Konsta Helenius: To what level will the Hell Moose be unleashed in 26/27?

[LGR4GM]

There is a lot of talk about the one and only Konsta Helenius, aka the Hell Moose, in the hockey landscape around here. From trades to role next year. Let's say he is on Buffalo and plays basically a full NHL season. Put your money where your mouth is, how good will he be? You may notice there is not a 0-9pt range... because that's dumb for a guy who already had 6pts in his 13nhl games to date. But, with greater responsibility comes greater expectations and the NHL is an unforgiving league. 

After 21g, 42a for 63pts in 63games in the AHL, what do you expect for Helenius at seasons end?

Edited July 28 by LGR4GM
spelling

[Hoss]

Some guys just don't need to spend seasons adjusting. I think he's one of them. He's been competing with/against men and producing since he was 17, so I anticipate he'll be an immediate contributor. The team also will need more than one young guy to step up immediately, and I think he's ready to do it.

[LGR4GM]

11 minutes ago, Hoss said:

Some guys just don't need to spend seasons adjusting. I think he's one of them. He's been competing with/against men and producing since he was 17, so I anticipate he'll be an immediate contributor. The team also will need more than one young guy to step up immediately, and I think he's ready to do it.

I am nitpicking so sorry. Helenius shockingly played his 16yr old season (May bday) in Liiga where he saw 33games and 11pts. At 17, he saw 51games and 36pts.

[Hoss]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I am nitpicking so sorry. Helenius shockingly played his 16yr old season (May bday) in Liiga where he saw 33games and 11pts. At 17, he saw 51games and 36pts.

That's why I included "and producing." I don't consider 11 points in 33 games to be "producing" (though that's still a good number for a 16 year old). I stand by what I said lol

[Doohickie]

I picked 61-70 pts but I think he will win the Calder with that.  By the end of this season he will be a top six center, possibly 1C.

[SabreFinn]

I was impressed by his improved skating and speed, he has done his homework down in Rochester. Playing next to Sasha Barkov with Finland was an extremely valuable experience, there is no player i rather have on my team in playoffs than Barkov, and Helenius got to experience how Sasha plays and spends his time of the ice, work on faceoff set ups and other details of the game. Barkov himself told media a story of Helenius coming to the gym on a day off while Barkov was working out, Konsta however sat on his phone, so Barkov told him to get to work. He did. 

Still predicting Helenius has to struggle with inconsistency next season, young players usually do. He still got a great future. 

[dudacek]

So early trends show the board expects Benson-ish numbers from Helenius and Tuch-ish numbers from Benson.

Does this mean people generally agree with Jarmo’s off-season judgement call of internal growth?

[K-9]

Hellonwheels will achieve rookie greatness never before seen in the NHL. 

[Taro T]

Went with 41-50, but if he has the right linemates, he should eclipse that (or at least be on pace to do so; still not sure just how much of October he'll be a Sabre; hoping he forces his way onto the roster in camp but can see paths where he doesn't do that).

[inkman]

11 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Hellonwheels 

But they play on skates...

[inkman]

16 minutes ago, dudacek said:

So early trends show the board expects Benson-ish numbers from Helenius and Tuch-ish numbers from Benson.

Does this mean people generally agree with Jarmo’s off-season judgement call of internal growth?

I don't think the results in the Benson thread indicate Zach is going to score 30+ goals this season.  Sixty points perhaps but Zach's shot does not beget him scoring 30 goals. 

[Hoss]

19 minutes ago, dudacek said:

So early trends show the board expects Benson-ish numbers from Helenius and Tuch-ish numbers from Benson.

Does this mean people generally agree with Jarmo’s off-season judgement call of internal growth?

Trying to make this another GMJK offseason thread. I appreciate the consistency. 😂 

[Taro T]

8 minutes ago, inkman said:

But they play on skates...

Don't let @PASabreFan know this, but Benson was the TRUE ringleader of the Blade Gang.  As soon as he tackled Bob, he raced into the building and caught the end of warmups.  😉 

[dudacek]

17 minutes ago, inkman said:

I don't think the results in the Benson thread indicate Zach is going to score 30+ goals this season.  Sixty points perhaps but Zach's shot does not beget him scoring 30 goals. 

