2024 NHL Draft prospects
- Thread starter czech
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FinPanda
Team Finland 2022 WHC champions
I don't think so. Usually the best players will play their first season in the C-juniors in their 13-14 old season like Puljujärvi or 14-15 year old season like for example Kakko.
Kiviharju is doing it on his 12-13 year old season. That's incredible.
My son had a kid the other day and I been watching him and, in comparison to the some of the others in the nursery, you can clearly see some upper level athletic ability. Never too early to get the scouting started.
And exactly what level is the jrC U16 at?
Assuming there is U16 A and B league as well?
FinPanda
Team Finland 2022 WHC champions
He is playing in the best Finnish U16/C-juniors league as a 12-13 year old. There isn't higher U16 level in Finland.
His team isn't playing against the top teams at the moment though as TPS C-juniors didn't make it to the top 10 but they are the top team in the lower division and they have a chance to play in the playoffs against the top teams if I looked the system right.
You can't just downplay him when he is doing something that no one has done in Finland before.
Standings:
Etsi
alko
Registered User
FinPanda
Team Finland 2022 WHC champions
No. We have a system where all the best U15 players go to the Pohjola camp and they make the U16 national team from the best players who play there. This year it is for 2004 born players. Next year it is for 2005 born players. It goes by birth year. So he is still two years from being able to play for Finnish U16 national team unless they do something which would allow him to play as an underager.
alko
Registered User
FinPanda
Team Finland 2022 WHC champions
Yeah. I don't think it will happen even though it would be awesome. He might play with the U17 national team sooner than U16 lol.
I've actually seen him play. Yes indeed, he is very impressive, his forward stride on the skates is explosive, has a good shot, very slick hands, and is in general waaaay too dominating for playing in his own age group (06). But to be fair, he is physically a lot bigger than the average of his own aged kids, he is also otherwise physically very early matured (way into puberty already, looks like 14-15), and on top of that, obviously he is well trained and he is in excellent physical condition. Honestly to me it looks like he is an extreme case of "my dad wanted me to be a hockey player". I don't know him or his father, but it just seems like that from the outside. If he really wants it himself, remains to be seen, I hope so.
All in all, he is probably worth most of the hype he is getting. The question is, does all of that still carry him at the point when he and all his age-mates are past puberty? Is his skillset actually THAT great that it still works against the best (eventually)?
Time will tell. Best of luck to him, and to the fan-choir, hold your horses, he is still a child anyway, and now in a very vulnerable age. Too much too soon can be extremely damaging for a career that young. And seriously, like someone pointed on the first page, be careful with the Mathias Emilio Pettersen -effect. I mean if Kiviharju will ever play a game of professional hockey in the Finnish elite league, that's great. If he gets drafted, even better. He ever sets his foot on the NHL-ice even just for one game, fantastic. Extremely few extremely talented players in the world ever achieve that. If he makes it all the way to Norris, hey, good for him.
It would just be a shame if he ends up having a great hockey career, even 101% of what was humanly possible with his genes, and still be considered a "disappointment" or "lost talent" or even a "failure" by the public.
And since we're in the 2024 -thread, I can say with confidence that there is a lot of potential heading that way in various countries. Depending on their puberty, some will surface quicker than others, some will fade, that is a fact that will not change. Personally I'm following with great interest at least 10-20 players who should be on the list on the first page, but are not. I will not discuss their names, ever, since I don't think it's fair (I also don't blame those who do). If they will make it, they will be known when it really matters, and that is springtime 2024, earliest. Some might take even 4-6 longer to mature to NHL-level.
Until then, let's play some hockey.
I think minors get hyped up much more in Canada. In Finland, I doubt anyone will care until he plays in u-20s. Well, perhaps if he makes the Liiga debut.
At this point, it's tough to be concerned about his attitude towards hockey. See this when they won an international 05 age group tournament in Sweden:
I just don't think anyone who didn't genuinely care about hockey and just was forced into it by their father would act like this, and this is with a group younger than who he usually plays with which is when it'd be easy to have attitude issues(think Laine). Also think about the Finnish personality, culture and attitude towards hockey in general. Many of these concerns you speak of haven't existed in Finland in a significant manner.
Naturally, we know that his production's insane, even if he was not a defenseman. Right now, he has 15 points in 7 games in the spring in C2 AAA. Tied for first in scoring for his team, but that player has 3 more games played. Kaapo Kakko's the only player who recently produced at a good rate at this level, as a double underager - Kakko had 25 points in 15 games.
