Future stars from Europe

[Draftin Europe]

Hi everyone,

this is to bring up our latest release, which should be of interest here given its content.

The Summer Blue Dispatch shares our pre-season rankings on a deeper level than we did in the past. In fact, adding country-based lists basically provide our starting point at the beginning of the scouting season for each region.

The rankings obviously go deeper for the 2019 draft class, but there are rankings for 2020 and 2021 as well.
Kaapo Kakko (was much easier putting him on top this time around than when we did 12 months ago), Alexander Holtz and Aatu Raty are on top of the Euro-based lists for their respective years.

Some of the younger players have been mentioned on these boards already, but some very promising ones have not been talked about yet.

SUMMER BLUE DISPATCH 2018 – Draftin Europe

It’s over 50 pages of notes, profiles and rankings to touch on more than 80 prospects from the upcoming draft classes.
Don’t think there is similar product out there that goes deep enough into what’s coming beyond 2019 (would be interesting to compare the rankings, if anything).

Feedback always appreciated, through whatever channel you might prefer.

Click to read more...

 

[Erikfromfin]

Big fan of your releases bought every single one and will do so in the future, would recommend.

My main interest is in the Finns I would personally rank Antti Saarela much higher. Also whats the downside of Kokkonen is he just too average offensivily, defensivily, skating and size wise and benefited from being early developer? Was Matias Maccelli in your top30 bubble before bolting to NA? Any thoughts on Santeri Hatakka? Also surprised how high you guys had Roby Järventie for 2020 draft Finns, need to keen on him closer this season.

 

[Draftin Europe]

Big fan of your releases bought every single one and will do so in the future, would recommend.

Thank you for the kind words, and for your consistent purchases!

My main interest is in the Finns I would personally rank Antti Saarela much higher.

Saarela shows pretty impressive agility when he carries the puck, can easily catch the viewer's eye, but we were hoping for a bit more in terms of 'substance' this past season.
He was one of the finns in the conversation for the last few spots of the Euro-based top 30 though, along with the other guys you can see ranked from 5th to 8th in the Finnish list.

Also whats the downside of Kokkonen is he just too average offensivily, defensivily, skating and size wise and benefited from being early developer?

honestly that's been our impression leading up to this point. He does have his moments though, we will see where his game will be trending during his draft season.

Was Matias Maccelli in your top30 bubble before bolting to NA?

mmh, it's been a while, but we had him in the same group with Saarela and had both ahead of Puistola back then (Puistola grew on us in the last part of the season, thought he outplayed Saarela at Five Nations in April), so yes would say he was in that bubble.

Any thoughts on Santeri Hatakka?

We like him, had him 2nd among '01 born Finnish D, so we were a bit surprised not to see him on the Hlinka roster.
He was one of the guys considered to complete our pre-season Finnish ranking. What worked against him was some lack of consensus between us and questionable hands that might limit his ability to make plays in tighter contests when he moves up with the puck.

 

[Eyelanders]

We like him, had him 2nd among '01 born Finnish D, so we were a bit surprised not to see him on the Hlinka roster.
He was one of the guys considered to complete our pre-season Finnish ranking. What worked against him was some lack of consensus between us and questionable hands that might limit his ability to make plays in tighter contests when he moves up with the puck.

Hatakka was absent from the Hlinka Gretzky Cup because of injury. He's definitely one of the better Finnish defensemen in the age-group and should be a key player on the backend at the U18 World Championships.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

What are your thoughts of these Finnish prospects?
Christoffer Sedoff ( 2020 draft eligible)
Anton Lundell ( 2020 draft eligible)
Kasper Simontaival ( 2020 draft eligible)
Ruben Rafkin ( 2020 draft eligible)
Joel Määttä ( 2020 draft eligible)
Wiljami Myllylä ( 2019 draft eligible)
Anttoni Honka ( 2019 draft eligible)

 

[Erikfromfin]

What are your thoughts of these Finnish prospects?
Christoffer Sedoff ( 2020 draft eligible)
Anton Lundell ( 2020 draft eligible)
Kasper Simontaival ( 2020 draft eligible)
Ruben Rafkin ( 2020 draft eligible)
Joel Määttä ( 2020 draft eligible)
Wiljami Myllylä ( 2019 draft eligible)
Anttoni Honka ( 2019 draft eligible)

I think your ment to purchase the release to find out.

 

[Killerjas]

What are your thoughts of these Finnish prospects?
Christoffer Sedoff ( 2020 draft eligible)
Anton Lundell ( 2020 draft eligible)
Kasper Simontaival ( 2020 draft eligible)
Ruben Rafkin ( 2020 draft eligible)
Joel Määttä ( 2020 draft eligible)
Wiljami Myllylä ( 2019 draft eligible)
Anttoni Honka ( 2019 draft eligible)

Honka & Simontaival are the top prospects

 

[Draftin Europe]

What are your thoughts of these Finnish prospects?
Christoffer Sedoff ( 2020 draft eligible)
Anton Lundell ( 2020 draft eligible)
Kasper Simontaival ( 2020 draft eligible)
Ruben Rafkin ( 2020 draft eligible)
Joel Määttä ( 2020 draft eligible)
Wiljami Myllylä ( 2019 draft eligible)
Anttoni Honka ( 2019 draft eligible)

Rafkin is 'technically' out of our coverage as he has been playing in North America. When we caught him play in international events our first impression was that he had an advantage in terms of power vs most of his peers, but we liked Sedoff better when it comes to projecting them to the next level.

This release touches on all players mentioned above aside from Rafkin and Määttä (doesn't mean we don't consider the latter an interesting prospect. As for Rafkin, he doesn't qualify for our rankings because he is not Euro-based).

Sorry for the late reply btw.

Honka & Simontaival are the top prospects

We find that to be debatable to say the least. In fact currently we wouldn't have them at the top (#1, #2) of that group of players. It's not to downplay their obvious talent, or to discard the possibility for them to become the best players out of that group, it's more about the likelihood of putting everything together looking to us smaller for them than for someone else.