Mikko Tuomala Scouting Report

[flyersfan345 44]

Height: 6'2"

Weight: 215 lbs

Position: Defenseman

Age: 20

Team: Halifax 21st

Hometown: Tampere, Finland

Playing Style Comparison: Alex Pietrangelo

 

Mikko Tuomala is a first generation two-way defenseman modeling his game after Alex Pietrangelo. He is an undrafted Finnish talent for the Halifax 21st, eligible for both the VHLM and VHL drafts this upcoming season. He has already made a slight impact on Halifax’s 2nd power play unit, scoring two goals in his first four games, with 4 hits and a +/- of 1. He has among the highest offensive vision among defensemen on his team, but seeks to improve his defensive coverage, poke checking, and body checking to address a team need, and ultimately help his team to improve, showing his team first mentality.

 

Size and Physicality: Mikko Tuomala stands 6'2" and 215 lbs, giving him an ability to block shots and deliver some crushing hits. He still needs to develop his strength, and checking a bit further, but is making progress in these areas. Primarily, his focus has been on improving his defensive coverage, which will enable him to continue to make strides in these areas, but will still need improvement on the journey to a VHLM championship, and a VHL roster.

 

Puck Handling and Passing: For a defenseman of his experience, Tuomala has decent passing, but could use considerable work on his puck handling. He uses his passing ability well to create opportunities on the 2nd Power Play, but has not focused much on his puck handling, a skill that could be useful for a puck moving defenseman going forward, but at the moment, this is a secondary focus. It is not currently a team need, and Tuomala’s contributions have primarily been offensive to date.  

 

Skating: Tuomala’s skating ability is one of his most noticeable strengths so far in his short career. Given his focus on increasing defensive coverage, he has seen skating rise to his second highest player attribute, behind defense. His ability to maneuver around the ice, especially on the power play, has enabled him further to make contributions early, and this ability will only continue to rise as he focuses on improving his defense in the future. 

 

Shot: While his shot has not been a primary focus in his development to date and is not one of his top attributes, Tuomala has shown an ability to light the lamp early on, with his two powerplay goals in his first four games. Given the need for him to improve his strength, his scoring ability may improve if he focuses on his slapshot, but this is a secondary concern, given that it has been the strongest point of his contributions so far. It has been a surprising element to see emerge in his game early on, but as his development and that of his opponents will see him facing tougher opposition on the ice, he may statistically “come back down to earth” in this area as the season progresses given his focus on improving in other areas.

 

Defense: Tuomala’s defense is easily his highest rated attribute so far in his career, and GMs in both the VHL and VHLM can expect this trend to continue in the future. Despite his high defensive rating early on, it has not been the primary area of his contributions to date, and because of this, he has seen himself develop into a more offensive defenseman than he initially envisioned himself being. GMs can expect this rating to continue to improve, especially with his strong desire to model himself after Alex Pietrangelo, who in his prime, was a solid two-way defenseman that was extremely strong in his own end, with excellent leadership abilities. 

 

Outlook

 

Tuomala still has a long way to go on his journey to the VHL. He has made some nice contributions early on, but it would be nicer to see these contributions come in a win sooner rather than later. As a young player, he seems to be doing well at achieving his goal of continuous improvement, but may want to place more focus on the defensive and physical aspects of his game to truly become the player he aims to be. He currently projects to become a physical defenseman who is strong in his own end with a strong probability of developing into an elite powerplay quarterback.

 

In his development, he has had some excellent coaching to date from @LucyXpher. This type of support is critical for a first-generation player, and to get this type of insight from a veteran who has produced generational VHL talent is key, especially in guiding a player who may not know where to use his resources to improve early on. This continued coaching will likely result in some continued team-focused development that will help him skyrocket on draft boards in the near future. 

 

Edited October 18 by flyersfan345
Applied feedback from admin, updated for newly seen in game performance.

[LucyXpher 1,473]

This is a fantastic scouting report on Tuomala so far!  I can’t wait to see how far you can develop over the course of this season and into the future!  Amazing work
 

Now if only we could win when Tuomala scores…

Edited October 18 by LucyXpher