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

[Kriss E]

Fair enough I guess. I still see that example being used all the time. Where someone will say 'weren't we supposed to have been the big winners of that draft?' like the complete opposite happened.

I still think you can generally like picks because you ACTUALLY see upside. Of course they're not all gonna pan out but you can still like that we gambled on talent. We usually know when a pick's a complete dud in the last few years with very few exceptions. People were hyped about PK and Gallagher shortly after the draft. Of course, fans/hype aren't always right but it does happen often enough.

So if on paper we're one of the winners of this draft RIGHT NOW and the same thing happens where we're one of the winners in the long term as well, I'll be quite happy. We gambled on a LOT of talent. On paper, this is one of our better drafts (if not the best) that I've seen since I've been paying attention more or less. Two or 3 of these guys pan out and it's a damn good draft.

Meh, as I said, it doesn't mean much.
Every player taken in the draft has upside and potential, that's why they're taken.

 

[Habs]

The same Dobson that came out at 13 ?

Hughes , or Wahlstrom were my faves.

 

[Anardil]

That wasn't the point.
It's not about whether or not we are winners, it's the fact everyone was raving about pretty much everyone of our picks. Galch was a 3rd overall, but even if we ignored him, people were loving all the other picks propping them up to be great prospects.
Well cool, but only Hudon made it to the NHL and he's likely to be a bottom 6 player.
So ya, we can say we won that draft, but as you can see, it doesn't mean much.

It wasn't only here. If you remember, the main board for once wasn't bashing everything Habs related. Everyone was gushing about the Habs haul that year.

 

[NotProkofievian]

I don't remember, but was he part of the european combine ? And, did he have his brace on at the actual combine (didn't seem like it).

I know the Habs will consult docs if they need to. They did it with Kostitsyn, for instance, before drafting him.

So, my guess would be that its prophylactic use, assuming its the same knee that he injured last year.

No, he wasn't, and no he didn't to my recollection. Timmins did say that they were aware of an ACL surgery and that they had ''checked it out'' and it was completely healthy.

 

[Kriss E]

It wasn't only here. If you remember, the main board for once wasn't bashing everything Habs related. Everyone was gushing about the Habs haul that year.

True.

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

Meh, as I said, it doesn't mean much.
Every player taken in the draft has upside and potential, that's why they're taken.

Varying degrees of upside and potential. Widely varying degrees of upside and potential.

 

[sandviper]

Varying degrees of upside and potential. Widely varying degrees of upside and potential.

And varying degrees of opinions from the scouts themselves.

 

[le_sean]

They can still loan him to his Finnish club right?

 

[montreal]

They can still loan him to his Finnish club right?

Yes, he won't count against the 50 contract limit until he's 20 so unless he's in the NHL for more then 10 games this won't impact him at all. Now next year it will be interesting to see what the plan is. If he's in the AHL it won't count as a year off his ELC as long as he doesn't play in more then 10 NHL games.

 

[Cobra Commander]

By the time he comes over hopefully Bergevin is gone.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

when does the liiga season start?
Management said kotka will be in the main camp, any chance he plays a pre-season game?

 

[NotProkofievian]

when does the liiga season start?
Management said kotka will be in the main camp, any chance he plays a pre-season game?

Liiga pre-season starts in August. Pori's first regular season game is 14th of September against Rauma Lukko.

 

[Andrei79]

Liiga pre-season starts in August. Pori's first regular season game is 14th of September against Rauma Lukko.

Got any wind of what JK's training will be like ?


Namely strength/mass and skating ?

 

[NotProkofievian]

Got any wind of what JK's training will be like ?


Namely strength/mass and skating ?

I have no clue beyond basic weight training. One finnish poster dropped by and shared an interesting video about Rautala's training group in Turku, and made the point that it's quite influential around Finland, but we don't really know if Jesperi is following that routine.

Here's a pre-draft video that has some footage of Jesperi training:



And here's the video about Rautala's group:

 

[Andrei79]

I have no clue beyond basic weight training. One finnish poster dropped by and shared an interesting video about Rautala's training group in Turku, and made the point that it's quite influential around Finland, but we don't really know if Jesperi is following that routine.

Here's a pre-draft video that has some footage of Jesperi training:



And here's the video about Rautala's group:

Thanks.

