Will Finland have a top 3 draft pick in 6 years a row?

[IceHockeyDude]

During last three summers a one prospect drafted in top three has been from Finland: 2016 (Laine 2nd), 2017 (Heiskanen 3rd) and 2018 (Kotkaniemi 3rd).

Looking at upcoming drafts, there is a high possibility that this trend will continue. At the moment most professional hockey followers have forward Kaapo Kakko as likeable second pick in the 2019 draft. Also a centerman Anton Lundell is looking like a lock to be in top five (or top three) in 2020 draft. 2021 draft is obviously far away but already the early rankings put a Finnish prospect as a potential top pick (Aatu Räty).

So what do you guys think? It would be pretty amazing to have this kind of talent production from this small but tough nothern country called Finland. I don't think (excluding Canada) any country has had this kind consistent production of high-end prospects before.

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[chaosrevolver]

For sure

 

[Addison Rae]

Kakko is the best player in the draft, he's not going first because of north american bias, but he will easily go second.

 

[93LEAFS]

During last three summers a one prospect drafted in top three has been from Finland: 2016 (Laine 2nd), 2017 (Heiskanen 3rd) and 2018 (Kotkaniemi 3rd).

Looking at upcoming drafts, there is a high possibility that this trend will continue. At the moment most professional hockey followers have forward Kaapo Kakko as likeable second pick in the 2019 draft. Also a centerman Anton Lundell is looking like a lock to be in top five (or top three) in 2020 draft. 2021 draft is obviously far away but already the early rankings put a Finnish prospect as a potential top pick (Aatu Räty).

So what do you guys think? It would be pretty amazing to have this kind of talent production from this small but tough nothern country called Finland. I don't think (excluding Canada) any country has had this kind consistent production of high-end prospects before.

Lundell isn't a top 5 lock. I don't think they are perfect, but neither Pronman or Button had him in their early top lists for 2020, and he is one of the older members of his class. Most places seem to have some combo of Lafreniere, Byfield, Raymond, and Holtz that high. Not that anything is written in stone with 18 months between now and the draft (which is why terms like a lock for drafts that far away is ridiculous).

Its possible, not sure it's likely that they pull this off. All, it takes is one team going off the board, not in their favor on a close call. Say two teams pull what happened with Puljujarvi compared to PLD.

 

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

Might as well go for 7 in row with Brad Lambert looking so promising. That being said I don't think Lundel or Räty are locks like Kakko

 

[93LEAFS]

Kakko is the best player in the draft, he's not going first because of north american bias, but he will easily go second.

NHL teams don't have North American bias outside of difficult to work Russian players due to lack of a transfer agreement and contract situations. Seriously, if there was a serious NA bias, Barkov wouldn't go ahead of Jones and Drouin, or Ilya Kovalchuk and Kari Lehtonen over two of the most hyped Canadian kids in ages in Spezza and Bouwmeester. When a Euro is clearly worthy of going high in the draft, they generally go around where they should. We heard this exact same stuff with Laine vs Matthews. You want to claim media bias fine, but it doesn't appear to be the case when actual NHL teams are drafting.

 

[wings5]

Swedes/ Russians are becoming underrated now imo especially Russians. Finland for sure have much better prospects than in the past, but it seems the hype surrounding their prospects is a close second to Canadians.

 

[Saekk]

6 seems like a stretch, but 4 should be certain.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

Kakko is the best player in the draft, he's not going first because of north american bias, but he will easily go second.

North American bias? What are you talking about?

 

[Daximus]

Swedes/ Russians are becoming underrated now imo especially Russians. Finland for sure have much better prospects than in the past, but it seems the hype surrounding their prospects is a close second to Canadians.

Yeah I think Pettersson will correct some of that for the Swedes. Russians are always going to be an enigma as long as the KHL exists. They have a safety net there so it puts a lot of uncertainty on whether they will commit to the NHL.

 

[Addison Rae]

NHL teams don't have North American bias outside of difficult to work Russian players due to lack of a transfer agreement and contract situations. Seriously, if there was a serious NA bias, Barkov wouldn't go ahead of Jones and Drouin, or Ilya Kovalchuk and Kari Lehtonen over too of the most hyped Canadian kids in ages in Spezza and Bouwmeester. When a Euro is clearly worthy of going high in the draft, they generally go around where they should. We heard this exact same stuff with Laine vs Matthews. You want to claim media bias fine, but it doesn't appear to be the case when actual NHL teams are drafting.

Alex Barkov had one of the best draft years in Europe in the past ~20 years citing him as an example of going ahead of inferior prospects seems like a relatively poor example.

The fact that Barkov didn't have major talk about going first in that draft is actually more questionable.

The idea that Kappo Kakko isn't at least on par with Jack Hughes as a prospect is insane.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Unless the player is an obvious 1OA, there's no guarantee any player will go top 3. I don't think there's a guarantee Hughes or Kakko will go top 3.

 

[93LEAFS]

Alex Barkov had one of the best draft years in Europe in the past ~20 years citing him as an example of going ahead of inferior prospects seems like a relatively poor example.

The fact that Barkov didn't have major talk about going first in that draft is actually more questionable.

The idea that Kappo Kakko isn't at least on par with Jack Hughes as a prospect is insane.

