Projecting A. Kostitsyn

An ideal comparison would be a recent Eurpoean (preferably Eastern) top 10 pick who started out in the NHL at 21/22 and there just aren't many guys like that. The lockout year further muddied waters.Kostitsyn was in the AHL for his 20 y.o. season, AHL/NHL at 21 (I averaged his NHL ppg and AHL equiv. ppg) and had a full NHL season this past year at 22.It is important to note that the hockey-reference.com age numbers are "player age on February 1 of the given season." Kostitsyn is a Feb. 3 birthday, meaning he's as old as a player can be and still qualify as 20/21/22 in the three seasons listed.Finally, his production this year was inflated a bit by a remarkably high shooting percentage by his line. His 0.68ppg might be overstated slightly.The numbers are from hockey-reference.com. Italics mean NHL Equivalent ppg.Hossa's development appears to have happened a full year earlier than Kostitsyn. But guess what? He's a Jan 12 birth, meaning it actually occu...