Quote:
Originally Posted by Bear
A question for some of you that have watched more of the Finnish prospects than I have...
Is there a chance Puljujarvi is massively overrated? I'm far from a pro scout but every time I watch him he seems to have poor puck handling and fans on most of his shots. His numbers in his draft year also fall quite a bit short of what Barkov achieved in the same league.
I guess I'm just looking for someone to placate my fear that we move up for him and he disappoints. The good news is I usually get prospect projections completely wrong.
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To me the people who say that he's on the same level as Laine do overrate him, can't say how he compares to Dubois.
I think there's a chance that he's a 50-60 point scorer in the NHL, but everyone wouldn't rate him third overall if he didn't have greater potential than that.
He does sometimes look a bit like a kid getting used to his height when stick handling in game situations, losing the puck in his feet in chaotic situations, but bear in mind that this is in context of him being one of the rated prospects in this draft. We're setting a high bar. At times his stick handling has looked really good.
Not an expert but right now his wrister takes a bit too much time to release in game situations in my view, but again maybe I'm being too hard on him because I compare him to Laine. His shot is accurate and heavy but currently he's a guy who creates chances with his skating, passing, competitiveness rather than a sniper.
Depends on if you see these as weaknesses or just things you expect from a raw prospect. He does have a lot of room to grow. A lot of this might be old news a year from now.
He has a great motor and personality, fast for his size and competitive, he sees the ice well, and he has skills that are very good, skills that might round out into great but that's where you project a bit.