Colorado Avalanche Draft Choice: Patrik Laine

The Colorado Avalanche hold the tenth pick in this coming draft. BUT, if they trade up (which there have been rumors about) they may have a shot at the much coveted Patrik Laine; or as I like to call him “Laine the Mane”.

It’s always interesting to me how prospects are divied up into classes of their own in draft years. This year we have Auston Matthews who is all but guaranteed to go first, then Jesse Puljujärvi and Patrik Laine as their own little class fighting for the number two spot. Then a lot of people I don’t know as well.

Before we get into the dissection of Patrik Laine there are a coupe reasons I chose to write about him I feel I should explain. First, there’s no way I could continually spell Jesse Puljujärvi with the umlot through a whole post. Also Patrik Lane is insanely good as a number a two possibility. Thirdly, he has sweet hair.

Patrick Laine’s Numbers

Position: Wing

Shoots: Right

Height: 6’4″

Weight: 209 pounds

Age: 18

Minor Team: Finnish Liiga Tappara

NHL Player Most Like: Alex Ovechkin

More from Mile High Sticking

For those of you who are thinking “that’s a lot of numbers,” don’t worry I’ve gone and grabbed the important stuff. First of all let’s remember Patrik Laine is only 18 (which doesn’t speak well to my NHL dreams), but he still put up 33 points in 46 games this year in the top Finnish league of Liiga (which is also considered the second best European league). He then went on to rack up an impressible 15 points in 18 playoff games! That’s good.

For the numbers above, and skills were going to get in below, Laine is ranked as mentioned early consistently 2-3 by every scouting organization (apart from McKeen’s hockey who has him ranked number 1 and obviously hasn’t seen Matthews play yet.)

In addition Laine is a big boy: 6 foot 4 inches and 209 pounds. However he isn’t an overly fast or physical player. He largely relies on good puck protection and a ridiculous shot to make things happen. Per eliteprospects.com:

"Laine has the hunger to create chances on his own from the wing and actively looks for and creates opportunities to use his shot. His elite wrist shot is notable for its quick release and his powerful one-timer from the top of the circle is a constant threat on the man-advantage."

The Will Radke Eye Test(TM)

Before I delve into my opinions that are the most important of anyone’s’ it’s time to watch videos!

The whole video is worth a watch, but really his first two goals tell you what kind of player he is. He is most comparable to Alexander Ovechkin in my opinion with his amazing shot, puck protection, and ability to create chances out of nothing. His acceleration is where Ovi’s is, but Ovechkin is a generational player.

Anyway the big reason I picked Patrick Laine is because he has the best wrist shot I have seen in a long time. The first goal in the video above is a perfect indication of that: Laine isn’t moving horizontally so the goalies angle isn’t changing, he doesn’t look off the goalie with a fake pass, he plain and simple just beats the goalie on a shot. That’s nearly impossible to do in this day and age.

Next: Draft Prospect Mikhail Sergachev

Conclusion

First I want to start with a disclaimer, the chances the Colorado Avalanche even get a chance at drafting Laine are about the same chance that I start dating Kate Upton. That being said, I’m not sure how good of a player Laine would be for the Colorado Avalanche. He doesn’t have blistering speed that would allow him to put extra pressure on with Duchene or MacKinnon in the rushes, and the Avs don’t have a true set up man to hit him in spots to unleash his blistering shot.

If he’s still on the board the Colorado Avalanche have to take Laine, but I think there are less skilled players who fill much bigger needs for the Avalanche this coming draft.