Barkov was better than Kotkaniemi by some margin for sure. Although his production (because so much inflated by the chemistry and ice time with Ville Nieminen) was not really THAT much better after all. And honestly after watching a lot of Barkov’s play just recently from that season, it refreshed my memory of how awful skater he really was at that time. When comparing just skating, Kotkaniemi is a clearly better skater than the draft time Barkov.It's not just that one season, Barkov's production was amazing even during his 16-year-old season in Liiga. And consensus is consensus when it comes to Finnish players, I had him #1. Also, Seth Jones definitely was expected to go before Drouin. In any case, the point is that Barkov was quite a bit stronger a prospect than Kotkaniemi.
Barkov was though having by some margin a better hockey IQ, which after all is always the most important thing about players being really succesful, so that alone should in my opinion make Barkov a bit better prospect than Kotkaniemi. But I dont definitely see the gap as big as many Finnish Barkov fans easily like to see. Barkov has always been a bit overrated in my opinion.
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