Tolvanen is not guaranteed anything. Much better prospects than he have failed for various reasons.
Kitsyn looked like the complete package at the time, but just didn't have the hockey sense and maybe commitment to fulfill expectations.
Sometimes you don't know until you see a guy play more than a few games as a pro.
That's why I said
almost guaranteed. Sometimes you really don't need anything else to succeed in NHL other than good offensive skillset that Tolvanen already has.
Yeah, it's hard to succeed if you don't have the correct commitment for the game. Not to mention if the person lacks hockey sense in today's hockey. Luckily for Tolvanen, he has always had a great hockey sense, especially in the offensive zone.
Tolvanen has good patience with the puck to not make hasty decisions on top of him having accurate passing. Similar to Laine, even when his shot is being covered, he can still feed his linemates for scoring chances because goalies and defenders have to try play away the shot of Tolvanen.
Tolvanen has been one of the best players for Jokerit in every preseason game from what I've heard and he continued that trend in his first two official KHL games. I think that should be a good indication that the player is ready to succeed at higher level than he has used to.
