kelsier
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Back in the FEL line up. Playing in third line between Ikonen and Salminen.
C/LW Anton Lundell - IFK Helsinki, Liiga (2020 Draft)
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He lacks in skating a bit, as they talk about in the video, but Anton has stated skating will be his focus from now on. He has 17 months to work on that before his draft. Hockey sense and skills are in place otherwise. Solid prospect.
FinPanda
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kelsier
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Watched both games this weekend and was really impressed with him. Lundell doesn't have elite offensive line mates so naturally one shouldn't expect too much production-wise, especially when considering he doesn't get prime minutes while playing as a 3rd line center. Yesterday he saw no PP time, but eventually the kid brought home the two points by the OT goal. Today they played another game vs Kookoo and seems like his efforts were noticed as he was slotted in the powerplay. He looked hungry, competed relentlessly by aggressively back and front-checking and consistently trying to create scoring chances. One way or the other most of the times he was able to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Got two pretty good scoring chances for himself and in the first he should have buried it when he received a pass while being in front of the net but got denied. In the second opportunity think he was just a step away from reaching the puck to tap it in but defence at the last second was able to prevent it.
He seems pretty fast skater for someone of his size. Definitely has better top speed than Barkov and Kotkaniemi had at the same age. Think only Rantanen was a tad bit faster when compared to other big bodied/tall Finns in his size range. Right now he looks like a prototype of the two-way center that most team covet. Lundell checks out the boxes including size, high hockey IQ, passing and as mentioned, skating shouldn't be an issue moving forward either. What I really like about him is that unlike many other playmaking centers, he really has a nose for the net as well as excellent finishing ability around the net. Haven't seen him shoot from the far out enough to otherwise make any valid insights about his slap shot, shot power/velocity, accuracy etc. I've seen him get exhaust in the long shifts this season too and Lundell definitely needs to work with his stamina over the next summer.
A while back I read a piece where a HIFK fan/follower mentioned that he is generally considered a pretty bright kid with a solid head over the shoulders and he is well-respected within the organization and their inner circle. I hope that's valid, cause character is also an important attribute. His father was a well-known goalkeeper back in the day and is listed 6"3 in the Eliteprospects. I haven't followed the height growth with Anton and don't know if he has stalled, so unless he's been 6"1 for a while now I think he might still get taller (that is if his height/weight information in the EP is up to date anyway). Looks like a really solid overall packet and it's rare seeing just over 17 year old being let to play C at this level in one of the best teams in FEL. All things considered should surely be one of the top prospects in the 2020 draft.
He seems pretty fast skater for someone of his size. Definitely has better top speed than Barkov and Kotkaniemi had at the same age. Think only Rantanen was a tad bit faster when compared to other big bodied/tall Finns in his size range. Right now he looks like a prototype of the two-way center that most team covet. Lundell checks out the boxes including size, high hockey IQ, passing and as mentioned, skating shouldn't be an issue moving forward either. What I really like about him is that unlike many other playmaking centers, he really has a nose for the net as well as excellent finishing ability around the net. Haven't seen him shoot from the far out enough to otherwise make any valid insights about his slap shot, shot power/velocity, accuracy etc. I've seen him get exhaust in the long shifts this season too and Lundell definitely needs to work with his stamina over the next summer.
A while back I read a piece where a HIFK fan/follower mentioned that he is generally considered a pretty bright kid with a solid head over the shoulders and he is well-respected within the organization and their inner circle. I hope that's valid, cause character is also an important attribute. His father was a well-known goalkeeper back in the day and is listed 6"3 in the Eliteprospects. I haven't followed the height growth with Anton and don't know if he has stalled, so unless he's been 6"1 for a while now I think he might still get taller (that is if his height/weight information in the EP is up to date anyway). Looks like a really solid overall packet and it's rare seeing just over 17 year old being let to play C at this level in one of the best teams in FEL. All things considered should surely be one of the top prospects in the 2020 draft.
I think Lundell is really compete player especially for his age. He has every attribute you want in #1 C but i’m afraid him not having enough offensive talent to be #1 pick. I don’t think he has any game breaking offensive skills. He just does everything really well and he can be a C who can be dominant 200 foot player. He still has time to prove me wrong but i’m little suspicious his chances to be #1 pick because almost every year teams are looking for that game breaker with top pick.
Hmm. To me Lundell has the tools to be impressive offensively. From what I've seen I see more potential scoringwise than I did with, for instance, Barkov at the same age. I should add that I had a chance to watch Barkov A LOT more as I lived in Finland and was still in university (thus much more free time
) and it could also be the fact that Barkov is so calm and always makes the smart play rather than the "flashy" one, so I would be interested to hear whether others agree with your assessment.Hmm. To me Lundell has the tools to be impressive offensively. From what I've seen I see more potential scoringwise than I did with, for instance, Barkov at the same age. I should add that I had a chance to watch Barkov A LOT more as I lived in Finland and was still in university (thus much more free time
I’m not saying Lundell being bad offensively i think his tools are really good but not game breaking. Barkov at same age was almost PPG in Liiga against some lockout NHL players for first half of the season. Barkov schooled #1 C in Mikko Koivu at same age as Lundell is now. Mikko Koivu was competing hard in that game. To say Lundell being more talented offensively than Barkov at same age is pretty wierd to me. Lundell is basically 0.5 PPG 3rd line C at the same age when Barkov was PPG and one of the best offensive players of his team and the league especially at playoffs until Melart crushed him for season ending injury. Barkov already had silky smooth hands, had pretty heavy shot and incredible vision. I watched every single game of Barkov since 15 year old at Ivan Hlinka tournament excluding some A-Juniorit action. Even Barkov went #2 overall.
