Out of sight, out of mind.
Judging by Twitter remarks last evening and this morning, many Canadiens fans are surprised at how good Oliver Kapanen looked in his NHL debut after picking up two assists and playing a dominant role in a 5-0 win versus Philadelphia at the Bell Centre.
They should have seen it coming.
Kapanen has been on a meteoric rise in the past nine months, and as his coach in Timra Olli Jokinen noted after watching him perform in several SHL exhibition games before he headed to Montreal, don’t be shocked if he makes the Canadiens.
It can be argued that he was the best player in Liiga from Jan. 1 onward last season as he blossomed before our very eyes. Night in and night out he was a two-way force, and the numbers reflected that. He scored 16 goals and 38 points in his final 37 games, including two four-point games and a three-point night. His points-per-game pace of 1.03 may not seem overly impressive but only three players scored at a better pace last Liiga regular season, with the most prolific scorer averaging 1.07 ppg. Kapanen’s 1.03 ppg included the playoffs.
Three players under the age of 21 either led or tied for the scoring lead in Liiga playoffs in the past 30 years – Kapanen, Roope Hintz, and Saku Koivu. The other two fellows didn’t fare too badly when they joined the NHL, and there’s no reason to think that Kapanen can’t become a top-notch NHLer too.
Sure, it’s early. Sure; Philly didn’t dress the team that will start the NHL season. Kapanen won’t suddenly lose the ability to think smartly, stickhandle, skate fast, or spot open teammates once the quality of competition ramps up. Either you have “it” or you don’t, and Kapanen has it.
The Kapanen clan has it. His grandfather, his great uncle, his uncle, his father, his first cousins. This is one of Finland’s most accomplished hockey families, so he comes by “it” naturally.
Some may be wondering why he wasn’t selected until the end of the 2021 second round and there’s one major reason for that – he got rocked in the first game of the U18 Worlds in 2021 and is believed to have suffered a concussion. He came back to play in the event but clearly wasn’t himself, and many teams judged him in that performance despite the extenuating circumstances.
To Trevor Timmins’ credit, he didn’t let Kapanen’s U18 showing cloud his judgment as he’d seen plenty of his junior games that season on the recommendation of Montreal’s Finnish scout Hannu Laine, and he knew Kapanen wasn’t playing up to his potential at the season-ending tournament.
The Canadiens had Kapanen ranked in the 30 range, and they pounced when he was still on the board at 64. It has proven to be an outstanding selection.
The new management group has done a terrific job of adding talent through the draft and shrewd trades but let’s not gloss over the fact that the club’s former director of amateur scouting left them some impressive parting gifts before he was dismissed. Kapanen, Cole Caufield, Alexander Romanov (who brought the club Kirby Dach), Jakub Dobes, Jordan Harris (who fetched Patrik Laine), Kaiden Guhle, Logan Mailloux, Jayden Struble, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, and Josh Roy were all great value picks.
Timmins and current director of amateur scouting Martin Lapointe deserve accolades for steering the ship in the right direction via the draft table from 2018-2021. Here’s hoping it’s sailing directly toward Playoffland with Kaptain Kapanen helping lead the way.
