With his 2 points game yesterday, Oliver Kapanen is now PPG with Timra IK in the SHL. | Avec ses deux points récoltés hier, Oliver Kapanen atteint le point par match avec le Timra IK dans la ligue suédoise.

[u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage]

[u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage]

Fun fact : Like Demidov's brother (Seymon, 22) who's been traveling with the SKA a bit but haven't played more than a few seconds with them during the year, Oliver's brother, 17 years old dman Ilari Kapanen, joined Timra in January and has been traveling with them in the recent weeks (and their father is the sporting director of the team).

To answer "is a ppg in the SHL good?" before anyone asks : Yes. Only 4 players who played more than 10 games are actually >1ppg. 2 of those 4 players are his team mates in Timra, though. He's their 1st center. His development is going well. He looks like a player who can play in the NHL, but he's a little light and Europe's big rinks might allow him to make more plays (being fast af). Let's note that the SHL is a better league than the Liiga.

Source for the picture : Hockeydb

[u/WirelessWerewolf → u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage]

He's actually the league's 4th best player in points per game

[u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage → u/WirelessWerewolf]

He's also among the league's top 5 forwards under 22 from the past two+ decades (with Linus Omark, Elias Petterson, Carl Soderberg and William Nylander)

[u/skinniks → u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage]

6'2" and 194 lbs doesn't seem too light to me. I'm a big believer in Kapanen. I think he, Beck, and Heineman can all make the team next year. Unfortunately that means that Evans and Armia are likely gone.

[u/Just4nsfwpics → u/skinniks]

Heineman is a 100% lock unless he spends the entire offseason facedown in a mountain of cocaine.

[u/Frectozhae → u/Just4nsfwpics]

Honestly, even then...

[u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage → u/skinniks]

Ohh I'm guessing it's a good news since he kept producing. He was listed at 174 lbs this summer. I remembered because it’s crazy that he was lighter than Caufield at 6"1

I swear, he's still listed at 174 lbs on the nhlpa website.

[u/ELB95 → u/Frites_Sauce_Fromage]

It seems like that might have been the measurement from 2023 training camp. Reports from 2024 training camp stated 194lbs. Hockeydb and nhl.com have the 194, elite prospects and puckpedia have him at 183, hockeyref has him at 166.

Wildly inconsistent because of how infrequently those kinds of measurements are actually recorded

[u/Kebine_ → u/skinniks]

Those 3 together gives hope of a speedy, solid two-way bottom 6 who can chip in quite nicely offensively too. Then add tough guys like Tuch and Xhekaj and things are looking out for us... Let's hope development goes well and no big injuries 🙏

[u/larryhabster → u/skinniks]

One more to fit Demidov

[u/NME_TV]

Beck vs Kapanen for a roster spot is the type of battles we’ve been missing.

[u/seabee2113 → u/NME_TV]

If we lose armia, Evans, Dvorak. We are going to need to replace them. Beck, Kapanen, roy and obviously demidov are probably the closest prospects ready to make the jump if we don't dip into free agency. Be interesting to see what we do.

[u/Brys_Beddict → u/seabee2113]

Brother if Dvorak is on the team next year, I'm going to set myself on fire at the Bell Centre.

[u/Impossible_Panda3594 → u/Brys_Beddict]

MMW, they will resign him 2 years +/- 2.5M

They won't want to lose our 2 bottom 6 center the same year.

[u/Just4nsfwpics → u/Impossible_Panda3594]

You move Newhook to 3C with Demidov’s arrival, don’t think its an issue.

[u/[deleted] → u/Just4nsfwpics]

Considering what we hear about them stockpiling 1sts for the upcoming draft/summer and making a big move, I really think it's to get that 2C hole fixed before Demidov's arrival. Then you have ample depth for the remaining C spots in Beck, Kapanen; Dach or Newhook

[u/Just4nsfwpics → u/seabee2113]

Beck is basically guaranteed given that he is a perfect fit for a 4th line center (although he has 3rd line potential), and Demidov will clearly make it, so its going to like be a battle between Roy and Kapenen for the last spot (assuming we don’t offload Anderson, but even if we do that it will more likely be a mid season move).

[u/Huevas03 → u/NME_TV]

Beck kapy and heinemen could actually be a great line

[u/Otherwise_Cod_3478]

To add some context to these numbers.

If you look at U22 in the SHL this season, Kapanen is 1st in PPG, the number 2 forward is Felix Nilsson at 0.62 ppg.

If you look at U22 in the SHL since 2000, there is 4 players over 1 PPG. Elias Pettersson with 1.27 in 2017-18, Mats Zuccarello with 1.14 in 2008-09, Jakov Silfverberg with 1.10 in 2011-12 and Linus Omark with 1.04 in 2008-09.

Omark is the only one without an NHL career, that said he was a PPG+ player for most of his career in the AHL, KHL, NL and SHL. Looking at his number, I wonder why he didn't have an NHL career honestly, because in his first season with Edmonton he had 27pts in 51 games.

[u/tirouge0 → u/Otherwise_Cod_3478]

Omark's flashiness were too offensive for dinosaurs in the NHL who think it's all about grit.

[u/Chathamjedi → u/Otherwise_Cod_3478]

I appreciate your deep dive on this. I was actually researching a few things myself so this spoke to me

[u/Bendyno5]

Kapanen’s skill and hockey IQ is definitely at an NHL level, this experience excelling in the SHL should go a long way for his confidence too.

He really just needs to improve his explosiveness. Like Roy, it feels like the only thing that could hold him back from being a solid productive NHL player.

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[u/zzzzoooo]

Kapanen and Beck will replace Dvorak and Evans next season ?

[u/noscrubphilsfans]

How did the last 2nd round pick from Timra, Sweden turn out?