The Athletic’s Max Bultman profiles Red Wings prospect and Boston University defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo this morning:
Kotkansalo is a top 10 prospect in the Red Wings system as a defense-first guy, according to our most recent ranking, and at 19 he’s still plenty young. His BU coach David Quinn thought Kotkansalo had a good season, saying he got more comfortable and confident as the year went on, but saw plenty of room for growth going forward.
Confidence, in fact, came up as a topic at their end-of-season meeting — and Quinn views it as a major step in unlocking Kotkansalo’s potential.
“Sometimes he gets indecisive — and it’s not because he doesn’t know what to do, I just think he’s unsure of himself and he’s not as confident as he should be,” Quinn told The Athletic. “Because when he’s confident, boy, he’s a really good player. A really good player. He makes great outlet passes on breakouts, he can really shoot a puck, he’s got good poise — all the things that you want in a defenseman.
“And he’s gotta continue to work on his one-on-ones, his stick positioning needs to get better, and his balance has to get better when he plays one-on-ones, but I think part of that is all tied to his confidence. I think once that clicks for him, all the things that he needs to work on will become a lot easier for him to improve in those areas.”
Bultman continues (paywall)…
Kasper is Finnish, and Big..Only 19
Good start!
I only watched him at BU once. He has a nice shot. But I remember noting that he got beat off the rush pretty easily. Still pretty raw. But not a great D+1 season.
Aside from Rasmussen, and maybe Setkov, I feel like the rest of the 2017 draft class did nothing to stand out. When you pick 11 guys (6 in the first 3 rounds) you would kind of hope that someone takes a big step forward. None did. Could be a draft full of duds.