I legit don’t understand how anyone can think Kakko is a bust. He’s 19 and had tons of big boy shifts dominating down low. He looks gassed and needs to work on his endurance and even still he looks really strong. I can’t wait for next year or the year after he’s gonna be a stud.
Watching the Oilers-Hurricanes game now. Draisaitl's rookie season he was 19, and was playing North American hockey in the WHL the previous year. He only played 37 games scoring 2G and 7A before going back down to the WHL. His sophomore season he was 20-years-old and began the season in the AHL before coming up and scoring 51PTS in 72 games (playing with Taylor Hall.) 21-years-old for his third season, scores 77PTS in 82 games (playing with Connor McDavid.) He didn't explode until his fifth season in the NHL at 23.
Kakko won't get compared to Draisaitl, because the latter was taken #3OA not #2OA, which is really trivial. Kakko is only going to be 21-years-old during his
fourth NHL season. We still have 2 whole more seasons to get through before then. He'll practically be a NHL veteran at 23-years-old. We might have to wait 1...2...3...4...maybe even 5 years before Kakko really
gets there but he's going to get there.