Prospect Info: At 16th Overall the Calgary Flames Select Juuso Valimaki

[Yotes4Cup]

Off season gains would be limited to 3-4 pounds of muscle per month.

30# would be impossible without medical intervention.

He is not putting on 3-4 lb of muscle a month as a natty.

 

[Lunatik]

I dispelled that athletes can't have high protein diets if they're vegan. They sure can, they'll just consume more calories, but also more energy and other beneficial nutrients.

Which had nothing to do with my original point, just you taking it further off topic.

 

[Volica]

The evidence will all point to the opposite. Hence why almost every vegan on earth supplements their diet with protein additives and iron supplements.

I have a friend who is a wrestler.
Like Pro-wrestler. He's also Vegan. These guys take their bodies super seriously because it can make or break them; he takes so much protein supplements to keep up on his protein. He's natty too, which is super hard for him to maintain his physique.

No quick Greek Yogurt and chicken breast hacks for easy protein for him. Lots of Lentil based things.

 

[JPeeper]

I have a friend who is a wrestler.
Like Pro-wrestler. He's also Vegan. These guys take their bodies super seriously because it can make or break them; he takes so much protein supplements to keep up on his protein. He's natty too, which is super hard for him to maintain his physique.

No quick Greek Yogurt and chicken breast hacks for easy protein for him. Lots of Lentil based things.

Who though.

inb4 Brock Lesnar

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I moved a bunch of the vegan/food discussion to the healthy living thread. The amount of times the word "lentils" appeared in a player thread is too damn high.

 

[super6646]

He made the roster. He's gonna be a stud!

 

[Mr Snrub]

I'd forgotten about the high-octane lentil discussion that had been going on in here for a while.

 

[Rubi]

Valimaki plans to be in the NHL in two years

Looks like he made it a year ahead of schedule.

 

[Rubi]

Valimaki was the third-best d-man in this draft, behind Heiskanen and Makar

I think the Flames might disagree with you on that one, today.

 

[isthatso]

Hey guys.

Personally curious to know more about Valimaki's offensive abilities.

I could not watch him play in the last few weeks, but was extremely impressed by him at the beginning of the year as a player, not necessarily offensive wise. Still, great skater, size, good first pass.

Not my style to judge a defenseman by points total (even for forward for that matter) and I hate to be only stat watching him at moment, but looks like I am missing a lot of context for his current output.

Cheers.

P.S. Not a single team fan here. Not here to get info for trade proposal, nor compare him to other young dman.

 

[Khrox]

Hey guys.

Personally curious to know more about Valimaki's offensive abilities.

I could not watch him play in the last few weeks, but was extremely impressed by him at the beginning of the year as a player, not necessarily offensive wise. Still, great skater, size, good first pass.

Not my style to judge a defenseman by points total (even for forward for that matter) and I hate to be only stat watching him at moment, but looks like I am missing a lot of context for his current output.

Cheers.

P.S. Not a single team fan here. Not here to get info for trade proposal, nor compare him to other young young dman.

Currently he's week-to-week with a lower body injury. His offense will come, but he's playing on a sheltered third pairing role with another rookie (Rasmus Andersson). So at this point, it's more two players, playing rookie seasons in the NHL together, building some chemistry. There has been some mistakes, but when you're that young, it happens. The coach trusts him out there, and lets him play after a mistake because he knows that it's part of the learning and growing experience. You see flashes of his offensive talent, and I can only think it's going to show more as he gets used to the NHL's speed and physicality (and as he gets experience, he'll likely start getting more time on PK and PP).

 

[isthatso]

Currently he's week-to-week with a lower body injury. His offense will come, but he's playing on a sheltered third pairing role with another rookie (Rasmus Andersson). So at this point, it's more two players, playing rookie seasons in the NHL together, building some chemistry. There has been some mistakes, but when you're that young, it happens. The coach trusts him out there, and lets him play after a mistake because he knows that it's part of the learning and growing experience. You see flashes of his offensive talent, and I can only think it's going to show more as he gets used to the NHL's speed and physicality (and as he gets experience, he'll likely start getting more time on PK and PP).

Thanks for the info. The Calgary defense is a hard spot to graduate, I believe.

You think that limited ice time and being sheltered explains his low offensive output, or is it more him playing the safe way?

 

[Bounces R Way]

Hey guys.

Personally curious to know more about Valimaki's offensive abilities.

I could not watch him play in the last few weeks, but was extremely impressed by him at the beginning of the year as a player, not necessarily offensive wise. Still, great skater, size, good first pass.

Not my style to judge a defenseman by points total (even for forward for that matter) and I hate to be only stat watching him at moment, but looks like I am missing a lot of context for his current output.

Cheers.

P.S. Not a single team fan here. Not here to get info for trade proposal, nor compare him to other young dman.

He hasn't really been placed in a position to put up a ton of points. Still like his instincts, shoots from anywhere, pinches constantly(almost even too much) which is somewhat rare for a rookie, and has a solid first pass. Have yet to see him join the rush really but as he gets more settled in the league I think you'll see him start to jump more often.

 

[The Gnome]

Thanks for the info. The Calgary defense is a hard spot to graduate, I believe.

You think that limited ice time and being sheltered explains his low offensive output, or is it more him playing the safe way?

