Will Hughes & Kakko become version 2.0 of Matthews & Laine during their rookie seasons?

[NextYear67]

Matthews

Kakko
Hughes

Laine

 

[Paul4587]

This is blatantly a false statement, specially regarding Matthews/Laine. Matthews/Hughes is up for debate personally (though I do lean Matthews). Kakko is clearly a superior prospect to Laine entering the draft for a variety of reasons.

In your opinion it’s blatantly false.

I think Kakko is closer to Laine than Hughes is to Matthews but I still rank him behind him. It’s highly unlikely that Kakko will come in and be as good as Laine in his rookie season.

 

[Polar Bear]

In your opinion it’s blatantly false.

I think Kakko is closer to Laine than Hughes is to Matthews but I still rank him behind him. It’s highly unlikely that Kakko will come in and be as good as Laine in his rookie season.

I can't think of a thing that Laine did as a prospect that was clearly superior to Kakko than his shot, which I will admit, was and is lethal. I think Kakko has the superior all around offensive game, certainly the better two-way game/physical game, and his Liiga production was outmatched. I just think he was a far more complete prospect.

I can absolutely understand Matthews over Hughes, though I do think it's still closer than you mentioned. People are suffering from recency bias IMO, and aren't accounting for his record breaking regular season and U18.

 

[Cup or Bust]

Both look like great prospects, but those are some lofty expectations. I will save those until they have played in the NHL.

 

[LaMasquerade]

Voted no. Kakko seems to be more ready for immediate impact while I assume Jack to take a bit longer to develop..

 

[Paul4587]

I can't think of a thing that Laine did as a prospect that was clearly superior to Kakko than his shot, which I will admit, was and is lethal. I think Kakko has the superior all around offensive game, certainly the better two-way game/physical game, and his Liiga production was outmatched. I just think he was a far more complete prospect.

I can absolutely understand Matthews over Hughes, though I do think it's still closer than you mentioned. People are suffering from recency bias IMO, and aren't accounting for his record breaking regular season and U18.

I would say people are suffering more from shiny new toy syndrome than recently bias. As for his record breaking season - he was playing on an incredibly stacked team where all sorts of records were broken.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

Mathews and Laine were close their rookie season. Kakko will put up a lot better numbers his rookie year if he plays for the rangers or devils. Hughes is a great talent and will close the gap before the end of his ELC but watching Kakko compete with other NHLers and see what he is able to do vs Hughes is going to be very telling for the rookie season. Yeah hughes has some adjusting to do and will be just fine but Kakko doesnt have to do any of that and will have a decent head start his rookie season.

 

[Lauro]

No. Nobody cares about American players on American teams.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Take away shooting and Kakko looks better than Laine did in his draft year WHC.

That being said, i don't expect Kakko to score 36 goals. What was special about Laine was his ability to get on the scoreboard, that can't be understated.

Physical tools will clearly be a very big key in Kakkos' game and while he will be able to hold his own in his 1st year, he's still a pure 18 yr old coming into the league. Grind of the NHL season will be tough in the long run with his willingness to engage in 1 on 1 battles. He'll benefit a lot from going through that experience and improving his endurance etc. His offensive production will be going hand in hand with how well he's able to physically compete with NHL players on a day to day basis, and hopefully eventually dominate. So in other words, i don't expect him to enter the league with a big bang, more like a steady upwards trajectory with flashes of greatness.

Hughes doesn't even look someone who is ready to dominate 1 shift against men, granted, small sample size. But the summer isn't that long for a kid going to the draft, rookie camp and training camp and all that. I'd be surprised if he enters the NHL and puts up shiny numbers.

So to answer your question - no. Will likely be a much more quiet battle, that gets better as the years go on.

 

[Barkkonen]

Kakko doesn't have as good shot as Matthews, but otherwise I see him being cut from the same cloth. Laine and Hughes doesn't share many similarities at all. Laine is huge and clumsy sniper. Hughes is smallish, fast playmaker,