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

[Garbageyuk]

McIsaac said Zadina is generational? Jesus...

Generational as in part of this generation of hockey players.

 

[Habs Halifax]

McIsaac said Zadina is generational? Jesus...

Based on the season McIsaac had and stalled development in his draft year, you don't have to do much to be a a generational talent to McIsaac eyes. 24 months ago, McIsaac was a top 10 consideration in the 2018 draft. The guy just looks normal at this stage. Glad the Habs passed on him.

 

[waffledave]

Where did Timmins say this??
You gotta be kidding

Kotka is playing wing now. I thought this was common knowledge.

 

[waffledave]

Here's why you absolutely had to take Kotkaniemi : what if he does in fact go to the wing at 22-23-24 and outproduces The Great Zadina?

one of the worst case scenario's with kotka could be one of Zadina's ceilings, its interesting.

That's a pretty big what-if though. Zadina is a better offensive player than Kotkaniemi, that's not really debatable, not at this point anyway.

 

[Adriatic]

Does Kotkaniemi remind anybody of Toews. Going just by the highlights he seems like the same type of player. Wide skating style, low to the ground, goes down on one knee a lot, cuts to the net the same way.

 

[Redux91]

Does Kotkaniemi remind anybody of Toews. Going just by the highlights he seems like the same type of player. Wide skating style, low to the ground, goes down on one knee a lot, cuts to the net the same way.

We can only hope bud, they keep saying Kopitar, and he himself says he wants to be like Barkov

I mean to me there's no doubt there's some offense to his game its very encouraging but what keeps standing out as a common denominator in all these reports and analysis's is the Defense which is even MORE encouraging since it was the constant knock on galchenyuk

Lord knows if you have a Center with size whos got some offense but contributes just as much defense, well they lead to championships

And i know Barkov hasnt done anything yet...give it time..the guys a superstar, if kotkaniemi became a poor mans barkov id still be thrilled

 

[le_sean]

Does Kotkaniemi remind anybody of Toews. Going just by the highlights he seems like the same type of player. Wide skating style, low to the ground, goes down on one knee a lot, cuts to the net the same way.

Definitely. He’s in that Toews/Kopitar mould of being a possession beast with two-way play and an underrated shot.

 

[Rockomax]

Does Kotkaniemi remind anybody of Toews. Going just by the highlights he seems like the same type of player. Wide skating style, low to the ground, goes down on one knee a lot, cuts to the net the same way.

Toews was super skilled though. Not that Kotkaniemi isn't, I haven't watched him, so I wouldn't know. But I remember Toews against players his age on international stage, he was such a great player. Coming into the league too. Remember that goal against Colorado in 2007 (link at the end)? Man that was a goal, I still enjoy watching it 10 years later. If Kotkaniemi can get close to Toews, we will be lucky. He was somewhat close to PPG in his first 7 seasons coming into the league.



edit: I know you don't mean that he'll be a Toews clone! Just saying Toews is a great skilled player. Now not as much as in the past, mainly because of contract expectations. But if Kotkaniemi can come close, I'll be super happy.

 

[Habby Gilmore]

Interesting read from Habs EOTP for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

Contextualizing Kotkaniemi: How does his draft year stack up against other top Finnish prospects?

 

[G0bias]

Contextualizing Kotkaniemi: How does his draft year stack up against other top Finnish prospects?

Would've been nice to stack up to earlier comparables like Barkov. Nice find.

 

[NobleSix]

Did you see the McIsaac interview? He called Zadina generational. I laughed really hard when I heard that.

Laugh out Loud

 

[StanleyCH25]

Laine was incredible on the powerplay and really started coming into his own towards the end of the season. Jesperi was more prolific at even strength on average though. His rate was higher than Puljujärvi's as well, and he got some time with D+1 Aho (at least when I was watching that's who Jesse was with, though he did have his ice time fiddled with, IIRC). I should stress that Kristian Vesalainen was excellent this year, and he still was not as prolific as Jesperi at even strength (either in rate or absolute production).

It bears repeating, however, that Jesperi was particularly bad on the PP.

Your emphasis on how poor Jesperi was on the PP makes me wonder how much of it is a product of his own play versus how much of it is a product of playing on a poor team and having poor linemates. I wish there was a way to watch uniquely his shifts on the powerplay to try to gauge how he's trying to contribute to the play and see if there are any deficiencies.

Me too. There's two factors that are really affecting our ability to do the projection. The first is that Liiga only started tracking time on ice in 2014-15, so we miss many comparables: Lehkonen, Kapanen, Barkov, Rantanen, Granlund, Armia. The second is that many finns are choosing to play hockey elsewhere. This is why we lose Rantanen and Puljujärvi's post draft years, and Eeli Tolvanen, and Olli Juolevi, and Aleksi Heponiemi, and Joni Ikonen, and Juuso Välimäki. We're just bleeding data so we have to find ways to make do. I think the D+1 decile idea is interesting enough to put in the work. We would more than double our sample size if these prospects stayed in Finland and played Liiga.