Agree. 

Also less worried about replacing Tuch's 30 goals than I am the other aspects of his game.

[Fansince70]

I went with 51-60 pts.  Extrapolating the 6 pts in 13 playoff games comes out to about 40 pts. over 84, but he was just getting his feet wet last year.  If he plays in the top 6 and remains healthy, he'll be in the Calder discussion.  

[Weave]

43 minutes ago, dudacek said:

So early trends show the board expects Benson-ish numbers from Helenius and Tuch-ish numbers from Benson.

Does this mean people generally agree with Jarmo’s off-season judgement call of internal growth?

I don’t think Jarmo’s choice was to have this offseason.  If Jarmo didn’t want this offseason, then even he isn’t in agreement.  If he had the ability to speak freely, I believe he’d admit this is making a silk purse out of a pigs ear.

[Carmel Corn]

IMHO - anything north of 50 points is a successful year.  This is assuming he plays at least 60 or more games.  I’d like to see him deployed on the powerplay as part of his role.  

If he can achieve this, then I might miss Alex Tuch a little less (although other players will have to step up to fill that gap).

[oddoublee]

I went 21-30....but really waffled between that and 31-40.

I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if he pots 15 and 15 as a rookie. Anything beyond that is gravy imo. 

[transient]

The recency bias of Helenius experience last season was against a team in Montreal that I think caters to his style of play. I think he finds the adjustment a bit tougher against teams like Tampa, Florida, the Bruins, etc.

[...]

I expect nothing less of him than to develop real transparent aluminum.

[oddoublee]

24 minutes ago, transient said:

The recency bias of Helenius experience last season was against a team in Montreal that I think caters to his style of play. I think he finds the adjustment a bit tougher against teams like Tampa, Florida, the Bruins, etc.

Yeah....a full NHL season...hard.

[Ctaeth]

58 minutes ago, transient said:

The recency bias of Helenius experience last season was against a team in Montreal that I think caters to his style of play. I think he finds the adjustment a bit tougher against teams like Tampa, Florida, the Bruins, etc.

I'm not so sure.  This dog has a lot more bark than people are likely expecting, and I think people will be surprised how much he can act like an agitator.  Zero fear.  I saw him non-stop jawing at the other team a bunch of the times while he was on the Amerks, despite being significantly younger than his competition.  It seemed like he thrived off of a little friction

Edited July 27 by Ctaeth

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, transient said:

The recency bias of Helenius experience last season was against a team in Montreal that I think caters to his style of play. I think he finds the adjustment a bit tougher against teams like Tampa, Florida, the Bruins, etc.

one of these things is not like the other

 

[Big Guava]

I'm in Scandanavia right now and have been looking for moose all over the place and have been striking out.

I also drove by Dahlin's hometown of Trollhåttan, apparently it's like Manhattan for trolls 😂

Edited July 27 by Big Guava

[Nacho Libre]

6 hours ago, dudacek said:

So early trends show the board expects Benson-ish numbers from Helenius and Tuch-ish numbers from Benson.

Does this mean people generally agree with Jarmo’s off-season judgement call of internal growth?

Maybe if the goal was having a decent shot of breaking even re: last year. Where possible, I’d strive for a *good* shot to be *improved*. Get a little bit better every day is a motto I’ve heard used that I’ve liked. Might have rang hollow as a basement team but as a playoff team, it’s a good place to start.

This, again, seems like a plausible way to maintain a status quo, but one relying on non-guaranteed growth and thus risky. Presumably acceptable to Jarmo because we haven’t torpedoed the future in fact we’ve, on paper, strengthened it 

I think his philosophy makes intrinsic sense. His moves seems intrinsically appropriate to it, he may have even excelled at it owing to taking advantage of a sellers market where a team was willing to pony a first for Byram. So far a fair bit of the strategy is rubbing me the wrong way, as strategies that place a high priority on the future usually do. But that’s my bias. Upon separating it from the narrative of KA and to a lesser but still substantial degree Botterill, there’s no objective reason it needs to fail

Edited July 27 by Nacho Libre