Erkka Leppänen

[miklu]

The 16-year old defender prospect Erkka Leppänen will make his SM-Liiga debut in todays JYP Jyväskylä match against Rauman Lukko. Erkka is propably JYP's biggest future prospect in this seasons team. He has already played for JYP in training matches, but now it's his time to show his talents in real matches. I'll go see the match and report if he gets any playing time.

#18 Erkka Leppänen

Height: 183 cm
Weigth: 77 kg

Born: 25.11.1986 in Jyväskylä

2002-03
JYP A-Juniors SM-liiga 1 0 + 0 = 0 0 min

JYP B-Juniors 24 4 + 11 = 15 22 min

JYP B-Juniors playoffs 3 1 + 0 = 1 0 min

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[miklu]

A good start for the young defenseman. He got a position in the starting defenseman pair with Jari Korhonen due to lots of injuries in the JYP defense. He has got a very good shot that he uses eagerly. His passing skills are good and also skating looks fine. He had some difficulties with positioning in the game and that made some very difficult situations in the JYP defense. He also lacks some physical power that makes him loose fights in front of the goal. But you can't expect that from a 16 year old boy.

Interview with Erkka Leppänen after the match:

- The speed of the game was high, but it was great to play. I wouldn't have expected that I could play with JYP so early on and straight into the first line. The coaches game me the instructions just to play boldly my normal game.

- I don't know about the future, but I'd love to play with JYP whenever they give me a chance. Lukko pushed really hard and they were really strong. Compared to A-Junior matches this was much more physical.

Erkka Leppänen got high grades from the JYP coach Matti Alatalo:

- The media has ignored that we have a 16-year old boy playing his SM-Liiga debut. No one or two shifts but lots of them, not like Joensuu playing with Porin Ässät. Our boy played a good match like another prospect Valtteri Tenkanen. We thought which would be a good spot for Erkka to start his game. We put him in the first line. There's a lot of skill and experince around him.

Source for the interview: http://www.sm-liiga.fi/kiekkokanava/otteluraportti.asp?ottelu_id=16733


Put him in the prospect lists
By the way JYP won the match 5:3.

 

[Korkki]

- The media has ignored that we have a 16-year old boy playing his SM-Liiga debut. No one or two shifts but lots of them, not like Joensuu playing with Porin Ässät. Our boy played a good match like another prospect Valtteri Tenkanen. We thought which would be a good spot for Erkka to start his game. We put him in the first line. There's a lot of skill and experince around him.

Joensuu would have played more but the game was too even to let a 15-year old boy to be on the ice in third period. Leppänen is almost an year older than Joensuu, but I am sure that Joensuu will take the regular spot younger (next season)