The CHL is more ripe for this sort of work due to prospects being trapped in the league until they're good enough for the NHL.

My guess is we might eventually find data that we can extrapolate from other leagues and apply to the Liiga. Maybe someone will be able to plot a league curve for different data points and see how they can adjust the Liiga's values to match the curve. Once you have something credible, you should be able to use data from the other league that contains more samples to find comparables to players from the Liiga.

 

[Hannibal]

One thing for sure.

He has a Kopitar frame. He's a very big kid.

 

[Andrei79]

That's a pretty big what-if though. Zadina is a better offensive player than Kotkaniemi, that's not really debatable, not at this point anyway.

Completely disagree. That its not debatable for you hints that you've never seen them play extensively.

Zadina, Wahlstrom, Kravtsov and Kotkaniemi are close to equal footing offensively. Of the 4, Zadina easily has the least dimensions to his offense.

 

[ECWHSWI]

Completely disagree. That its not debatable for you hints that you've never seen them play extensively.

Zadina, Wahlstrom, Kravtsov and Kotkaniemi are close to equal footing offensively. Of the 4, Zadina easily has the least dimensions to his offense.

and how many games have YOU watched for all these kids, and I'm not talking hicglites here but full games... how many ?

 

[Pickles]

Kotka is playing wing now. I thought this was common knowledge.

Isn't he playing wing because the team he played for in Liga had a bunch of good centers on it? Or is it because he's better on the wing?

 

[The Great Weal]

Isn't he playing wing because the team he played for in Liga had a bunch of good centers on it? Or is it because he's better on the wing?

It's because 17 year olds rarely play center full time in a mens league. Kotkaniemi has always been a center against his peers and it's already been confirmed that he will play center full time in Liiga. It's very annoying to read when people say he isn't a center.

 

[Pickles]

It's because 17 year olds rarely play center full time in a mens league. Kotkaniemi has always been a center against his peers and it's already been confirmed that he will play center full time in Liiga. It's very annoying to read when people say he isn't a center.

Well that's a relief. I could see this kid becoming my next favorite player. I'm glad they're playing him at center full time get him some more development time at that position. Seeing highlights of his passing ability its clear the guy is a center.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

It's because 17 year olds rarely play center full time in a mens league. Kotkaniemi has always been a center against his peers and it's already been confirmed that he will play center full time in Liiga. It's very annoying to read when people say he isn't a center.

people dont know how to read thats why.

 

[ECWHSWI]

It's because 17 year olds rarely play center full time in a mens league. Kotkaniemi has always been a center against his peers and it's already been confirmed that he will play center full time in Liiga. It's very annoying to read when people say he isn't a center.

the kid is not in a league or on a team affiliated to the Habs in any way, if it fits them better that he plays wing, he'll go back to LW/RW, wether Habs like it or not...

 

[Kriss E]

It's because 17 year olds rarely play center full time in a mens league. Kotkaniemi has always been a center against his peers and it's already been confirmed that he will play center full time in Liiga. It's very annoying to read when people say he isn't a center.

Why is it annoying? He was a winger last year. If he switches to center this season then he'll be one.
He was definitely drafted to be a center, but so was Galchenyuk.

 

[jaffy27]

Even Kotkaniemi plays wing often. Don't see anyone saying he's not a center...

He played Wing this season because he was a 17 year old centre playing on a men’s team for the first time, so they (his dad) played him on the wing to start the season.

He will start the next season at centre....1C or 2C...?

That we will know in the fall

 

[jaffy27]

Why is it annoying? He was a winger last year. If he switches to center this season then he'll be one.
He was definitely drafted to be a center, but so was Galchenyuk.

He’s a centre and is slotted to play centre next year....in a men’s pro league to boot

In my opinion, next year will be his last in Europe!!

 

[Kriss E]

He’s a centre and is slotted to play centre next year....in a men’s pro league to boot

In my opinion, next year will be his last in Europe!!

Galchenyuk was drafted as a center and slotted to be one for us too. Bergevin said so 4 years running and then changed his tune.
Not saying it will be the case with Kotka, but last year he was a winger.

 

[jaffy27]

Galchenyuk was drafted as a center and slotted to be one for us too. Bergevin said so 4 years running and then changed his tune.
Not saying it will be the case with Kotka, but last year he was a winger.

True, completely miss managed.

This doesn’t mean though that all centreman we draft moving forward will have the same fate as galchenyuk.

You hear Timmins raving on Kotka and his true abilities as a centre, there’s no doubt this is where he will play. If I remember correctly, Kotka played centre at the end of the year for his pro team.

He and Poehling give us hope down the middle.

Also loving this Hillis kid...maybe our Brayden Point??