These guys are locks for 1st round, possible that both go top-10. Only way Ristolainen falls are serious injuries, and only way Barkov falls is if he loses a leg.
3. Lehkonen
He's looking more and more like a 1st round pick. It's too early to tell for sure but if he continues to develop like he has, I'm pretty sure he's a 1st rounder.
4. Husso
I haven't seen the kid but heard good things. 1st round is possible if he's as good as people say.
5. Ikonen
6. Tanus
If these guys grow a couple inches 1st round is possible, especially for Ikonen. Both are 1st round talents but both are short.
Top scoring defensemen in "C2-nuorten valtakunnallinen sarja":
1. D - Eetu Naamanka (Jää-Ahmat Red) 18gp 11g+15a=26p
2. D - Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi (Jeppis/Muik) 20gp 9g+17a=26p
3. D - Elias Ulander (HIFK) 20gp 9g+16a=25p 4. D - Urho Vaakanainen (Jokipojat) 23gp 9g+16a=25p
5. D - Jouni Marjakangas (Kärpät) 21gp 6g+17a=23p
6. D - Juuso Järvinen (SaiPa/Ketterä) 21gp 5g+14a=19p
7. D - Juho Kinnunen (JYP) 18gp 3g+15a=18p 8. D - Miro Heiskanen (Blues MK) 20gp 4g+12a=16p
9. D - Janne Kuusela (Blues EPS/R) 18gp 9g+6a=15p
10. D - Valtteri Elo (TuTo) 20gp 3g+12a=15p
Vaakanainen and Heiskanen are 99-born, the rest are 97-born.
I haven't seen the kid but heard good things. 1st round is possible if he's as good as people say.
Husso hasn't been that exceptional this season and it's safe to say that Kevin Lankinen has been a bit better for the national team. Like with 94-born, the 95-born have several promising goalies and it's probably too early to say which one is going to be the most successful. It might end up being someone else than Husso.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YARR123
5. Ikonen
6. Tanus
If these guys grow a couple inches 1st round is possible, especially for Ikonen. Both are 1st round talents but both are short.
It seems that they haven't grown much height (if at all) during the last year. Therefore I’m starting to be a bit pessimistic about their draft chances.
Top scoring defensemen in "C2-nuorten valtakunnallinen sarja":
1. D - Eetu Naamanka (Jää-Ahmat Red) 18gp 11g+15a=26p
2. D - Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi (Jeppis/Muik) 20gp 9g+17a=26p
3. D - Elias Ulander (HIFK) 20gp 9g+16a=25p 4. D - Urho Vaakanainen (Jokipojat) 23gp 9g+16a=25p
5. D - Jouni Marjakangas (Kärpät) 21gp 6g+17a=23p
6. D - Juuso Järvinen (SaiPa/Ketterä) 21gp 5g+14a=19p
7. D - Juho Kinnunen (JYP) 18gp 3g+15a=18p 8. D - Miro Heiskanen (Blues MK) 20gp 4g+12a=16p
9. D - Janne Kuusela (Blues EPS/R) 18gp 9g+6a=15p
10. D - Valtteri Elo (TuTo) 20gp 3g+12a=15p
Vaakanainen and Heiskanen are 99-born, the rest are 97-born.
A few goals by Vaakanainen:
Vaakanainen seems to be pretty impressive player for his age. He looks big against 2 year older and his skating looks smooth. Promising so far.
Top scoring defensemen in "C2-nuorten valtakunnallinen sarja":
1. D - Eetu Naamanka (Jää-Ahmat Red) 18gp 11g+15a=26p
2. D - Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi (Jeppis/Muik) 20gp 9g+17a=26p
3. D - Elias Ulander (HIFK) 20gp 9g+16a=25p 4. D - Urho Vaakanainen (Jokipojat) 23gp 9g+16a=25p
5. D - Jouni Marjakangas (Kärpät) 21gp 6g+17a=23p
6. D - Juuso Järvinen (SaiPa/Ketterä) 21gp 5g+14a=19p
7. D - Juho Kinnunen (JYP) 18gp 3g+15a=18p 8. D - Miro Heiskanen (Blues MK) 20gp 4g+12a=16p
9. D - Janne Kuusela (Blues EPS/R) 18gp 9g+6a=15p
10. D - Valtteri Elo (TuTo) 20gp 3g+12a=15p
I would like to see Elias Ulander playing. I have been able to watch a few games of HIFK C, which competes in the second best league of the main age-group. But Ulander has not been in the games, and that is because he is playing in the C2. I have seen Jokerit C2 and a forward whose name is Henrik Borgström I believe looked as an interesting player.
