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Toni Utunen | D


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15 hours ago, Rush17 said:

 

Impressive.

 

 

 

Am I missing something? Can anyone explain how Rand got the U18 numbers for Finland? When I search it, this is what I'm getting:

https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/5304/finland-u18-(all)/stats/all-time

 

Doesn't appear to be the same. I questioned it because I was wondering where Juolevi or Heiskanen were on that list.

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37 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

Am I missing something? Can anyone explain how Rand got the U18 numbers for Finland? When I search it, this is what I'm getting:

https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/5304/finland-u18-(all)/stats/all-time

 

Doesn't appear to be the same. I questioned it because I was wondering where Juolevi or Heiskanen were on that list.

Seems to be quite a selective filter he used. He was looking at the Mastis league only and filtered, U18 and drafted. 

 

https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/mestis/stats/all-time?age=u18&prospects=drafted

 

Whereas, if you do the same thing for the Liiga and he falls down to 21:

 

https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/liiga/stats/all-time?age=u18&prospects=drafted

 

Edited by HomeBrew
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1 hour ago, HomeBrew said:

Seems to be quite a selective filter he used. He was looking at the Mastis league only and filtered, U18 and drafted. 

 

https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/mestis/stats/all-time?age=u18&prospects=drafted

 

Whereas, if you do the same thing for the Liiga and he falls down to 21:

 

https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/liiga/stats/all-time?age=u18&prospects=drafted

 

Not as impressive as he has made it seem when filtered out that much.

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7 hours ago, Darius71 said:

Could be this year's sleeper pick for the Canucks

 

I think this guy will be in our lineup in 3 years.  The Finnish program is very strong and you don't become captain without some skill, work ethic and leadership.  He will work on his skating, strength and playing against men in the top league next year, I bet, and after 2 years will be on the Canucks.

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On 2018-06-24 at 4:41 PM, Rollieo Del Fuego said:

Utunen and Madden could both pan out down the road a bit ...there is some upside too both ...I just hope one of these Left shooting D. men can play the right side....

 

We could have 4 guys from this draft make it...you never know...even Atom Man has a chance....

Tryamkin, Hughes, and Pouliot are all left shooting guys who can play the right side.  Heck, so do Sautner and McEneny, is it comes to that.  Worth remembering that Sautner played very well at the end of last year - nothing wrong with having a wealth of depth.

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I have a good feeling about this pick. We have had very good luck in the 5th round in the past (Bieksa, Corrado, Hutton, Gaudette, and Forsling). If I were Benning, I would stock up on 5th rounders.

 

Here is a Canucksarmy article on Utanen.

https://canucksarmy.com/2018/06/23/canucks-select-toni-utunen-at-no-130/

 

Quote

We’ve reached the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ part of the draft. With their fourth pick in the 2018 draft, the Canucks have selected flashy, offensive defenceman Toni Utunen from Tappara of the Finnish Elite League. Utunen captained Finland to a gold medal at last year’s U-18 World Juniors.

 

 

Quote

Dobber Prospects

After the top five, I have Lenni Killinen and Toni Utunen who I like in the fourth and fifth round. Killinen is a very talented offensive winger with good size (6-2, 181) but consistency has been a big issue for him. And not just from one game to another but from one shift to another as well. If he can become more consistent, he has some serious upside. Killinen had a very good season in junior league where he scored 13 goals and 41 points in 38 games. But his consistency issues became very visible for the big audience at the U18 Worlds where he started on the second line and was demoted again and again until he didn’t see any ice time at all.

Utunen spent the entire season playing against men. He played 11 games in Liiga and was held pointless. But he also played 28 games in Mestis and scored 12 points there. Utunen is an average-sized (5-11, 172) puck-moving defenseman, and he’s also pretty decent defensively. He just doesn’t have any real high-end tools which limits his upside. Utunen captained the Finnish team to gold at the U18 Worlds, and he played big minutes in all situations for that team.

NHL.com

The Finn has a very well-rounded game, doing everything that is asked of him proficiently. Utunen is known as a two-way rearguard, making a strong first pass out of the zone and working well in transition. He doesn’t panic under pressure, always looking poised no matter the situation. At 5-foot-11, he isn’t the biggest defender but compensates for that by playing with an edge.

 

 

Edited by Alexandre
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On 2018-06-24 at 5:21 PM, theo5789 said:

Not as impressive as he has made it seem when filtered out that much.

Yeah, he filtered for drafted players (so undrafted were excluded), U18, and Mestis.

 

Laine and Puljujarvi were actually U17 when they played in Mestis (and were in Liiga as U18s). 

 

Plus, when you look at Liiga history (higher league than Mestis), there have been 23 U18s with 13 or more points in a season.

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28 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said:

BUT, for U-18 players with blonde hair who were born on Tuesdays and prefer Pepsi over Coke, he is 4th overall all-time.   Add in Family Guy preference over Simpsons and he moves up to 3rd!   This is massive.   

Yeah, pretty much.

 

I mean, I like the Utunen pick well enough, but you need to seriously tweak his stats to make him any kind of historical standout.

 

And is it really doing Utunen any favours to use filters to make his U18 scoring appear comparable to guys like Laine?

 

It’s like with Matt Thiessen (another pick I like). If you want, you can make his numbers look pretty amazing.

 

Among all U18 goaltenders drafted from the MJHL, Thiessen’s 0.923 Sv% in 2017-18 ranks 1st all-time!

 

Of course, Thiessen is also the only goalie to ever get drafted out of that league.

 

Elite Prospects’ filters are really handy and can be a lot of fun. But they can also create some pretty misleading results.

 

 

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