkaniemi is not the future of the Habs. He's a good young prospect to have. Cool. We need plenty more of those and also have to add strong NHLers.

It's an important pick for us that's why. Poehling and Kotkaniemi are big bodies with skill and they are legit centers who complement each other up the middle in our top 2 spots. Yeah, we don't have a Crosby but these two are very good centers for us moving forward. We should be excited about having them in our prospect pool IMO.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Honestly the way those Habs fans at American Airlines Center reacted to this pick makes me think this will be a Porzingis type situation.

(For those who aren't aware, Kristaps Porzingis was the 4th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft and was booed by fans upon being drafted, but became an all-star and a fan favourite.)

 

[le_sean]

Honestly the way those Habs fans at American Airlines Center reacted to this pick makes me think this will be a Porzingis type situation.

(For those who aren't aware, Kristaps Porzingis was the 4th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft and was booed by fans upon being drafted, but became an all-star and a fan favourite.)

Don’t Knicks fans always boo their draft picks? I thought that was a thing.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Don’t Knicks fans always boo their draft picks? I thought that was a thing.

They boo everyone and everything. It's a New York thing I guess.

 

[Saxon]

Honestly the way those Habs fans at American Airlines Center reacted to this pick makes me think this will be a Porzingis type situation.

(For those who aren't aware, Kristaps Porzingis was the 4th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft and was booed by fans upon being drafted, but became an all-star and a fan favourite.)

As an Eagles fan, Donovan McNabb would be another example.

 

[junyab]

Honestly the way those Habs fans at American Airlines Center reacted to this pick makes me think this will be a Porzingis type situation.

(For those who aren't aware, Kristaps Porzingis was the 4th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft and was booed by fans upon being drafted, but became an all-star and a fan favourite.)

It was just ignorance. They just all assumed and knew Zadina because he was "ranked 3rd". I mean, Kotkaniemi was rumoured to be "our guy" for several weeks. It was only a shock if you literally read nothing leading up to the draft.

 

[montreal]

when did he have the ACL injury, was just watching some clips from the U-18's from when he was 16 and he looked a decent amount skinner then in the clips I first saw him which I assume were at the start of this past season. He was moving well out and looked great along with Ylonen although of course it was a highlight vid.

 

[NotProkofievian]

when did he have the ACL injury, was just watching some clips from the U-18's from when he was 16 and he looked a decent amount skinner then in the clips I first saw him which I assume were at the start of this past season. He was moving well out and looked great along with Ylonen although of course it was a highlight vid.

Not last off-season, but the off-season before it is my understanding. That's why he lost half of his U20 season but still played at the 2017 U18.

 

[Redux91]

when did he have the ACL injury, was just watching some clips from the U-18's from when he was 16 and he looked a decent amount skinner then in the clips I first saw him which I assume were at the start of this past season. He was moving well out and looked great along with Ylonen although of course it was a highlight vid.

I was just coming to post that when Ylonen played with Kotka in that U-18, Kotka was 16, thats crazy he looked polished out there lol
Would be really great if these 2 hit it off together from now on
Hopefully Kotka like Poehling will play in 2 WJC's

 

[montreal]

I was just coming to post that when Ylonen played with Kotka in that U-18, Kotka was 16, thats crazy he looked polished out there lol
Would be really great if these 2 hit it off together from now on
Hopefully Kotka like Poehling will play in 2 WJC's

got to think he will play in 2 WJC's unless he somehow makes the Habs in '19-'20 (if there is a season to play). I just hope they don't rush him due to need.