Jesse Puljujärvi has been a beast all year long. 13 year old kid who is already 5'10. He has made great points in C-juniors SM-league where other kids are two years older. In his own level of juniors he has made ridicilous points like in TIHC - Jokerit which ended 11-0 he scored 7+2.
Jesse Puljujärvi: Really strong and skilled offensively, great scorer but needs to develope his defensive play a lot. Anyhow really promising.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirMcDuck
Jesse Puljujärvi has been a beast all year long. 13 year old kid who is already 5'10. He has made great points in C-juniors SM-league where other kids are two years older. In his own level of juniors he has made ridicilous points like in TIHC - Jokerit which ended 11-0 he scored 7+2.
There's always that argument that he dominates because his already so big. I'll have to wait few years before I'm ready to jump into Pulujärvi's bandwagon.
Vaakanainen seems to be pretty impressive player for his age. He looks big against 2 year older and his skating looks smooth. Promising so far.
Vaakanainen is probably an early developer (physically), but nevertheless a promising defenseman.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TwoHockey
Jesse Puljujärvi: Really strong and skilled offensively, great scorer but needs to develope his defensive play a lot. Anyhow really promising.
A scoring winger, but also has enough awareness to make some passing plays and advance the play on the neutral zone. He needs to develop everything, but I don't think his defensive game is bad for his age. He works well considering his endurance and strength level, his puck pursuit is usually good when he's not desperately gasping for breath.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirMcDuck
Jesse Puljujärvi has been a beast all year long. 13 year old kid who is already 5'10. He has made great points in C-juniors SM-league where other kids are two years older. In his own level of juniors he has made ridicilous points like in TIHC - Jokerit which ended 11-0 he scored 7+2.
Great and huge prospect.
Here's a slightly newer picture with Julius Nättinen on the left and Jesse Puljujärvi on the right:
Puljujärvi is a tall kid for his age, but not huge if you compare him to Nättinen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LatexiKledjut
Isn't it a tad early to start hyping kids of only 13 years of age??
It's probably not good to say that some 13 year old will be a future NHL star or something similar, because they have a long road ahead of them and only a few of them eventually make it. On the other hand this is a thread about up-and-coming Finnish prospects and many of us like staying up-to-date. As an example Kärpät recruited Puljujärvi from Tornio which is 130km away from Oulu, so some people are already doing a bit more than just keeping an eye on these kids.
Juuso Ikonen is playing his SM-liiga debut at the moment. He just assisted Miro Aaltonen's first SM-liiga goal to get his first SM-liiga point a while ago.
Apparently Atte Mäkinen (-95) will make his SM-Liiga debut tonight.
He's 1.91m tall and weighs 93kg (6'3", 205 lbs) not a bad size for a 16-year-old. Also, he's playing for Tappara. Another Atte Mäkinen, a forward born in 1996, plays for Jokerit juniors, so there's a possibility of confusion.
He seems very tall and heavy and when i look at his stats, he seems more like a defensive defenseman. Does he skate well for his size, what about the game-reading? What is his potential?
Juuso Ikonen playing his second game at the moment. Just scored his first goal a while ago.
Blues' contract situation is wide open since the the owner is shopping the team around. If Ikonen wants to play his entire draft year in SM-Liiga, now is the time to impress. And he's done pretty well so far (2 games, 1+1), hopefully he keeps it up.
I don't understand why Teräväinen didn't make ISS's recent top50 list. He's been so good recently that Jokerit don't have to buy more forwards for the playoffs. Maybe all the scouts were at the WJC...
He seems very tall and heavy and when i look at his stats, he seems more like a defensive defenseman. Does he skate well for his size, what about the game-reading? What is his potential?
