S66 Draft - the Finnish prospects

[jRuutu 2,426]

 

 

Good evening! The draft, one of the most exciting events in the virtual hockey world is getting closer and closer, we over here in FSN - Finnish Sports News have been taking a closer look on Finnish players who are available, who will be picked and when? Here are our thoughts:

 

Let´s start off with the top picks:

 

Number one: Mikko Aaltonen - RW - 223 TPE -

 

Mikko is an extremely talented two-way winger who also knows how to score, currently playing in VHLM with Las Vegas. In 61 games he has 35 goals and 74 points, second best in the whole team and 15th in scoring league wide. His TPE rating of 223 is 5th best in the whole draft and best among all the RW´s, so he has a real chance on getting picked on the first round! That is super exciting for Finland and Finnish hockey!

 

Number two:  Eeli Harju - C - 79 TPE -

 

Much like Aaltonen, Harju has a strong two-way game, but does not have as good setup on the offensive tools yet at least. 61 games with the Ottawa Lynx, 9+29 while playing on the second line, so it´s clear he likes to dish the puck out, a big question mark when going forward is: can he shoot?  Our statistics has his tpe rating of 79 ranked at 13 among all centers who could be drafted, so he is more of a project compared to Aaltonen.

 

Number three: Teemu Kiprusoff - LW - 30 TPE -

 

This tells a sad tale of Finnish prospects in this years draft, Kiprusoff is the last player who has a contract in VHLM, he is practicing with the Minnesota Storm, but has not made any appearances yet. He has a decent shot and above average skating ability, when looking at the big picture, he has some ways to go before being good enough for top-6 in VHLM. Getting drafted in this year´s draft is a question mark, has not played any games and reports from practice are not too promising, but there is still time to turn things around of course.

 

To finalize our rankings, going to list the last players who are all at 30 TPE and playing somewhere in Finland at the moment:

 

Aakus Amme - RW
Alek Nylund - D
Boe - RW
Brady Wick - D
Jaakoppi Kemppainen - RW
Pate Laine - C
Walter Gustafsson - C

 

Overall, there is some clear absolute top-end talent in Aaltonen, he is the bright light for Finnish hockey fans and has all the tools to be a superstar in VHL, then comes more of a wild card Eeli Harju who could surprise many and be a steal, but he needs couple seasons more compared to Aaltonen before he is ready. After those two we have a lot wasted potential, I know it sounds bad to say about young players, but when the goal is to get drafted in couple months, move over to VHLM means you got a lot of eyes on you, playing well and practicing well makes it almost guaranteed to get drafted, but some players are late bloomers and need more time. Lets hope that is the case with most of the young Finnish prospect in this years draft pool.

 

(Apologies if I missed someone, used the portal and the players marked as being Finnish)

 

550 or so words, theme week, 6 uncapped extra TPE

Edited April 5, 2019 by jRuutu

[GRZ 179]

Make Finnish hockey great again

[jRuutu 2,426]

1 hour ago, GRZ said:

Make Finnish hockey great again

Exactly! We need more Finnish players in this league