C Aleksi Saarela - Lukko, Liiga (2015, 89th, NYR; traded to CAR, traded to CHI, traded to FLA)

[JJTT]

yay shootout! hope saarela and barkov make some sick moves

e. nice moves by saarela but good save by goalie

barkov misses the net after between the legs shot

 

[thomast]

Omg that Barkov goal was very close... It was art.

 

[Jussi]

yay shootout! hope saarela and barkov make some sick moves

Ask and ya shall receive. Saarela deked out the goalie but couldn't roof the puck. Barkov attempted a Marek Malik but shot well over.

 

[JJTT]

saarela with another shot but cant score

hits the post with his 3rd try

 

[Jussi]

3rd attempt, a wrister, hit the post.

 

[Haite]

Top 5 youngest goal scorers in SM-liiga:

Barkov, Aleksander TAP 04.10.2011 16y 1m 2d
Saarela, Aleksi LUK 19.02.2013 16y 1m 12d
Rantanen, Mikko TPS 18.12.2012 16y 1m 19d
Kapanen, Kasperi KAL 19.01.2013 16y 5m 27d
Lehkonen, Artturi TPS 03.02.2012 16y 6m 30d

All from the last 2 seasons, kind of funny.

 

[Loffer]

Top 5 youngest goal scorers in SM-liiga:

Barkov, Aleksander TAP 04.10.2011 16y 1m 2d
Saarela, Aleksi LUK 19.02.2013 16y 1m 12d
Rantanen, Mikko TPS 18.12.2012 16y 1m 19d
Kapanen, Kasperi KAL 19.01.2013 16y 5m 27d
Lehkonen, Artturi TPS 03.02.2012 16y 6m 30d

All from the last 2 seasons, kind of funny.

Strange indeed. But this list is pretty impressive anyways. Great prospects.

 

[JAS 39 Gripen]

Read "Next finnish Toni Rajala?"

 

[Tormentor]

Read "Next finnish Toni Rajala?"

Saarela is more of a hybrid between Mikael Granlund and Miikka Salomäki, so Rajala is not a good comparison.

 

[toewsintangibles]

Saarela is more of a hybrid between Mikael Granlund and Miikka Salomäki, so Rajala is not a good comparison.

Saarela isn't slow like those guys. Salomäki will never make the NHL

 

[Tormentor]

Saarela isn't slow like those guys.

Tinke said yesterday that Saarela glides (=liukua) well and has a good balance, I can agree with that. On the other hand Saarela's overall skating and on ice speed attributes could definitely be better, especially for a shorter guy. You are fooling yourself if you think that Saarela will have notably better mobility in comparison to Granlund. Both are typical Finnish "persjalka's" (=guys with short legs), better suited to wrestling and weight lifting than skating or ballet dancing.

Salomäki will never make the NHL

Too early to say that I think. If Komarov can make it, Salomäki has a chance as well. Besides, what does that have to do with this topic?

 

[thomast]

Tinke said yesterday that Saarela glides (=liukua) well and has a good balance, I can agree with that. On the other hand Saarela's overall skating and on ice speed attributes could definitely be better, especially for a shorter guy. You are fooling yourself if you think that Saarela will have notably better mobility in comparison to Granlund. Both are typical Finnish "persjalka's" (=guys with short legs), better suited to wrestling and weight lifting than skating or ballet dancing.

Too early to say that I think. If Komarov can make it, Salomäki has a chance as well. Besides, what does that have to do with this topic?

Pretty much agreed with this. Saarela has pretty good skating with great balance and lateral movement but he isn't world class like Connor McDavid who is just phenomenal skater and that seperates them as an prospects.

Saarela isn't bad skater by any means i think that he has chance to have Kimmo Timonen like body and skating which will be enough.