Atte Mäkinen is a composed defenseman who’s able to play big minutes quite reliably. He’s clearly focusing on the defensive side of the game and you could say that he’s more of a stay-at-home defenseman. He’s not very active offensively, but I think he has potential to improve in that aspect. He’s getting some PP time in Jr.A and I’ve seen him take initiative a few times by rushing the puck up the ice or by taking a chance at the point. With improved conditioning and added experience/confidence you could see him contributing more offensively next season. He’s not overly aggressive and you probably won’t see him going for a bone crushing hit, but he knows how to take his man to the boards and separate him from the puck. He’s not a bad skater considering his size and age (actually fairly good), but he might still get caught on the open ice by a fast advancing opponent. I’m sure they are working on it and he should be fine once he adds some agility, explosiveness to his lower body. I like Mäkinen, but at this point it’s hard to say whether he has potential to develop into a player like Ville Mäntymää (another Tappara product with a similar frame) or something better. Next season should tell more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Needles
I don't understand why Teräväinen didn't make ISS's recent top50 list. He's been so good recently that Jokerit don't have to buy more forwards for the playoffs. Maybe all the scouts were at the WJC...
Craig Button has had Teräväinen as a mid 1st rounder the whole time and Red Line Report has him as a late 1st, so don’t put too much value on just the ISS list. The rankings are all different and none of them are “perfect”.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YARR123
If Teräväinen keeps this up he's bound to end up on every top-50 list there is. Btw is it just me or does he look like he's taller than 5'11?
He might still be growing, but I don’t think he’s taller than 5’11’’ at the moment.
Just watching Juuso Ikonen, he is very, very talented player. Too bad he's small but he's more talented than anyone from finland for 2013 draft. Nice smart plays with high-end creativity at the offensive-zone. He's good at puck fights aswell especially if you consider his age and size.
Just watching Juuso Ikonen, he is very, very talented player. Too bad he's small but he's more talented than anyone from finland for 2013 draft. Nice smart plays with high-end creativity at the offensive-zone. He's good at puck fights aswell especially if you consider his age and size.
Today's hockey is a speed game, especially in NHL. If you're good enough, size doesn't matter that much anymore. Just ask Nathan Gerbe. I'm pretty excited about Ikonen. At this point, I don't think Mikael Granlund's type of draft year is impossible (Full season with men, 30+ points).
I don't agree that Ikonen is the most talented Finn in 2013 Entry Draft. Not when Barkov might have even bigger upside than Mikael Granlund.
Today's hockey is a speed game, especially in NHL. If you're good enough, size doesn't matter that much anymore. Just ask Nathan Gerbe. I'm pretty excited about Ikonen. At this point, I don't think Mikael Granlund's type of draft year is impossible (Full season with men, 30+ points).
I don't agree that Ikonen is the most talented Finn in 2013 Entry Draft. Not when Barkov might have even bigger upside than Mikael Granlund.
It still does matter, maybe not as much as before, but still you have to be exceptionally talented (like Gerbe) to make it in the NHL. Still the overwhelming majority of very small players don't make it even if they were very talented like Juuso Ikonen undoubtfully is. Though if someone should be able to make it despite size, it should be Ikonen. He's incredible.
If you look at skill alone, then Ikonen is the most talented player, putting him in a 6'2 200 body and you have a number 1 pick. The thing is that small players tend to develop into very skilled players because they need skill to compensate size.
That said, I do think he is exceptionally talented. He's playing at a high level at a very young age and producing at an insane clip. Even if he would never become an NHL player, we will undoubtedly have many chances to enjoy his playing with Finnish national teams.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thomast
Just watching Juuso Ikonen, he is very, very talented player. Too bad he's small but he's more talented than anyone from finland for 2013 draft. Nice smart plays with high-end creativity at the offensive-zone. He's good at puck fights aswell especially if you consider his age and size.
I agree with everything here. Luckily he seems to be a sturdy build and capable of growing some mass. He sure is a dynamic skater, but do you think he is very explosive, like Gerbe and St. Louis are for example? I'm not quite sure as of yet. Ofcourse that will still improve a lot.
This guy has received next to nothing in hype, yet he's a 95 (2013 eligible) and has 7+13=20 in 25 games with Ilves jr. A. Any other year I'm sure eyebrows would be raising but with so many 95's he's been going under the radar for a while now. He also has decent size at 6'0 176, unlike many in his age group.
What type of a game does Antonen play, and is he someone to look out for concerning 2013 draft?
