wiseguy1
Well-known member
Look what happened to Gretzky.Bobby Orr left home at 14 and grew up to become a fascist.
Look what happened to Gretzky.Bobby Orr left home at 14 and grew up to become a fascist.
notsureifserious.gifSure. Very hard to fault him for signing a pro hockey contract
Ditto.notsureifserious.gif
Home sickness is a thing
Sure, but you both know that athletes have a very limited shelf life and their window of opportunity isn't very big. There aren't many careers you're excluding yourself from because you chose to leave your country at 25 instead of 21. If he wants to make a career playing in the NHL, he has to play in North America. Kapanen's not good enough to just step in to the NHL the second he comes over.Also true. The human side of things.
I turned down work outside of Canada when I was 21 as well.
So, was he forced to sign a contract that included a European clause? Or could have said, nah I'm good. or is that being too greedy?Ditto.
I'm not the one that went on a giant rant without knowing someone's personal journey.So, was he forced to sign a contract that included a European clause? Or could have said, nah I'm good. or is that being too greedy?
I dunno, I guess Adam Engstrom's the biggest sucker in all of this.
We agree on something.I'm not the one that went on a giant rant without knowing someone's personal journey.
Honestly I have no idea
I'm also not convinced playing limited minutes with Laval was a good career choice.
My only issue was when you said "any fucking sense"I'm a big believer in statistical probabilities. They're not a surefire way of evaluating things, but more often than not, they give me a very good idea of what to expect.
Extreme example: There's a roughly 0.000001% chance you win the lottery, and yet untold millions of tickets are sold every year. The probabilities that you're going to win the lottery are so small and you could play for ten lifetimes without winning. But there are people who win the lottery. It's not impossible, just as close to impossible as could be imagined.
Looking at the NHL for an example: Assuming all of the information is updated, there have been 289 defensemen who played one game in the NHL this year. Only 14 of them are 5'10" or smaller, meaning 95.2% of all those defensemen are 5'11" or taller. So if a team drafts a player like Lane Hutson, the player would already have two strikes against him in my book. That's not to say it's impossible he makes the league, but the odds are already stacked against him.
So, in short, I don't know if Kapanen's decision to have a European clause in his contract will prevent him from making the NHL. Time will tell. But in my eyes, staying in Europe is hurting his chances, not helping.
Home sickness is a thing
If he wants to make a career in the NHL, it doesn't. It doesn't make one iota of sense. He's adding layers of difficulty when making the NHL is already going to be difficult for him.My only issue was when you said "any fucking sense"
I also don't think playing first line SHL is a bad thing. Now if next year he doesn't want to play AHL... Different story for his nhl career than his personal life.
If he wants to make a career in the NHL, it doesn't. It doesn't make one iota of sense. He's adding layers of difficulty when making the NHL is already going to be difficult for him.
There are players every year that start in the AHL, get called up, and then never get sent back. Heineman, a player that was basically an afterthought, made the team in camp after a year in the AHL. Kapanen could have done the same thing had he played in Laval this year, assuming he's good enough to make it.
This is going to rehash a lot of the same old arguments that have been had here, but... which players were supposed to make it?The one thing helping Kapanen is that no one in Laval has seized the opportunity, but it hasn’t helped him either.
I don't know why you're being obtuse about this point.No. He couldn't have because his contract didn't allow that.
Good players don’t spend much time in the AHL.This is going to rehash a lot of the same old arguments that have been had here, but... which players were supposed to make it?
Roy's been a disappointment all year. Everyone knows my opinion of Owen "Ryan O'Reilly" Beck by now. Who's the third best forward as an NHL prospect currently on Laval's roster? Jared Davidson or RHP? Laval's forward group doesn't have much there.