When this thread was started, Matthews was the clear favorite to be picked 1st. If he still is, it's bonkers. Laine is playing crazy good. What does he have to do to earn the consideration to be picked first? Take the Finns to the final in the Worlds and score a hattrick? Or would Matthews still be the consensus No. 1 pick?
This is one of the funniest things I've seen in this thread.
As for the discussion, will be interesting to see upcoming rankings. Laine had marvelous playoffs and maybe we will see him challenging for the top-spot in several rankings.
There are lots of different small details you could take into account when drafting. Being smart is not a bad thing when you think about understanding the system etc. Look at Toews, Tavares and Bergeron. All those 3 come across very smart in their interviews.Come on, there are at least 4 people in this thread that pump his tires to no end, almost on a daily basis
Come on, there are at least 4 people in this thread that pump his tires to no end, almost on a daily basis
But on a more serious note, same goes for Matthews for this year. There aren't many swiss on this board and no one will hype him like crazy (we would if he were swiss). And everybody else outside the scouts only has limited viewings from the WJC and maybe a few CHL games.
I'm actually comparing it to Puljujarvi, but have fun comparing it to Laine. Nice change. But what Matthews did at USNDP was insane, and USNDP isn't just a USHL team, they play many games against NCAA programs. Passing players like Eichel and Kane, is extremely impressive, along with being the best player at last years U-18 which featured both Finns.
What you are ignoring that Laine and his line were the reason there was a tie game in the first place. Laine opened the scoring and was a very important part of the second goal. The fact that someone else happened to score the next two goals is, well, indicating that a team sport was played.
Every player you listed was an amazing regular season player, there games rarely rise for an entire playoffs, they just play at the same level they are always playing at. I do believe there is a small group of players who can't play under pressure and meltdown (Karl Malone in basketball is a good example of this). Clutch performance rarely carries over from season to season, lets alone across leagues. Guys like Hall and Eberle were labelled as clutch coming out of junior. I think the only reason to knock Matthews on this would be if you actually thought he was afraid of the moment, which there is no evidence of. My main point is the difference on how Matthews and Laine's tournaments are viewed is largely because Laine's teammates stepped up, while Matthew's didn't when there lines couldn't score. I would think it would be foolish to draw long term conclusions from a factor altered drastically by aspects out of there control. There are reasons to take Laine over Matthews (I still personally side with Matthews), but I don't think the clutch moniker is one of them. Laine had an amazing playoffs, and I think it was more reflective of his overall quality than of an ability to step up, I think he's more than capable of doing what he did at anypoint of the year.
I specifically mentioned the Sweden game, where it was Rantanen and Kapanen were the major parts that got them past, in contrast with the USA game vs Russia, I know Laine played well in the final, and was fine in the semi's, my main point is that I don't think any long term conclusions should be drawn from one single elimination tournament.
