Prospect Info: 18th Overall (Round 1) - Urho Vaakanainen (D)

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

What picks?

And why does he have to hit on half of them?

All of the picks he's chosen since 2015.

Well, he doesn't have to. But if he wants to remain the GM of the Bruins he'll need to. Because his pro acquisitions have been fairly underwhelming, these draft picks need to hit at a good rate for this team to be remotely formidable in the upcoming 1-5 years.

 

[BostonBob]

I just went and watched Bob McKenzie's Final Draft Ranking show and he had Vaakanainen ranked # 22 ( a jump of 2 spots from his mid-season rankings ) so it looks like the Bruins didn't reach all that much.

 

[ChargersRookie]

Wasted pick, 50th by red line report. Skater with little offensive upside. Terrible. Not physical, no offense. Just drafted John Michel Liiles.

Sweeney needs to go.

Add him to the over hyped prospects and we will be lucky if he plays 80 games for Bruins.

Where does he rank by the other outfits.

You do know that some think little of Red Line. I like reading them or I did when I was a subscriber.

I found that their writings where the same as writings from prior years only different players.

There you go.

Edit: HockeyProspector has him ranked 18th and compares him to Brodin. Pick your poison I guess.

RANKINGS Ranked #11 by Hockeyprospect.com
Ranked #37 by ISS Hockey
Ranked #30 by Future Considerations
Ranked #13 by McKeen's Hockey
Ranked #8 by NHL Central Scouting (EU Skaters)
Ranked #22 by TSN/McKenzie

 

[BruinDust]

An, um , interesting tidbit in this article.

Urho Vaakanainen, best known by Hockey Twitter for his name autotranslating to Urho Libra Female

I'll just call him ULF for short.

Wait, what....ULF.....Nevermind.

https://oilersnation.com/2017/06/04/nation-network-2017-prospect-profile-31-urho-vaakanainen/

 

[vjcsmoke]

He was the 3rd ranked defenseman among European skaters and 8th in Europe. So taking him with a 1st round pick is not out of the question.

The question is how much value does Vaakainen provide as a defense first left handed defenseman who doesn't really contribute much to offense? He's not a two way player at this stage, he is really more of a give me a guy to shut down and I'll do my job but not much more.

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/2017draft/european-skaters

Still a young prospect so most likely at least 2 years away and might even continue his development in Europe first. At least he's projected as a top 4 guy. Finland appears to be turning out some more high end talent lately.

 

[s3antana5757]

He was the 3rd ranked defenseman among European skaters and 8th in Europe. So taking him with a 1st round pick is not out of the question.

The question is how much value does Vaakainen provide as a defense first left handed defenseman who doesn't really contribute much to offense? He's not a two way player at this stage, he is really more of a give me a guy to shut down and I'll do my job but not much more.

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/2017draft/european-skaters

Still a young prospect so most likely at least 2 years away and might even continue his development in Europe first. At least he's projected as a top 4 guy. Finland appears to be turning out some more high end talent lately.

Could he play in the AHL this season?

 

[finchster]

An, um , interesting tidbit in this article.

Urho Vaakanainen, best known by Hockey Twitter for his name autotranslating to Urho Libra Female

I'll just call him ULF for short.

Wait, what....ULF.....Nevermind.

https://oilersnation.com/2017/06/04/nation-network-2017-prospect-profile-31-urho-vaakanainen/

Then that's a bad translation as Urho in Finnish means brave

 

[BruinsPortugal]

he couldn't trade for Brodin so he drafts one. Not thrilled but I'm gonna wait to judge this pick in a couple of years.

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

Then that's a bad translation as Urho in Finnish means brave

I believe the author means "auto-correct".

I don't think there's such a thing as auto-translation.

 

[finchster]

I believe the author means "auto-correct".

I don't think there's such a thing as auto-translation.

Google does automatically translate websites; I use it when I am too lazy to read Russian. However, you are most likely auto-correct

 

[GloveSave1]

Maybe Tuukka can find some chemistry with this guy...if he's still here when this pick arrives.

Don't know, seems like people are missing the boat. Free wheeling gunners like Morrow and C.Miller are a dime a dozen, every kid wants to get into the offense on D...

Guys like Carlo, who actually know how to play defense, and project there...seem like the hardest thing to find in today's game. Forget about his offensive game...let's talk about his defensive ceiling...he's built a great foundation...

In a weak draft, I really like this dig by DS. You gotta go outside the norm.

 

[Dellstrom]

I like it. He's likely a long ways away, but we're absolutely stacked with defensive prospects. Krug, McAvoy, Carlo is an extremely solid young top 3, and we only need to hit on a few of them to have an incredible corps set up for a long, long time.

And if more than needed hit... You see how much top-4 defensemen go for on the market.

 

[bearcountry17]

delete

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

It's like a vegan saying a hamburger tastes bad. How can a player be bad if you haven't seen him play a reasonable amount of games

 

[Mount Kramer Cameras]

Could he play in the AHL this season?

Someone on the prospect board said he's already signed up for a new team in Liiga next year. Reuniting with a familiar coach who will give him more opportunities than he apparently had this year. Sounds good to me.

 

[HeartsAlive]

I like the pick after digesting it a bit. I would have loved to get Vesalainen, as I think the F prospects outside of Frederic are lacking in the size department, but you can't go wrong drafting as many D as possible. The Bruins already have a ton left shot wingers in the system, I'll get over it. Carlo and McCavoy are already playing in the NHL, so I trust this groups eye for D prospects, even if they were the two most "no-brainer" D picks at the time. And their Euro scouting has been pretty decent the last few years.