It's a combination of both. You can tell he is trying not to be a liability with his limited ice time. Which is really what I would expect from him. I'm very impressed he's able to be a plus a as dman at such a young age, not many can do that at that positio.n

 

[isthatso]

It's a combination of both. You can tell he is trying not to be a liability with his limited ice time. Which is really what I would expect from him. I'm very impressed he's able to be a plus a as dman at such a young age, not many can do that at that positio.n

Oh, no doubt about that. The games I watched him play early in the year screamed top pairing D, for me.

I just couldn't keep up recently, that is why I asked.

Started to wonder why points weren't coming, especially with his natural instincts. You'd think that a few more lucky bounces would have given him some more assists, considering his level of play early on.

 

[Fig]

Oh, no doubt about that. The games I watched him play early in the year screamed top pairing D, for me.

I just couldn't keep up recently, that is why I asked.

Started to wonder why points weren't coming, especially with his natural instincts. You'd think that a few more lucky bounces would have given him some more assists, considering his level of play early on.

I think it's a combination of a few things.

1. Yes, it's hard for young Dmen to graduate in Calgary. But that was perhaps an issue with previous coaches.

2. Based on what we saw in Carolina, Peters prefers dmen to work on being defensively responsible before allowing the free reign to go nuts with their offensive instincts. It might be an idea where he doesn't care if the dman scores a ton if he's an overall detriment to the team by doing so. This was supposedly how Hanifin was dealt with in Carolina. This is very much opposite on many other teams who allow the rookie dman to jump in irregardless of whether it's a net positive. Furthermore, allowing a rookie to just jump in requires the older vets to be defensively responsible. I think Peters wants the kids to earn their stripes and carry the load for the team first before being allowed to take on risks which hurt/help the team. (ie: Gio/Chara with Hamilton is a situation where it seemed like it never got past the vet carrying the defensive load for the young guy)

3. Limited view of Valimaki early on showed he attempted to chip in offensively at first. However, I seem to recall there were a few hairy situations where there were reversals in pressure when Valimaki chipped in. I'm guessing that Peters asked him to hold up on going deep and just focus on understanding the system so that he can more effectively chip in. I think the offense will increase once Peters gives him and Anderson the green light.

4. There's a pretty big wear down when you first join the NHL. He could be slowing down and ailments piling up. He's also out with an injury right now, so that doesn't help either.

 

[ESH]

Oh, no doubt about that. The games I watched him play early in the year screamed top pairing D, for me.

I just couldn't keep up recently, that is why I asked.

Started to wonder why points weren't coming, especially with his natural instincts. You'd think that a few more lucky bounces would have given him some more assists, considering his level of play early on.

His offensive skill set is pretty obvious watching him play, I think he’s just been playing it safe and focusing on making good passes. I feel like the points will start coming for both him and Andersson.

I have no way to confirm this, but I think the third pairing probably plays mostly with the bottom-6 forwards, who until recently haven’t been scoring very much. He might’ve picked up a few more bonus assists if he had more time playing with the top-6.

 

[Volica]

His offensive skill set is pretty obvious watching him play, I think he’s just been playing it safe and focusing on making good passes. I feel like the points will start coming for both him and Andersson.

I have no way to confirm this, but I think the third pairing probably plays mostly with the bottom-6 forwards, who until recently haven’t been scoring very much. He might’ve picked up a few more bonus assists if he had more time playing with the top-6.

Juuso's time breakdown kind of looks like this:
1/3 of time with the 3rd line
1/4 of the time with 1st line
1/4 of the time with 4th line
1/6 of the time with 2nd line

He spends more than half the time with the bottom 6. Decent time with the top line too; and barely any time with the possession monsters second line.

 

[Mr Snrub]

Juuso's time breakdown kind of looks like this:
1/3 of time with the 3rd line
1/4 of the time with 1st line
1/4 of the time with 4th line
1/6 of the time with 2nd line

He spends more than half the time with the bottom 6. Decent time with the top line too; and barely any time with the possession monsters second line.

Maybe more important is no PP time at all. Flames depth on defense means he's not given many of the opportunities to score normally given to other top prospects.

 

[Fig]

Valimaki, Juuso fine
Juuso fine you blow my mind, Valimaki,
Valimaki

 

[SmellOfVictory]

Valimaki, Juuso fine
Juuso fine you blow my mind, Valimaki,
Valimaki

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Valimaki, Juuso fine
Juuso fine you blow my mind, Valimaki,
Valimaki

It was actually pretty clever lol.

 

[tfong]

Yay we have future dmen

Also my avatar is more relevant

 

[Rubi]

It's a national holiday for Juuso today.

Finland's Independence Day is a national public holiday, and a flag day, held on 6 December to celebrate Finland's declaration of independence from Russia in 1917

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Hey guys.

Personally curious to know more about Valimaki's offensive abilities.

I could not watch him play in the last few weeks, but was extremely impressed by him at the beginning of the year as a player, not necessarily offensive wise. Still, great skater, size, good first pass.

Not my style to judge a defenseman by points total (even for forward for that matter) and I hate to be only stat watching him at moment, but looks like I am missing a lot of context for his current output.

Cheers.

P.S. Not a single team fan here. Not here to get info for trade proposal, nor compare him to other young dman.

His offensive abilities are solid. His overall game reminds me of McDonagh.