In my opinion, his two greatest strengths, traditionally, are power play quarterbacking and breakout ability, the two most important things for today's elite NHL defensemen to possess, I would say. There's no reason to think just these two skills wouldn't stick with him in my opinion. However, his one single strongest talent in my eyes is his ability to deceive. His gestures, fake shots and passes are really good and combined with his skating, he barely even needs to work to fool opposing players. I honestly have never seen anything like this in my life so I don't know how well it's going to translate to the higher level of play. An example of this is here:
He doesn't even need to get in a situation to properly dangle at all against the first guy - though nothing ends up coming out of that play. I guess that's the thing that stands out to me, it's just so easy. Like opposing players need to work so, so hard against him despite him being a double underager. I really would love to see him in Liiga to see if this stuff would work there as well and if he can essentially just walk through players unopposed. I guess that will be in 2 years.
Well, I do have his skating / stickhandling / shooting / passing / vision / IQ as Elite but that's that.
This Sunday's game is here, by the way: Gamesaver It requires a gamesaver account to click the link, but it's completely free. It's good to watch a full game because a verbal description couldn't do his play justice. All the other games he's played with C2 AAA this season are there as well.
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Sweden:
Viktor Olofsson (was playing in Uplandia Sweden in U14)
Statistiques | Uplandia Trophy
Viktor Olofsson | Uplandia Trophy
Watch hes game:
HV71 (HV71) - AIK (AIK) BRONS GAME - Uplandia Trophy
Here is a little experiment.
To those who find it comical to talk about potential nhl draftees at such a young age.
Here we go:
I say barring a serious injury
Aron from Finland is the first overall pick in 2024..
If this is the case ....no more of this way too early or saying to "stop"
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MatchesMalone
Formerly Innocent Bystander
- Aug 29, 2010
- 1,612
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Alexei Dontsov looks like the second best player for this age group.
The final from WSI U13s. Goes to overtime. I watched this to see the top Canadian group, with Mrsic, Catton, Gavin (2025) and Celebrini. But Dontsov steals the show every shift. He'll be an elite player at least up until the junior level. After that, who knows.
And yeah I agree with others here on Kiviharju. Possibly generational. If he keeps this up for one more year, Crosby/McDavid level hype will soon descend on him. Everywhere he goes he does things nobody has done.
By "keeps this up for one more year" I mean he would have to score at close to 2 p/g through Junior C this year and play a significant number of Junior B games at a point per game. If he does those things, then declare hype level orange juice.
The final from WSI U13s. Goes to overtime. I watched this to see the top Canadian group, with Mrsic, Catton, Gavin (2025) and Celebrini. But Dontsov steals the show every shift. He'll be an elite player at least up until the junior level. After that, who knows.
And yeah I agree with others here on Kiviharju. Possibly generational. If he keeps this up for one more year, Crosby/McDavid level hype will soon descend on him. Everywhere he goes he does things nobody has done.
By "keeps this up for one more year" I mean he would have to score at close to 2 p/g through Junior C this year and play a significant number of Junior B games at a point per game. If he does those things, then declare hype level orange juice.
alko
Registered User
At least we're shooting high with those expectations. No one has ever played a game in BSM Q or BSM proper as a quad underager, let alone score a point.
Close to 2 PPG would be nice to see in the spring, though. In comparison to C2, has 13 points in 9 games instead of 15 points in 9 games last season.
I only just recently learned about Aron Kiviharju through the Wagon Hockey Twitter account. 2 questions about him
1. Why exactly Is he so hyped? I know very little about the Finnish development leagues so I’m seeing his stats, but I have no context on the leagues he has been playing in.
2. What is his game and playing style like?
1. Why exactly Is he so hyped? I know very little about the Finnish development leagues so I’m seeing his stats, but I have no context on the leagues he has been playing in.
2. What is his game and playing style like?
Yeah, scoring's fantastic of course but probably says nothing. He scored 21 points in WSI u-14 as a u-13 defenseman, that's probably pretty good for context but still just a short tournament. Let me see if there's anything. Ah, yeah.
#11, black/white or white/black:
Does this help?
If you want to, you can watch some full match such as:
(2 hours)
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Outofbodyinhungary
Registered User
I'll come back in 3 years when we can actually have some proper perspective on these players.
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