What impressed me the most was his ability to read and predict plays, how strong he was and his intensity when he threw body, his offensive instincts especially how he constantly moved to great scoring places. He has very impressive shot and is big threat as playmaker or sniper. His assist was amazing. Hope he grows couple inches and keeps this intensity level. He reminds me from Elias Lindholm. His defensive game needs to be much better but he seem to be hard worker.

 

[YARR123]

Tinke said yesterday that Saarela glides (=liukua) well and has a good balance, I can agree with that. On the other hand Saarela's overall skating and on ice speed attributes could definitely be better, especially for a shorter guy. You are fooling yourself if you think that Saarela will have notably better mobility in comparison to Granlund. Both are typical Finnish "persjalka's" (=guys with short legs), better suited to wrestling and weight lifting than skating or ballet dancing.

Too early to say that I think. If Komarov can make it, Salomäki has a chance as well. Besides, what does that have to do with this topic?

I think you're generalizing too much. If you look at Saarela's skating now and compare it to Granlund in his draft year (as 1.5 years older), Saarela is clearly ahead of Granlund in that department. Saarela has a much better skating stance and a more powerful stride. Even the "persjalka" guys will have different attributes in power, mobility, explosiveness, etc, and to me Saarela is ahead of Granlund when judging these attributes.

And I'm not sure what you saw, I think he looked pretty fast out there.

 

[Jussi]

Too early to say that I think. If Komarov can make it, Salomäki has a chance as well. Besides, what does that have to do with this topic?

Göran Stubb said yesterday at YLE Puhe that at current rate Salomäki's potential looks to be at "decent SM-Liiga player" ("SM-Liiga sarjajyrä") so he's going to have to start working hard if he wants to make the NHL.

 

[Loffer]

Quite right. Granlund was just awful, i mean AWFUL skater as 17-18 yrs old. He has improved a lot from that and is now decent. Saarela is much better skater and might be already faster than what granlund is now, probably is.

But ofc Connor McDavid is quite on different level anyway, he is just phenomenal skater.

 

[YARR123]

Göran Stubb said yesterday at YLE Puhe that at current rate Salomäki's potential looks to be at "decent SM-Liiga player" ("SM-Liiga sarjajyrä") so he's going to have to start working hard if he wants to make the NHL.

Did he back it up with some reasons as to why he thinks that?

 

[Joe MacMillan]

Tinke said yesterday that Saarela glides (=liukua) well and has a good balance, I can agree with that. On the other hand Saarela's overall skating and on ice speed attributes could definitely be better, especially for a shorter guy. You are fooling yourself if you think that Saarela will have notably better mobility in comparison to Granlund. Both are typical Finnish "persjalka's" (=guys with short legs), better suited to wrestling and weight lifting than skating or ballet dancing.

Mind you that I've seen Saarela play only once (last night) but it definitely seemed that he was much more versatile skater than Granlund. Their top speed might not differ much, but in terms of explosiveness Saarela's skating exceeds Granlund's. Maybe I'll have to have another look to get a better view on him, but that was the first impression I got.

 

[Loffer]

Göran Stubb said yesterday at YLE Puhe that at current rate Salomäki's potential looks to be at "decent SM-Liiga player" ("SM-Liiga sarjajyrä") so he's going to have to start working hard if he wants to make the NHL.

The problem only being that he already works hard...

 

[Zeitung]

Mind you that I've seen Saarela play only once (last night) but it definitely seemed that he was much more versatile skater than Granlund. Their top speed might not differ much, but in terms of explosiveness Saarela's skating exceeds Granlund's. Maybe I'll have to have another look to get a better view on him, but that was the first impression I got.

Pretty hard to compare Saarelas skating to Granlunds since Saarela made his debut in Sm-liiga year earlier than MG. 178cm and 85kg at 16 years. Just like his father he seems to be very strong and muscular. Could he still be growing? Pasi was just 179cm tall, hope the kid could be an inch taller, but looking at higs weight it seems that he's not growing anymore. Great shot, good explosiveness and good hockey IQ. Very nice package just lacking a little bit of size.