I just hope they don't put themselves in a position to get "Theodore'd" in the event of another expansion draft. Identify the ones that you think have the highest ceilings and trade one or two before their value starts dropping.

 

[JoeIsAStud]

I trust Redline more than I trust the FO....

But I hope they are wrong and this kid is a first round talent

Redline thought Frederick was a 4th rounder. They are not perfect

 

[JoeIsAStud]

I like the pick after digesting it a bit. I would have loved to get Vesalainen, as I think the F prospects outside of Frederic are lacking in the size department, but you can't go wrong drafting as many D as possible. The Bruins already have a ton left shot wingers in the system, I'll get over it. Carlo and McCavoy are already playing in the NHL, so I trust this groups eye for D prospects, even if they were the two most "no-brainer" D picks at the time. And their Euro scouting has been pretty decent the last few years.

I just hope they don't put themselves in a position to get "Theodore'd" in the event of another expansion draft. Identify the ones that you think have the highest ceilings and trade one or two before their value starts dropping.

What does Theodore`d even mean?.

Anaheim didn't lose Theodore in the expansion draft. Rather they had many more good nhl players than they could protect. So they chose to trade an expansion ineligible player to protect their proven studa.

I hope if there is another expansion in the future Boston has too many good players to protect, rather than not having enough good once as happened this time

 

[HeartsAlive]

What does Theodore`d even mean?.

Anaheim didn't lose Theodore in the expansion draft. Rather they had many more good nhl players than they could protect. So they chose to trade an expansion ineligible player to protect their proven studa.

I hope if there is another expansion in the future Boston has too many good players to protect, rather than not having enough good once as happened this time

If Anaheim had been quicker to identify Theodore as someone they were willing to part with in the expansion draft, then they would have traded him at the deadline/last draft when he had a much higher value. I'll give you that the only way they know this is with a crystal ball, I don't fault them for how the expansion draft played out (other than the Bieksa mess, which if they are on an internal budget, maybe they can't buy him out after all)

In the end, its most likely that 2 of Zboril, Lauzon, Lindgren, and Vaakanainen will bust, one be a serviceable depth piece, and one will be a legit top 4 D, and that's being optimistic. Granted if there is another expansion draft the rosiest of outcomes leaves us scrambling to protect 3 of these + Krug McCavoy and Carlo. I'm just wary of the cupboard running over and losing value in having too many guys for too few roster spots, or worse, having too few of them hit without spending a few of them on more established players.

 

[nmbr_24]

All of the picks he's chosen since 2015.

Well, he doesn't have to. But if he wants to remain the GM of the Bruins he'll need to. Because his pro acquisitions have been fairly underwhelming, these draft picks need to hit at a good rate for this team to be remotely formidable in the upcoming 1-5 years.

Hitting on half his picks would make him one of the best judges of prospects in the history of the game, probably the best wouldn't it? Chiarelli hit on one pick outside of Seguin/Hamilton in his entire time in Boston. Sweeney has already been quite a bit better than that.

 

[BruinLVGA]

In all seriousness, nobody is expecting a great deal from anyone later in first round. We are not getting a top 6 forward and you can never have enough defensive depth. Give me a good defenseman to trade and I'll take that any day over a good winger. Our D prospects should net us help up top if we play it right.

I have slept on it, read a bit more on Urho ( by the way, apparently Vaakanainen in Finnish means "scale" -Vaaka- "woman" -nainen-) and I am way less skeptical about him than when it all happened last night. Welcome Uhro, may you become our Brodin.

That said, I don't agree one bit with the bolded statement. One can absolutely get a top 6 forward late in the first (or even later).
In this draft, Vesalainen or Yamamoto are those available at 18th that I would have picked. Bottom line, I would have preferred if they drafted the highest possible offensive talent available.

 

[BruinLVGA]

http://www.dobberprospects.com/14904-2/

"Safest European pick"
"At worst a 5-6 defenseman"

NHL comparable: Roman Josi

Could live with a Josi clone at best case scenario.

Sweeney has to hit on at least half of these picks. Optimistic, but skeptical.

Please yes.

 

[Chief Nine]

Interesting comment from June 12th on the NHL Draft - Prospects thread from a scout who posts as JeromeHP:

After watching him live in Montreal at the WJC for 6 games, i was thinking he was more of a defensive d-man but knew i wanted to see more out of him to get a better read on him. I knew because Finland was a disaster at the tournament there was possibly more to Vaakanainen. I was really please with him at the U-18, using his feet more and making more plays offensively out there. It was unanimous in our scout meeting for our final rankings that he was a big riser. Looking for to see where he goes in the draft.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1569347&page=6 Post 148

Here's his signature:

Quebec Head Scout for HockeyProspect.com, covering QMJHL & NHL Draft
You can follow me on twitter @Jerome_Berube
2017 NHL Draft Black Book now available !
HockeyProspect.com 2017 NHL Draft Final Rankings

 

[Kase]

I don't think Josi is a good comparable for Vaakanainen. He doesn't poses the skills of Josi and is way more defensive oriented.

Someone mentioned Brodin as a comparable, and I think that's much better comparison. I'm not sure if Vaakanainen is ever going to be as good as Brodin defensively, but they have pretty similar skill sets, even tho I think Vaakanainen likes to join rushes more than brodin. So in that sense he sounds just like Scandella.. And knowing how much interest you have had on him, I think this is good pick for you guys, even tho it might take couple of years for Vaakanainen to get to the NHL.

 

[HockeyMomx2]

Thought I heard yesterday that when playing against his age and within a couple years, he lights the lamp a lot. Seems like when playing in the elite league against adults he focuses more on the actual D part. Could be a lot more offensively capable and minded with some growth and confidence over next couple seasons.