Emulation

Karsten Kadinger wants to be his own player, plain and simple -- but that doesn’t mean he isn’t drawing inspiration from other players. At first glance, the obvious names would be Nikolaus Scholz or one of the McZehrl’s: high profile, high-offense German superstars. But of late, Kadinger has been quoted as drawing inspiration from another player entirely: one of Ireland’s biggest names over the past two decades… none other than Pedro Sarantez, the high-scoring winger that Kadinger was first introduced to through watching the Edmonton Blizzard, as the line of Kane-Scholz-Sarantez lit up the season and broke records (soon to be broken in turn by the aforementioned McZehrl).

With 360 goals in his first 19 seasons, Sarantez has been absolutely prolific. While he’s slowed down considerably, he’s already added 3 goals and is on pace for a respectable 15 goals this season, meaning he would cap off his career with yet another solid outing. Certainly, Sarantez has been on the decline since his 69-point season in S33, but he remained a very solid presence for the Admirals and Rage respectively. Kadinger may only have one goal so far in his young SMJHL career, suffering through the early-career slumps many similar players have (indeed, Sarantez only notched 16 points in his rookie season), but there’s no doubt that offense is one of his key focuses. He may be more interested in defense than Sarantez, but there are similarities to note between them -- some intentional on Kadinger’s part.

First and foremost, both players have made their careers off of scoring. Granted, Sarantez has more of a career to show for it, but that goes without saying. Both men possess deadly wrist-shots and the ability to sneak their way into scoring avenues. Likewise, both Sarantez and Kadinger place a lesser emphasis on passing, but retain strong puck-handling abilities. The biggest point of difference between them is where Kadinger seems focused on a two-way style of play, Sarantez is a little more reckless in his own end, but has the kind of natural skating ability Kadinger could only dream of. So -- they’re different players, but the inspiration is obvious, and Kadinger can only hope to achieve a fraction of Sarantez’ personal success.