Umm... did you forget that the kid is 3 years older than Tuevo? Before he came to the Hawks Tuevo has moved up to the top league in finland where he was almost a point a game player at 19. At 19 Panarin will still just average in the KHL. He really only blew up 2 years ago, at an age that Tuevo still hasn't reached. I don't understand what you are trying to compare? Jokerit wasn't as good in the league but he still starred on a team at the highest level where he was one of the youngest players in the league. how is it not comparable? At his age I'd say he's farther along.
Um no I didn't- but it is the level of the quality of competition that matters - you are essentially comparing juniors playing juniors whereas the KHL would be at worst AHL vs AHL (and sometimes depending on the teams involved better than that).
I am saying that the time spent in the KHL is at least equivalent to playing in the AHL and at times more than that - so therefore Panarin comes as a more developed player, and therefore expecting him to have growing pains like Teuvo did because Panarin is new to the NHL -is discounting the playing experience that Panarin has had.
Or in short - Panarin has been playing against tougher opponents in the KHL than Teravainen had been in Europe. Age isn't really material -but it is a factor - I am not saying anything about Teuvo apart from he came in to the NHL at a younger age and with less experience is all.
I read JJ's blog post today, and it was kinda off base by crapping on guys that looked at the YouTube vids and saw stuff before the season started .... and he was off base with that -because if you looked at them in detail you could tell about vision, shot release, and puckhandling ability -it sort of read like a guy covering his butt and/or making an apology to the band wagon crowd.
I get that they play a shorter season in the KHL ... but then again SKA played in their playoffs, and then iirc Panarin went off and played international hockey - that tournament which fills out the rosters with guys whose teams are done in the NHL playoffs (a shout out to Ovechkin ...
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
) - and I think was a ppg guy there too - so I don't know if you -can- actually anticipate a burnout factor -- granted a long playoff run in the NHL after 82 games in the regular season might be more hockey than what I just described- but the point I want to get at is - his stats don't indicate that he burnt out last year -so maybe this 'burnout factor' thing is a bit of a stereotype thing.