Jesperi Kotkaniemi is the best C from the 2018 draft.

[HabsForHire]

Agree, overhyped. He’s shown some flashes but overall just MEH. He in my opinion will be a 3C, doesn’t have have offensive upside. MTL should have drafted the BPA but went for need, imo, a mistake.

I wanna see your reaction in a few years, i doubt its the same

 

[DuklaNation]

Brought over 1 year too early. Needs to mirror Kopitar's style. I disagree on the offensive upside comments I see here. But he must use the approach that suits his talents.

 

[Not The One]

At the time of the draft the "supposed" BPA at his spot was Zadina, so even though his development has been slower than we'd like I'd still take KK over him easily.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

He needs to shoot more, if he starts doing that he'll take off I think.

 

[Habby4Life]

I wanna see your reaction in a few years, i doubt its the same

The better pick was Tkachuk and will still be in a few years. KK will be nothing more than a 3c.

 

[MasterDecoy]

me: there's no way that's right...
me after reading thread: fuuuuuuuuuu

 

[HabsForHire]

The better pick was Tkachuk and will still be in a few years. KK will be nothing more than a 3c.

Alright we will see, il save this one

 

[DaPhazz]

I think KK is good as a faceoff and penalty killer, but that still doesn't justify using a top 3 selection on such a center.

Hum, good in faceoffs and penalty killing is exactly what he's not right now, do you watch the game?

 

[sandysan]

I mean, he's played the most games in the NHL...

As others have stated, 2018 was a relatively weak draft for centers. It's also really early to be accurately evaluating 2018 draftees. I think Hayton and Dellandrea will all be very good Cs, very possibly better than Kotka when all is said and done.

he played the most games because our center depth was so shallow that we had to play him from the jump. the bar to be nhl ready was lower in montreal tha any other city in the NHL.

he's improved and had some periods where he has stalled or gotten slightly worse, but he is still very young and we now have better center depth where he can work on being a 2/3C. Will he ever be more than that ? who knows, being a good 2C isn't something to laugh at.

could he develop into a real 1C ? maybe but that would be extremely ambitious.

 

[sandysan]

I’ll never understand why they reached and passed on Tkachuk.

because we had persistently the worst center depth in the league? It was so thin that we let jonathan drouin pretend to be a center for an entire season.

 

[Habby4Life]

I’ll never understand why they reached and passed on Tkachuk.

Because of need and not BPA. Tkachuk clearly the better player now and will be in the future.

 

[DaPhazz]

Because of need and not BPA. Tkachuk clearly the better player now and will be in the future.

Difference of opinion here, I'd still go with KK if I was proposed a 1vs1 trade. Tkachuk is a damn good all around hockey player, but his ceiling is nothing I'd be too excited about, we already have Gallagher who's doing the same kinda job.

I'm in for some 'real' skills and Kotkaniemi has more than Tkachuk. Diamond to be polished.

 

[Jeune Poulet]

Drafting for need is for chumps.

Tkachuk is "only a winger" kicking ass and taking names. He's big, strong, fearless and talented. He can fight, score, agitate. He works hard is a surefire pick to end up with a letter on his jersey on any team he will play for. And to top it off, his smarts are underrated. He's a fiery guy but he's got great offensive instinct and is an opportunist.

Kotkaniemi is young and still developing, but so is Tkachuk. Perhaps people are looking at his first and second year numbers and not seeing the progression but he was a more important piece of the Sens in his second year, despite being a player that every other team includes in its game plan.

Kotkaniemi is ok but his greatest achievement so far is looking like Bambi on ice. Would rather have drafted Tkachuk!

 

[Tatar Shots]

He’s been alright. Montreal is 3rd in GF/GP and Kotkaniemi has a 0.48 PPG. This just illustrates how poor the centers from the 2018 draft have been.

 

[Habby4Life]

Difference of opinion here, I'd still go with KK if I was proposed a 1vs1 trade. Tkachuk is a damn good all around hockey player, but his ceiling is nothing I'd be too excited about, we already have Gallagher who's doing the same kinda job.