I'm at 15 minutes of that second vid, it's really cool stuff. Outside of Subban, I cant think of many players who we've had access to like that.

Hope JK does train with Rautala. There's a lot of compound mouvements, low reps at decent weights in the major exercises. Everything he'd need to gain mass and strength. He's already strong and explosive as thin teen.

One thing I hope he does is get a lot of ice time with a proper skating coach. Just to fix some technical issues and his turns. He can be a pretty good and explosive skater if he puts in the time.

 

[Mrb1p]

Thanks.

I'm at 15 minutes of that second vid, it's really cool stuff. Outside of Subban, I cant think of many players who we've had access to like that.

Hope JK does train with Rautala. There's a lot of compound mouvements, low reps at decent weights in the major exercises. Everything he'd need to gain mass and strength. He's already strong and explosive as thin teen.

One thing I hope he does is get a lot of ice time with a proper skating coach. Just to fix some technical issues and his turns. He can be a pretty good and explosive skater if he puts in the time.

Id rather he sticks to really working om his skating. They specified they dont skate at all from the end of the season to aughust. Thats huge.

At the same time he is thin as hell... Its tough to judge.

 

[Andrei79]

Id rather he sticks to really working om his skating. They specified they dont skate at all from the end of the season to aughust. Thats huge.

At the same time he is thin as hell... Its tough to judge.

Rantanen said he doesn't since he prefers not to until then, he also said some do.

 

[calder candidate]

No, he wasn't, and no he didn't to my recollection. Timmins did say that they were aware of an ACL surgery and that they had ''checked it out'' and it was completely healthy.

When did he have ACL surgery?

 

[Mrb1p]

Rantanen said he doesn't since he prefers not to until then, he also said some do.

Didnt Ristolainen also say he wasnt skating until the training camp? My finnish might be leaving me

 

[Mrb1p]

Jonne is an absolute unit, Im in awe at the size of this lad.

@TRG

 

[Andrei79]

No, he wasn't, and no he didn't to my recollection. Timmins did say that they were aware of an ACL surgery and that they had ''checked it out'' and it was completely healthy.

Never answered, but my non-informed on the situation guess would be a prophylactic measure. I remember it being a common, albeit not very evidenced based, practice back in med school... Which is years ago sadly.

 

[TRG]

Jonne is an absolute unit, Im in awe at the size of this lad.

@TRG

I can't believe you've done this.

 

[DramaticGloveSave]

From my understanding, you generally get a prospect to focus on one thing per offseason- ie get bigger etc. Seems like this offseason will be the getting bigger offseason... next offseason will be the skating offseason.

 

[BB88]

Thanks.

I'm at 15 minutes of that second vid, it's really cool stuff. Outside of Subban, I cant think of many players who we've had access to like that.

Hope JK does train with Rautala. There's a lot of compound mouvements, low reps at decent weights in the major exercises. Everything he'd need to gain mass and strength. He's already strong and explosive as thin teen.

One thing I hope he does is get a lot of ice time with a proper skating coach. Just to fix some technical issues and his turns. He can be a pretty good and explosive skater if he puts in the time.

I'm pretty confident hes not, but I did brought up the way they train earlier in some of the threads, because they are the best known, (videos/articles,so on) and few of our most promising NHL prospects have been training as a group there, with all of them having skating issues and fixing it being the focus.

I would say as Kotka is most likely staying in Finland for next season he's training with Assat/his father.

Id rather he sticks to really working om his skating. They specified they dont skate at all from the end of the season to aughust. Thats huge.

At the same time he is thin as hell... Its tough to judge.

Which won't happen with Kotka unless Bergevin does something crazy.

Assats pre season starts in August so he'll start skating a month earlier than the NHL guys, Rantanen/Laine/Ristolainen have been seen as NHL players and training to get ready for NHL seasons.

I hope Kotka keeps has a versatile training program in place which includes skating, and Bergevin hasn't stopped him from staying with Assat.

 

[Andrei79]

From my understanding, you generally get a prospect to focus on one thing per offseason- ie get bigger etc. Seems like this offseason will be the getting bigger offseason... next offseason will be the skating offseason.

It's very place dependent.

I know Westside keeps slots open for skill development for their NFL/college athletes.