Any concern with rushing him to the NHL as was done with Puljujarvi? Players who are ready like Barkov was at 18 are not common.
He plays nothing like Pulju and dominated mens physically in Liiga, unlike Pulju.
Im talking about goal scoring because he's a goal scorer. Goal scoring is extremely important, people try to refer to advanced stats and make ES scoring sound more important than it is to sound sophisticated but at the end of the day a goal is worth a lot. scoring 100 goals as a teenager isn't something you see often.
If Kakko scored say 23 goals, 37 primary assists and 20 secondary assists and played an ok 2way game (Kakko's definitely not that defensively sound yet so I don't expect him to be significantly good defensively his first two seasons) I'd take 44 goals and 70 points over that.
Again I do think Kakko will end up better for now unless Laine quits Fortnite, starts skating in the off-season and turns things around.
Sure goal scoring is important, but complimentary snipers aren't best players in the league nor guys you win with as the go to guys.
Look at Stamkos for example, sure he can shoot the puck but he's not a driver, he's a guy you set up. But someone has to set him up and drive the play, drive the team for them to be successfull. I take Barkov 10/10 over him, or Bergeron and so on.
Then you look at Ovy who's a completely different beast to Stamkos, and far superior to Laine as a hockey player today.
Or Pasta from the younger guys.
Laine hasn't been a sniper with ok to good overall game, he's a sniper with serious issues with the rest of his game which drops his value a lot, and often this year looked like a player who should sit a few. The difference between his shot and the rest of the game is massive, the biggest by far for these high end players in the league.