C/W Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Ässät, Liiga (2018, 3rd, MTL)
- Thread starter FinPanda
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This is a good comparison, at least stylistically. Too early to say how their skills compare to each others. If he plays the whole season with the mens team and gets around 30-40 points, he might even have pretty comparable skills.
Conspiracy Theorist
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- Jan 30, 2016
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He's no Barkov. At this point, it doesn't look like he's going to be able to reach the level of the top Finnish prospects for the 2016 or 2017 drafts. But if his development is good, he should easily be a first rounder, most likely a relative early one as well. His u18 performance was good and he's a big center.
He is closer to Julius Nättinen than Barkov. People seem to have forgotten how good Barkov was as 16 year old, Kotkaniemi is not even close to that.
He was as good as him as a 15 year old. He missed over half of the season due to injury. He has the potential to be as good as him. But yeah he isn't going to score 48 points though.
Gsus
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Not that he's bad, but Barkov comparisons are off. Barkov was super skilled and mature at his age. He was unique.
Lets hope for a decent NHL center so we don't have to be disappointed.
Lets hope for a decent NHL center so we don't have to be disappointed.
Patrik Barkov
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In their draft -1 years Barkov scored 16 points in 32 games in Liiga, along with 8 points in 5 u20 games. Kotkaniemi scored 15 points in 17 u20 games. Barkov was also the second or third line center for u20 Finland as a 16 year old. I like Kotkaniemi but Barkovs 16 year old season is on another level.
Barkov wasn't even the biggest talent at his own team at 15y. I mean he was talented but more like a 3-4 rounder, not first rounder and definitely not a 2nd overall talent.
The leap he took as 15-18 were so huge that it's not fair to expect anyone to take similar steps.
ChadS
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There's a LiveArena for Finland but at least last season they only showed some A-Jr games: http://sports.livearena.com/
Then there's Fanseat, which is a platform with many different sports, it is supposed to show A-Jr games as well as Mestis and other hockey leagues: http://www.fanseat.com/
Seems you can buy access to previous games on LiveArena for 10 euros a month. Not sure if there are region blocks up or not.
http://sports.livearena.com/User/Products
On a side note, if you haven't already seen them, you can watch most U-18 WJC game through this link in which they all participated in. It is region blocked in some areas though.
http://u18worlds2017.iihf.com/en/stream-game-7-finland-switzerland/
Don't go to Finnish LiveArena if you want to watch Jr.A. During the last season Finnish Ice Hockey Association made a deal with Fanseat which includes agreement that all the Jr. A should be broadcasted in Fanseat. After that nothing new arrived to LiveArena.
So if nothing changes, my advice would be to sign up in Fanseat and go to http://go.fanseat.com/. You can also find recordings of the last season games from there. Jr. A is Nuorten SM-liiga.
So if nothing changes, my advice would be to sign up in Fanseat and go to http://go.fanseat.com/. You can also find recordings of the last season games from there. Jr. A is Nuorten SM-liiga.
Hockeyisl1fe
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- Dec 8, 2016
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That's not really a fair comparison to Kotkaniemi since he's been incredible unlucky with injuries thus far. In their -2 draft years they had very similar seasons statwise. Also Kotkaniemi was about 9 months younger.
StiffSquid
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Barkov was the youngest player of his draft. How could Kotkaniemi Be younger than him in his draft -2?
Martinez
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Noma
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There is also a lot more content than just Finnish Jr. A: French league, Finnish second tier league Mestis, Finnish floorball and basketball leagues and much more sports that nobody really watches.
Hockeyisl1fe
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Jesper is the only Finnish player I'm high on this year. Not too big on Ylonen but that could change. I like his play style and he could easily hop into the top 15 with a good year. Very big skilled center. I'll compare him to a Barkov-Getzlaf hybrid. He's got the physique of a Getzlaf but more resembles Barkov in the skill department. Can see a big jump here for sure, not in the level of Pulju, Laine, Juolevi of Finnish past but he can creep up there.
Hockeyisl1fe
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Noma
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HockeyHistorian
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- Mar 17, 2015
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It was his second game. Lame.
However, the games at Pitsiturnaus are only 30 minutes long, so perhaps we could argue that it was his first game.
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