I'm in for some 'real' skills and Kotkaniemi has more than Tkachuk. Diamond to be polished.

Just don’t see it. Tkachuk could hit 20+ goals for the 3rd season in a row. The Habs lacked grit that could score, better now but more is better.

Frankly, I don’t see real offensive skills from KK. He doesn’t have the offensive instinct and IMO will be another PD, a 40pt guy while Tkachuk keep putting up 20+ goals. It’s not even close.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Here is the VERY long list of players from that draft, who have played in the NHL. 28 players Shaping up to be another great draft for the D but bad for all other positions

1	2	Carolina	Andrei Svechnikov	R	Barrie Colts [OHL]	173	52	65	117	136	2020-21
1	4	Ottawa	Brady Tkachuk	L	Boston University [H-East]	168	52	54	106	215	2020-21
1	1	Buffalo	Rasmus Dahlin	D	Frolunda HC [SweHL]	162	14	79	93	78	2020-21
1	7	Vancouver	Quinn Hughes	D	U. of Michigan [Big-10]	100	10	68	78	32	2020-21
1	3	Montreal	Jesperi Kotkaniemi	C	Assat Pori [SM-liiga]	137	19	33	52	55	2020-21
1	14	Philadelphia	Joel Farabee	L	U.S. National Under-18 Team [USHL]	71	18	22	40	49	2020-21
1	6	Detroit	Filip Zadina	R	Halifax Mooseheads [QMJHL]	56	12	14	26	2	2020-21
1	8	Chicago	Adam Boqvist	D	Brynas IF Gavle [SweHL]	55	5	18	23	16	2020-21
1	12	NY Islanders	Noah Dobson	D	Acadie-Bathurst Titan [QMJHL]	57	3	13	16	12	2020-21
1	23	Anaheim	Isac Lundestrom	C	Lulea HF [SweHL]	47	5	6	11	8	2020-21
1	17	New Jersey	Ty Smith	D	Spokane Chiefs [WHL]	19	2	9	11	10	2020-21
4	120	Chicago	Philipp Kurashev	C	Quebec Remparts [QMJHL]	24	5	4	9	6	2020-21
1	29	Toronto	Rasmus Sandin	D	Soo Greyhounds [OHL]	29	1	8	9	10	2020-21
1	11	NY Islanders	Oliver Wahlstrom	R	U.S. National Under-18 Team [USHL]	25	4	4	8	8	2020-21
1	5	Arizona	Barrett Hayton	C	Soo Greyhounds [OHL]	34	3	4	7	14	2020-21
6	182	San Jose	John Leonard	L	UMass-Amherst [H-East]	16	3	3	6	2	2020-21
5	141	New Jersey	Yegor Sharangovich	C	Minsk Dynamo [KHL]	17	3	2	5	0	2020-21
2	38	Montreal	Alexander Romanov	D	CSKA-2 (Russia Jrs.)	21	1	4	5	8	2020-21
1	27	Chicago	Nicolas Beaudin	D	Drummondville Voltigeurs [QMJHL]	12	2	3	5	2	2020-21
1	22	NY Rangers	K'Andre Miller	D	U.S. National Under-18 Team [USHL]	18	1	4	5	6	2020-21
1	10	Edmonton	Evan Bouchard	D	London Knights [OHL]	19	2	3	5	4	2020-21
1	18	Columbus	Liam Foudy	C	London Knights [OHL]	14	0	4	4	2	2020-21
1	16	Colorado	Martin Kaut	R	Pardubice HC [Czech]	10	2	1	3	4	2020-21
1	13	Dallas	Ty Dellandrea	C	Flint Firebirds [OHL]	11	1	1	2	10	2020-21
2	60	Winnipeg	David Gustafsson	C	HV71 Jonkoping [SweHL]	26	1	0	1	0	2020-21
2	46	Washington	Martin Fehervary	D	Oskarshamn IK [Swe-1]	6	0	1	1	6	2019-20

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Yegor Sharangovich was a double overager picked in the 5th round at age 20 and is the #5 center on this list. That's kind of insane.