Prospect Info: Oliver Kapanen, RHC, KalPa U20 (U20 SM-sarja), 64th Overall

[Tyson]

Respectful IMO. He wants to develop in the SHL and make the trip overseas when he can earn a NHL spot. His development has been going on very good so let him finish his goals in the SHL. This season was his first big step forward. It's what we didn't do with KK.... allow him to dominate his development league.

Difficult to argue with this.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Grant gets a lot of hate around here - but I watched him (I believe it was on Tony Mariano) mention Kapanen as one of our best prospects about 9 months ago.

I mean even with the strong year he had, he's still not close to being among our best prospects.
I would comfortably put Roy, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Engstrom, Hutson, Fowler, and Beck above him. After that, you can argue for any of Kapanen, Xhekaj, Mesar, Farrell, and Dobes to be the best prospect.

After the draft this year, Kapanen will likely not be among our top 10 prospects.