Lundell to me is like Mikko Koivu V2 or Sean Couturier if everything pans out. Excellent 200 foot player who can chip in offensively. Again he can prove me wrong and i’ve been wrong before.
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I liked Mikko Koivu a lot in his draft year. But Lundell now is younger, more than a year away from his draft summer, and even more impressive. The issue he has now is that he can be a step behind the play on occasion. If Anton works on first few step explosiveness and skating stride he will be extremely good. Fix that and you have one hell of a player.
kelsier
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Yeah he definitely is very complete player for his age. With that said, of course he's not going to display Kakko stylish dynamic highlight reels day in day out and in overall he's more like Barkov in that way - someone who's computing right decisions time and time again (and having few missed swings here and there). I think we should just be very content of seeing Lundell not only being able to play at this level, but to be able to actually perform better than most adults. Also it is impossible to tell whether that "extra offensive gear" comes out cause after all we are talking about someone who's still so young and playing against guys with years and years more experience. He might stagnate or he might develop further into something even more. Take Aho for instance, I doubt anyone expected him to become S.Koivu type of offensive juggernaut after his D year. Even Kakko for that matter, barely no one knew him before 17-18 until he just exploded in the JrA out of nowhere. Some players just bloom later than the others.
Lundell doesn't have to become #1 OA nor am I expecting it, but he has the tools to become a special player and even exceed our expectations if all goes great. Only time will tell.
Kakko didn’t exactly explode out of nowhere, he has always been one of the top players of the age group.
kelsier
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You're joking, right?
This is the first ever thread started about Kakko in the HFBoards:
RW Kaapo Kakko - TPS, Liiga (2019 Draft)
I'm sure you can look at the date on your own but as you can see the topic was started 8th of October 2017.
I don't even have to start digging into old scouting articles that were sighting into the future since if the Finns had a top prospect of his age group in the pipeline, the hype here would've exploded much, much sooner than it did (which in this case meaning sooner than 17-18).
Not out of nowhere but his performance hasn't been very notable until the 17-18 season. Before then the production's in line for a middle rounder, perhaps.
kelsier
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So let's get this straight. Kakko (in your opinion) has always been considered as one of the top prospects of his age class. Why? Due to an appearance in grand total of three games as an underage prospect at the international level with the u17 team where he managed to score whopping zero points. M'kay. You have any other actually valid causes that would back up the claim? Also since apparently he was widely known commodity I'm sure you have no problems presenting us some actual written (prior to season 17-18) articles that would support this statement? Preferably by North American authors, since we're not talking about FEL draft 2019, but NHL draft 2019. Geez, can't believe I've missed all this. xD
Jesus christ, the kid has always been the top prospect for TPS, has always played with 00's and 99's. The fact that you make the year older national team especially in U16, proves that you are a top player from the age group. Just said that he didn't "explode out of nowhere" as the poster said. Also there are usually no articles in NA of U16 players from Europe, so that's just f***ing idiotic of you to say.
16-17 season there were only 3 players with Kakko who played in the A-SM: Kokkonen, Aaltonen and Nikkanen.
Just stop, you've lost already if you think that he wasn't a top prospect already at U16 age.
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kelsier
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You do understand that we are not having a dialogue at @HFinland but the prospects sub forum which targets the entire globe. So when you make a statement like "player X has always been considered as one of the top prospects of the age class", that means he has always been considered one of the best of his class worldwide - not by some fellows who evaluate prospects in his own organization. Geez, and even if you make the U17 national team as an underage player to play less than a handful of games, that doesn't guarantee even a first round pick, let alone being considered one of the best. I'm sure to some of the TPS fans he might have been a "well known" player in the makings, but as far as the entire draft goes, don't think so. The fact that no one hadn't even bothered to start a thread about Kakko before 8th of October 2017 speaks volumes. Like said, he wasn't widely well-known before 17-18 until he exploded that season and the fact that you cannot even provide any sources to back up the argument more or less seals the debate as far as I'm concerned.
Leevi Aaltonen did it too, and he's some third, fourth rounder? Do you realize we're not talking about "TPS's top prospect" but on the world level?
Yeah, of course I do? He was a top prospect in Finland, I would have then placed him in the top 30 prospects in the world, which I would say is a top prospect.
Btw let’s drop this, it’s a Lundell thread, not a ”when did Kakko become a top prospect” thread
Loffer
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The kid is pretty amazing and all but you really include him in the ”big body” category? He is not that big, or has he been growing recently/is he still growing leaps and bounds? Also, paid attention to his skating and it looks somewhat lacking as well technically as explosive wise.
That is nothing like ”power skating” but simply a ”leaking stride”, me thinks.
That is nothing like ”power skating” but simply a ”leaking stride”, me thinks.
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