42oa: Eetu Luostarinen C/KalPa, FEL

GoldiFox

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I think a lot of guide scouts focus heavily on international events. Loustarinen has never been invited.
 

Anton Dubinchuk

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McKenzie had him 56th and said a lot of the scouts he spoke to love him.

Do we actually know he's a real hockey player?

Is this an Emperor's New Clothes type of thing? Someone makes up a guy, McKenzie asks scouts, they don't want to be caught not knowing so they say something like "oh boy, yeah, Eetu, kid's... yeah, he could be a player for sure".

And the lie just grows.


He is the George P. Burdell of hockey.
 

tomdundo

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Do we actually know he's a real hockey player?

Is this an Emperor's New Clothes type of thing? Someone makes up a guy, McKenzie asks scouts, they don't want to be caught not knowing so they say something like "oh boy, yeah, Eetu, kid's... yeah, he could be a player for sure".

And the lie just grows.


He is the George P. Burdell of hockey.

Good reference.
 

garnetpalmetto

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Do we actually know he's a real hockey player?

Is this an Emperor's New Clothes type of thing? Someone makes up a guy, McKenzie asks scouts, they don't want to be caught not knowing so they say something like "oh boy, yeah, Eetu, kid's... yeah, he could be a player for sure".

And the lie just grows.


He is the George P. Burdell of hockey.

It wouldn't be the first time that's happened.
 

Balls Mahoney

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This is one of the dark horses I was most excited about in the draft. He's big, he looks like huge in the clips I've seen of him. He's also got an awesome wrist shot. I think he'll definitely make the NHL but in what role is still up in the air. I'm excited to watch him develop.
 

Cane mutiny

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Did anyone notice if he was actually there at the draft? I hope he was at least watching it, or he missed his draft day. :(
 

Lempo

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His english is OK though. A little bit nervous, that's all.

The nervousness and the whole situation was what I was meaning.

- Excuse me, young man, is there a risk that you might die there?
- ... yes.
- Would you rather be trying to take the puck away from Sidney Crosby?
- yes please.
 

Vagrant

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The nervousness and the whole situation was what I was meaning.

- Excuse me, young man, is there a risk that you might die there?
- ... yes.
- Would you rather be trying to take the puck away from Sidney Crosby?
- yes please.

:D

That poor kid. I don't even know if I could bring myself to ask him a question as a reporter.
 

Vagrant

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I also wanted to add a little context to the reasons why I think we made this pick. And it's not a justification or changing of my opinion. I still don't like it and still think it was a bad value spot considering the players that were on the board. I just think after the shock of those factors having worn off a bit, there are factors about this selection that make it seem a little less of a value punt.

There's no doubt it was a reach, but there are some factors at play. Last season at this time, this player was in Junior B. U18. He wasn't even playing in the U20 Junior A league in Finland. That means he was entirely off the radar as a draft option. In the span of the following year, not only did he advance to Junior A, but he dominated Junior A in such a manner that he only spent 23 games there before it became obvious he was ready for Liiga. That's an impressive leap. We don't have similar tiered systems in North America, but if you can imagine if the USHL to NCAA to AHL route was linear, it would be like a player that was good but not transcendent in the USHL at the end of one season going to the NCAA and dominating so much that halfway through the season in the NCAA he was elevated to the AHL to play a regular shift. It's a pretty aggressive promotion with such a small sample size. Luostarinen apparently stood up to it very well and was at minimum reliable in his time in Liiga.

He's a pretty explosive skater for a guy of his size and his reach is immense. There's some obvious upside here and even though his statistical production wasn't hyper impressive, Liiga isn't very high scoring and young players aren't often trusted with big minutes. This is another one of those trajectory picks where a player had a big time burst in their stock. Really similar to the Morgan Geekie pick in terms of attempting to catch a player that is trending upwards before the news really gets out as to how good they are. It's possible that McKenzie's ambitious ranking of him gave Francis and company some pause about his potential for making it to further rounds and they may have felt compelled to move earlier than anticipated on him for that reason. I suppose we have to trust that their instincts are correct on this player.
 

sheriff bart

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Also, taking a Euro player gets around the problem of not being able to bring a kid in to Charlotte before he turns 20
 

geehaad

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One thing that I need to keep in mind is that you draft a player when he comes up on your draft board. If this kid was better than every other player that was on their board, then they did the right thing in selecting him when they did. Counting on the possibility that no other NHL team has him high on their list is a game of blindfolded chicken.

We've made allusions to the Aho pick, telling ourselves to trust the process...well, this is another test of that trust, another data point that we'll recalibrate upon some day in the future.
 

Lempo

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Also, taking a Euro player gets around the problem of not being able to bring a kid in to Charlotte before he turns 20

Um.

He's under contract to KalPa in Liiga 19/20. As per the NHL transfer agreement with IIHF-associated Associations, he can be signed onto ELC and brought over, but as a 18-19 y.o. player under IIHF contract who wasn't Drafted on the 1st round, if he doesn't make it to the NHL roster, he must be offered back to the IIHF team before sending him to AHL.

Kuokkanen apparently is at this point right in this "either NHL or Liiga" peccadillo for the next season.
 

sheriff bart

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Um.

He's under contract to KalPa in Liiga 19/20. As per the NHL transfer agreement with IIHF-associated Associations, he can be signed onto ELC and brought over, but as a 18-19 y.o. player under IIHF contract who wasn't Drafted on the 1st round, if he doesn't make it to the NHL roster, he must be offered back to the IIHF team before sending him to AHL.

Kuokkanen apparently is at this point right in this "either NHL or Liiga" peccadillo for the next season.

Yeah, but I would rather have a kid playing in that league than with a bunch of overagers with a point to prove.

Major Junior basically has a free workforce and the rules allow them to retain those players who may be better developed by being in a higher league
 

Lempo

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Yeah, but I would rather have a kid playing in that league than with a bunch of overagers with a point to prove.

Major Junior basically has a free workforce and the rules allow them to retain those players who may be better developed by being in a higher league

That certainly is a worthy point. Pierre-Luc Dubois is a good bit in disadvantage compared to the other Top 5 guys in the last year's Draft.
 

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