The absolute Finnish surprise of the season. The sturdy basic bone already convinced in St. Louis, but rose to a new level in the fall season in Florida. Action By Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour at the time of the injuries as the cornerstone of the Florida defense, playing the best hockey of his career.
Mikkola’s greatest strength is a strong self-image as a player. He knows his strengths as a basic defender and doesn’t try to be anything more. Mikkola plays hard, even on the borders of the rules, and doesn’t hesitate to go even harder after the whistle. He cleans up his own goal with quality and is able to give a good first pass as a puck player – on the other hand, humility is also enough to clear the puck through the glass.
Mikkola is exactly the type of defender that many teams striving for success in the spring crave. Good movement, big size, high-quality defensive end play and the ability to open the game with an easy pass. The value of such players is only emphasized in the playoffs, where simple and effective is beautiful.
Mikael Granlund, San Jose Sharks 27. 4+19=23
The starting points for Granlund’s season were anything but easy. Below was a difficult season in Pittsburgh, which was followed by a trade to perhaps the weakest club in the NHL. It was a rough start for both the team and its Finnish striker. Granlund’s taps opened in mid-November and the pace hasn’t slowed down since then.
After November 14th, Granlund is ranked 25th in the entire NHL point exchange behind, among others Austin Matthews, Sebastian Aho mixed Sidney Crosby.
Granlund has put everything into the game in his own style in weak San Jose. The Finnish player’s work ethic and conscientiousness have made him the team’s best striker and it has not gone unnoticed by the coaching staff. Only about attackers Tomas Hertl plays Granlund more.
The situation in San Jose is not pleasant, although the team has recently had better results than in the early season.
Granlund has proven himself to be a truly tough class professional who beats his soul out from shift to shift regardless of what is going on around him.
It is certain that it has not gone unnoticed by the player observers of other clubs either. A trade to a better team could happen at any time.
Matias Maccelli, Arizona Coyotes 33. 6+18=24
Maccelli already showed last season that he is capable of bringing his own personal style to the NHL level, but now there has been even better.
Maccelli hits the scoreboard as his team’s top forward night after night and does it in a really impressive way – the Turku player’s passing quality and selection are unmatched in the domestic puck family.
The TPS student, who scored 49 points in his rookie season, is now on pace for 61 points. The pace is excellent, considering that only five points have been scored with superiority, and the neighbors are not the stars of the first basket either.
However, Maccelli is swinging the pacing stick of the puck game in a way that makes even the chain guys look better.
In addition to everything, Maccelli is strongly on the wall of victory in the developing statistics. Maccelli is clearly over 50 percent in terms of goals, expected goals and dangerous goal positions. A personal style of play built on strong self-confidence works great at the NHL level.
Eeli Tolvanen, Seattle Kraken 35. 9+12=21
Tolvanen also needs to be put on the list. Just a couple of years ago, Tolvanen was badly sidelined in Nashville and many were ready to question the NHL future of the goal-scoring winger.
However, the move to Seattle brought Tolvanen to a new level. Was already excellent last season, but has been able to raise his level even after that.
In the midst of a difficult season, Tolvanen has been arguably the best of the Seattle attack. Although the player profile was built purely around the shot and goal-scoring skills for a long time, now Tolvanen impresses with his overall play. Sutiti is good at both ends of the field, which is also reflected in the advanced statistics.
For example, Tolvanen is the second best striker in his team in terms of dangerous goal posts.
Tolvanen has been able to score consistently and thereby justified his responsibility even in the first superior composition. Tolvanen is a great growth story and proof that by modifying one’s own game in a more reliable direction, the role and the confidence shown from the direction of coaching will increase.
Valtteri Puustinen, Pittsburgh Penguins 7, 0+4=4
The Finnish sensation of the last few weeks. “Kuopion Juti” came completely out of the box and into the big lights in the middle of Pittsburgh’s undercurrent, injury buzz and the problems of the power play.
Be that as it may, the superiority game started to work immediately when Puustinen was put into it. There were also wins, and “Juti” himself got entries in the statistics.
Puustinen is a fascinating story about long-term work. How many Finnish players are still grinding in the AHL three years before the NHL breakthrough? It seems that in the new age there is less and less of this kind of culture.
However, this is how Puustinen has worked and the reward has been tasty. Playing alongside living legends, own successes and fair responsibility for coaching are great rewards.
How far Puustisinen’s bet will go when the team recovers is still unclear, but the start is impressive to say the least. And definitely the most handsome Finnish sensation for this fall.