Nice to see our system producing some talents after those poor years.

 

[Jussi]

Did he back it up with some reasons as to why he thinks that?

I didn't hear everything but you do know who Göran Stubb is? His opinions on players tend to have weight.

 

[Jussi]

The problem only being that he already works hard...

On the ice but he needs to improve he's skills more to make it to the NHL.

 

[Tormentor]

I think you're generalizing too much. If you look at Saarela's skating now and compare it to Granlund in his draft year (as 1.5 years older), Saarela is clearly ahead of Granlund in that department. Saarela has a much better skating stance and a more powerful stride. Even the "persjalka" guys will have different attributes in power, mobility, explosiveness, etc, and to me Saarela is ahead of Granlund when judging these attributes.

And I'm not sure what you saw, I think he looked pretty fast out there.

Saarela is a stronger skater than young Granlund, but I don’t think his upside in this aspect is notably higher than with Granlund. He won’t be the fastest or the most agile 5’10’’ guy on the ice, against world class competition he won’t be the top dog in north-south skating competitions or pull away from opponents with first few steps.

Genetics and training affect explosiveness and speed, no denying it. Will father be like son? At least with Barkov’s and Kapanen’s it’s been like that, and in the early going Saarela doesn’t seem very different from his father.

Saarela has good skills and confidence with the puck (“kiekkovarmuus†in Finnish), this enables him to handle the puck at full speed. He can manage difficult situations like entering the zone into a pocket. In this sense he’s very similar with young Granlund. Good balance and strength on the puck are the things that resemble Salomäki.

Göran Stubb said yesterday at YLE Puhe that at current rate Salomäki's potential looks to be at "decent SM-Liiga player" ("SM-Liiga sarjajyrä") so he's going to have to start working hard if he wants to make the NHL.

At current rate, developing into a NHL regular is the less likely option for Salomäki, that is correct, but saying that he “will never make the NHL†is in his case too strong of an opinion I think.

Salomäki is already better than a decent SM-liiga player, so in this case our 77 year-old expert doesn’t have the most accurate perception. When healthy he has been the 4th most valuable forward for Kärpät after Haataja, Huml and Kähkönen. You won’t see his value from scoring stats alone and I think the recent WJC’s gave a slightly wrong impression about him to many.

 

[YARR123]

I didn't hear everything but you do know who Göran Stubb is? His opinions on players tend to have weight.

Yes I know who he is and that's why I would have liked to hear why he thinks that

 

[YARR123]

Saarela is a stronger skater than young Granlund, but I don’t think his upside in this aspect is notably higher than with Granlund. He won’t be the fastest or the most agile 5’10’’ guy on the ice, against world class competition he won’t be the top dog in north-south skating competitions or pull away from opponents with first few steps.

So you're basing your whole argument on the notion that both players have a similar body composition (both stocky short)?

Sure, I'm not saying he will be a top dog in some speed contests, but I don't see a reason why he couldn't become a notably better skater than Granlund. I think the fact that he's a much better skater than young granlund, both power-wise and technique-wise, means he has better upside when it comes to skating.

 

[Loffer]

So you're basing your whole argument on the notion that both players have a similar body composition (both stocky short)?

Sure, I'm not saying he will be a top dog in some speed contests, but I don't see a reason why he couldn't become a notably better skater than Granlund. I think the fact that he's a much better skater than young granlund, both power-wise and technique-wise, means he has better upside when it comes to skating.

This. Obviously Saarela is much better skater than Granlund is/was. And he is only 16. While he is not McDavid-fast he is and will be fast and agile enough. Even Granlund is decent skater nowadays and he used to be horrible. Saarela is more explosive and has better top end speed already. And 16 year old should have a lot to improve and develop.

Or is this Saarela kid some odd case who has done all growing and won't develop any more as 16 years old?? Nonsense. He will be much better skater than Granlund.