Prospect Info: 2020 3rd Rd Selection - #64 OA (via OTT) - RD Topi Niemela (Karpat) - 6'0 163

[ponder]

I think if people tracked anything besides points and +/- in the AHL, Liljegren would be viewed in a completely different light. He's been a dominant play driving defenseman since his d+2 and he's only gotten better. Imo he's got maybe a slightly lower ceiling then Sandin, but I think he's got by far the highest floor of the three. He will be a top-4 defenseman.

Liljegren
Sandin
-
Niemela

But I think Niemela is creeping closer into the top group every day.

Lily is an excellent AHL dman, no doubt, but he’s also spent 4 seasons in the AHL. Not surprising he’s adapted well to the league by now. In his small cups of coffee at the NHL level (so far) he looks like he has trouble keeping up (mentally) with the pace of the play.

I personally expect him to be terrific in the AHL this year, but still questionable at the NHL level, and to remain an injury call up, not making our top 6. I think he’ll almost certainly be a full time NHLer by somewhere around 23-25 years old (he turns 23 around the end of this season), but I don’t really see top 4 NHL upside. I do think both Topi and Sandin are significantly more likely to be top 4 NHL dmen, they’re on a different level in terms of hockey IQ.

 

[ULF_55]

Lily is an excellent AHL dman, no doubt, but he’s also spent 4 seasons in the AHL. Not surprising he’s adapted well to the league by now. In his small cups of coffee at the NHL level (so far) he looks like he has trouble keeping up (mentally) with the pace of the play.

I personally expect him to be terrific in the AHL this year, but still questionable at the NHL level, and to remain an injury call up, not making our top 6. I think he’ll almost certainly be a full time NHLer by somewhere around 23-25 years old (he turns 23 around the end of this season), but I don’t really see top 4 NHL upside. I do think both Topi and Sandin are significantly more likely to be top 4 NHL dmen, they’re on a different level in terms of hockey IQ.

Only 1 defenseman from Niemala draft has any NHL games, Jamie Drysdale.

79 defensemen drafted in Liljegren's draft ... 21 have any NHL games.
Realistically, Liljegren is 2 years out of junior.

I have thought he has looked okay in the NHL, not flashy, but looked like his first goal was to get the puck out of the Leafs zone, and with a pass rather than trying to carry it out.

People would think differently of him had he stayed in Europe, or played junior when he was junior age.

Round	Overall	Team	Player	Position	Team	Games
1	3	Dallas	Miro Heiskanen	D	HIFK Helsinki [SM-liiga]	205
1	29	Chicago	Henri Jokiharju	D	Portland Winterhawks [WHL]	153
2	49	San Jose	Mario Ferraro	D	Des Moines Buccaneers [USHL]	117
1	4	Colorado	Cale Makar	D	Brooks Bandits [AJHL]	101
2	34	Vegas	Nicolas Hague	D	Mississauga Steelheads [OHL]	90
1	16	Calgary	Juuso Valimaki	D	Tri-City Americans [WHL]	73
1	15	Vegas	Erik Brannstrom	D	HV71 Jonkoping [SweHL]	63
4	103	Los Angeles	Michael Anderson	D	Waterloo Black Hawks [USHL]	60
3	87	Montreal	Cale Fleury	D	Kootenay Ice [WHL]	41
2	57	Chicago	Ian Mitchell	D	Spruce Grove Saints [AJHL]	39
4	99	Buffalo	Jacob Bryson	D	Providence College [H-East]	38
1	14	Tampa Bay	Cal Foote	D	Kelowna Rockets [WHL]	35
2	32	Colorado	Conor Timmins	D	Soo Greyhounds [OHL]	33
2	38	Detroit	Gustav Lindstrom	D	Almtuna IS [Swe-1]	29
5	139	NY Islanders	Sebastian Aho	D	Skelleftea AIK [SweHL]	25
7	196	Philadelphia	Wyatt Kalynuk	D	Bloomington Thunder [USHL]	21
1	23	Arizona	Pierre-Olivier Joseph	D	Charlottetown Islanders [QMJHL]	16
1	18	Boston	Urho Vaakanainen	D	JyP HT Jyvaskyla [SM-liiga]	16
1	17	Toronto	Timothy Liljegren	D	Rogle BK Angelholm [SweHL]	13
4	95	Vancouver	Jack Rathbone	D	Dexter School [Mass. H.S.]	8
3	92	Nashville	David Farrance	D	U.S. National Development Team [USHL]	2

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Morgs]

Lily is an excellent AHL dman, no doubt, but he’s also spent 4 seasons in the AHL. Not surprising he’s adapted well to the league by now. In his small cups of coffee at the NHL level (so far) he looks like he has trouble keeping up (mentally) with the pace of the play.

I personally expect him to be terrific in the AHL this year, but still questionable at the NHL level, and to remain an injury call up, not making our top 6. I think he’ll almost certainly be a full time NHLer by somewhere around 23-25 years old (he turns 23 around the end of this season), but I don’t really see top 4 NHL upside. I do think both Topi and Sandin are significantly more likely to be top 4 NHL dmen, they’re on a different level in terms of hockey IQ.

I think if you gave Liljegren 20 games straight with no repercussions, you'd see AHL Lil in the NHL.