Euro's go first when they are worthy of it. You are claiming media bias, and then ignoring what teams actually do. I don't think Colorado or Toronto regret their picks in 2014 and 2016. The media can be as biased as they want, that shouldn't and rarely does influence NHL teams.

 

[Icebreakers]

Alex Barkov had one of the best draft years in Europe in the past ~20 years citing him as an example of going ahead of inferior prospects seems like a relatively poor example.

The fact that Barkov didn't have major talk about going first in that draft is actually more questionable.

The idea that Kappo Kakko isn't at least on par with Jack Hughes as a prospect is insane.

MacKinnon and Jones were just too damn good. Barkov is still behind those 2 in a redraft. It's close af though. He did end up going second so Florida did their homework.

 

[HanSolo]

Might as well go for 7 in row with Brad Lambert looking so promising. That being said I don't think Lundel or Räty are locks like Kakko

I had to look Lambert up because my first thought was "oh yeah that's a very traditional Finnish name" guess his parents were Canadian.

 

[LoveHateLeafs]

During last three summers a one prospect drafted in top three has been from Finland: 2016 (Laine 2nd), 2017 (Heiskanen 3rd) and 2018 (Kotkaniemi 3rd).

Looking at upcoming drafts, there is a high possibility that this trend will continue. At the moment most professional hockey followers have forward Kaapo Kakko as likeable second pick in the 2019 draft. Also a centerman Anton Lundell is looking like a lock to be in top five (or top three) in 2020 draft. 2021 draft is obviously far away but already the early rankings put a Finnish prospect as a potential top pick (Aatu Räty).

So what do you guys think? It would be pretty amazing to have this kind of talent production from this small but tough nothern country called Finland. I don't think (excluding Canada) any country has had this kind consistent production of high-end prospects before.

Based on the U17's and his Finnish junior league play, I like Raty. I think he looks like a first-rounder, but while he does a whole bunch of little things well, there doesn't appear to be any key area(skating, shot, puck-handling, IQ) where he towers over his peers, so I'm skeptical about him being a top pick. That being said, he was just named to Finland's roster for a European U18 tournament that starts on December 26th(I think it's in Switzerland), as one of three underagers on his team. He may well be the youngest player in the tournament. It will be interesting to see how he does.

 

[Bakayoko Ono]

I had to look Lambert up because my first thought was "oh yeah that's a very traditional Finnish name" guess his parents were Canadian.

Canadian-British father, Finnish mother.

 

[MarVell]

I think Kakko extends the streak, but after that I’m not so sure. Don’t think Lundell is even a lock for top 10 as it is. And Räty most definitely isn’t the front runner as of now. But lots of time left, anything can happen.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

I think Lundell would go top 5 this year. Wouldn't be surprised if pulls another Kotkaniemi. Kakko most likely going top 3 as well.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

MacKinnon and Jones were just too damn good. Barkov is still behind those 2 in a redraft. It's close af though. He did end up going second so Florida did their homework.

Barkov's a PPG Selke contender, also currently on pace for 35~ goals (hard to say if he'll keep up the goal rate though). I don't see how he's behind Jones.

 

[wetcoast]

Kakko is the best player in the draft, he's not going first because of north american bias, but he will easily go second.

The only reason that Hughes is going first is because his skillset is better.

If anything Kakko plays more like a "prototypical" north american player than Hughes does.

 

[avsfan09]

Alex Barkov had one of the best draft years in Europe in the past ~20 years citing him as an example of going ahead of inferior prospects seems like a relatively poor example.

The fact that Barkov didn't have major talk about going first in that draft is actually more questionable.

The idea that Kappo Kakko isn't at least on par with Jack Hughes as a prospect is insane.

Not so sure Jones was inferior in anyway. He just slipped due to teams not wanting to draft D that high because they are much harder to gauge and have a longer development period.

 

[wetcoast]

MacKinnon and Jones were just too damn good. Barkov is still behind those 2 in a redraft. It's close af though. He did end up going second so Florida did their homework.

Pretty much this.

The NA bias assertion simply isn't backed by facts.

 

[Hokinaittii]

I agree that while Lundell is for sure a first round player and potentially a top-10 pick, I'm still not sure if he is so exceptional that he would go in the top-3. He seems to be good in pretty much every aspect of the game but is there an area which he does exceptionally well?

I'm just curious because I haven't been able to watch him as much as I have watched other top prospects in recent years from Finland. Maybe I have missed something?

 

[nowhereman]

Kakko is the best player in the draft, he's not going first because of north american bias, but he will easily go second.

So teams are going to purposely pass on the superior player because of his passport?

Yeah, I don't think so...

If there is bias, it's because European players have less visibility than North American prospects (which isn't usually a major probably with top picks) but no team is going to pass on a player just because he's Finnish/Swedish/Czech, etc.

Alex Barkov had one of the best draft years in Europe in the past ~20 years citing him as an example of going ahead of inferior prospects seems like a relatively poor example.

The fact that Barkov didn't have major talk about going first in that draft is actually more questionable.

The idea that Kappo Kakko isn't at least on par with Jack Hughes as a prospect is insane.

Regardless, Barkov did not have a better D-1 season than MacKinnon and Colorado ended up making the right pick in the end.

And I highly doubt you've seen enough of either Hughes or Kakko to make that final assertion. I know of very few scouts who consider Kakko "at least on par with Jack Hughes" but I guess that just makes them "insane", lol.

Luckily Jim and Judd are drafting for your team and not you...