Kasperi Kapanen, is he any good?

[CarltonTheBear]

I've been eagerly awaiting some reading material on Kapanen ever since the trade. I've mentioned before that he was a prospect that I really liked at the draft last year and while the Kessel trade as a whole wasn't great Kapanen was a really good prospect to get in return. Others have disagreed, both here and elsewhere. A main criticism on Kapanen has been on his poor WJC where he only recorded 1 point in 5 games for Finland. Judging a player on 5 games is ludicrous on its own, but someone recently re-watched all his games in that tournament and his conclusion was that he was actually pretty good:

https://toddcordell.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/toronto-maple-leafs-on-kasperi-kapanen-and-the-world-juniors/

This chart shows the numbers that he tracked:

And here's a few short clips of some nice players that he felt stood out:

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[Kin]

Still. The Leafs traded Phil Kessel for a package that did not include a player who was 10 years younger but guaranteed to be as good as Phil Kessel.

Nik's Grade: F-

 

[moon111]

Still. The Leafs traded Phil Kessel for a package that did not include a player who was 10 years younger but guaranteed to be as good as Phil Kessel.

Nik's Grade: F-

Well I can't knock Kasperi.  I can only eat three hot dogs myself.

 

[hobarth]

Kapanen dropped significantly in his draft year and from my readings there were 2 major reasons:

1)the normal lack of defensive attention which seems quite normal for offensively adept youngsters but might be exceptionally noteworthy when it so negatively affects a player's rating

2)his aversion against going to the prime but perilous areas of the ice in the offensive zone

He sounds alot like who he was traded for but will he have enough talent to make up for his deficiencies or is he coachable.

Highlight reels have never done it for me because highlight reels show what a player can do, the bigger question is whether a player can bring it consistently. Leivo is an example of this, he played a wow preseason game last year but was basically invisible in others so I would think consistency of effort is key if a player is a fringer, highlight reel or not.