His IQ is excellent at the AHL, his transition play is arguably the best of the 3, and his defense and physicality is on another level. His offense is behind the other two, but its still above average.

He just needs the opportunity to play and it'll be fun for all of us to laugh at the idiots who doubted him. Guys got #2 upside imo, but my realistic assumption is he's a second pair playdriver.

 

[darrylsittler27]

He may be top 4 one day but it's years away.

 

[LaPlante94]

I think if you gave Liljegren 20 games straight with no repercussions, you'd see AHL Lil in the NHL.

His IQ is excellent at the AHL, his transition play is arguably the best of the 3, and his defense and physicality is on another level. His offense is behind the other two, but its still above average.

He just needs the opportunity to play and it'll be fun for all of us to laugh at the idiots who doubted him. Guys got #2 upside imo, but my realistic assumption is he's a second pair playdriver.

It's weird because experts and everybody raved about his offensive game when he was drafted and now it's the complete opposite. Hopefully they let him play with Muzzin this season.

 

[Leaf Fans]

He may be top 4 one day but it's years away.

He might be, but he is progressing well.

 

[leafsfan2point0]

6 points in 5 games to start the season!

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

It's weird because experts and everybody raved about his offensive game when he was drafted and now it's the complete opposite. Hopefully they let him play with Muzzin this season.

Except his offensive game was still exceptional for his age in the AHL. His age 18/19/20 seasons he had some of the best PPG of all time in the AHL despite Rosen/Sandin getting PP duty over him most of the time.

 

[Stephen]

I think if you gave Liljegren 20 games straight with no repercussions, you'd see AHL Lil in the NHL.

His IQ is excellent at the AHL, his transition play is arguably the best of the 3, and his defense and physicality is on another level. His offense is behind the other two, but its still above average.

He just needs the opportunity to play and it'll be fun for all of us to laugh at the idiots who doubted him. Guys got #2 upside imo, but my realistic assumption is he's a second pair playdriver.

He looks like he could be a Rasmus Andersson style defender.

 

[Canada4Gold]

6 points in 5 games to start the season!

This thread has gotten so off topic that I read this post and thought "where is Liljegren getting his points from, preseason hasn't started yet" and then I remembered I was in the Niemela thread

 

[crump]

Love the poise this kid has. Kaberle-like.

 

[aingefan]

Guys sounding more and more like a steal every day.
He and Kokkonen could move quickly once they get over here.

 

[Thornbury]

Guys sounding more and more like a steal every day.
He and Kokkonen could move quickly once they get over here.

He and Kokkonen could be a very interesting pairing for us in a few years.

 

[Visnovsky]

Niemelä was awesome this evening, playing a very modern and fast transitional game - I don't think I counted him pass the puck backwards once, always just straight ahead and always on the stick.

Nor did he lose puck battles, he will fill out in the up coming years and get stronger, but he already plays such a smart game that he very rarely loses the puck battles - such an active stick and high iq plays all around.

A very refreshing sight for sore eyes.

 

[LeafSteel]

Niemelä was awesome this evening, playing a very modern and fast transitional game - I don't think I counted him pass the puck backwards once, always just straight ahead and always on the stick.

Nor did he lose puck battles, he will fill out in the up coming years and get stronger, but he already plays such a smart game that he very rarely loses the puck battles - such an active stick and high iq plays all around.

A very refreshing sight for sore eyes.

Thanks for this…

 

[Artorius Horus T]

12 points in 11 games + 2 periods.

Pretty good for the 19 year old. (he is still 19, about 6 more months)

 

[Oscar Peterson]

12 points in 11 games + 2 periods.

Pretty good for the 19 year old. (he is still 19, about 6 more months)

Does he have three points in his game right now? HockeyDB shows 9 points in 11

 

[stickty111]

Does he have three points in his game right now? HockeyDB shows 9 points in 11

DB doesn't update until after the game. Those are his stats before the game today. He has 12 in 12 live right now.

 

[Oscar Peterson]

DB doesn't update until after the game. He has 12 in 12 currently

Awesome, really great start for Niemela...
Excited to see how he does at WJC this year

He's another prospect with hockey IQ as a major strength so I feel good about his chances of playing for us one day, just don't know what his ceiling is yet

 

[Cams]

FYI - a good site to follow live scores/summaries for leagues like this www.flashscore.com
Niemela currently has 1G, 2A today! In a span of 2:52 even.

 

[Prominence]

Awesome, really great start for Niemela...
Excited to see how he does at WJC this year

He's another prospect with hockey IQ as a major strength so I feel good about his chances of playing for us one day, just don't know what his ceiling is yet

He was touted as a strong defensive dman, but the wjc and his production indicates that his ceiling could be a strong two way defenseman. The fact that he played his draft year against men worked so well to our advantage because i’m presuming that he didn’t showcase much offense that year or else this guy wouldn’t slip to the 3rd round.

 

[Fogelhund]

Karpat has been eliminated from the playoffs, apparently he’s headed to the Marlies

 

[ULF_55]

Karpat has been eliminated from the playoffs, apparently he’s headed to the Marlies

Sorry to hear they've been elminiated

 

[WTFMAN99]

It'll be interesting to see him on the NA ice finally.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

Big boost to the Marlies back end. Fantastic!