Confirmed with Link: Canucks draft G Aku Koskenvuo (5th Round, 137th Overall)

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Aku Koskenvuo at eliteprospects.com

https://thehockeywriters.com/aku-koskenvuo-2021-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/

Click to read more...

 

[Melvin]

Of all the goalies in the draft. He is surely one of them.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Ian Clark pick

 

[Rey]

Going to Harvard

 

[NuxFan09]

I love the "draft a goalie every draft" method so I'm good with this. Doesn't appear to be one of our stronger goalie picks though. Let's see how he does at Harvard.

 

[ziploc]

Didn't seem like we needed to get him here, if this is the player Clark really wanted. But I'm clearly no insider, so maybe they knew something we didn't.

 

[Bubbles]

Ian Clark pick

Full time coach, part time scout now? He owes us for picking his son.

 

[RealGudbranson]

‘We can teach technique in a weekend’: Ian Clark on why the Canucks are so high on prospect Aku Koskenvuo

Ian Clark's quotes inspire so much more confidence than, say, others, in Canuck's management.

 

[StreetHawk]

Going to Harvard

Says he won’t go there til 22-23 so another year in Finland. But impressive that a foreign kid whose native language isn’t English got into Harvard.

 

[geebaan]

His numbers are crappy, so hopefully they see something in his raw ability

 

[krutovsdonut]

ian clark going full svengali.

 

[ziploc]

I'd rather be a defenseman prospect pipeline than a goalie prospect pipeline, but at least there IS a pipeline at one position.

 

[The Vasili Jerry]

The article about Ian Clark is a good one to read. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, for sure. The one question I have is that if other teams really didn’t like him at all, then why use the higher pick on him? Why not take him in the 7th? It’s not a huge deal, and maybe there was at least one team who did like him, but if not then it seems like a missed opportunity to get a better skater earlier in the draft and get who you want with the throw away 7th.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

This is the exact goalie I wanted the Nucks to take but I suspected he'd be available in the 7th round.

He has a lot of skills and size but he blew up in a few important games.

I could see him being a very good NHL backup.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

The article about Ian Clark is a good one to read. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, for sure. The one question I have is that if other teams really didn’t like him at all, then why use the higher pick on him? Why not take him in the 7th? It’s not a huge deal, and maybe there was at least one team who did like him, but if not then it seems like a missed opportunity to get a better skater earlier in the draft and get who you want with the throw away 7th.

This was my thing as well. I kept looking for a goalie for the 7th and he seemed like one that would fall there. Not sure why the Nucks took him in the 5th.

 

[VanJack]

Usually when a kid goes a little earlier than expected, it's because the drafting team gets wind of another team's interest and figures he won't be there by the last round of the draft.

And it's not like Koskenevo was a totally obscure prospect. Canucks Army was all over him as the number one 'value pick' goaltender for later in the draft....and he did get into games for Finland at the U-18's so a lot of scouts would have seen him.

I'm sure Ian Clark had a big say in drafting him and will likely help transform his game whenever he arrives here.

 

[Hammer79]

The article about Ian Clark is a good one to read. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, for sure. The one question I have is that if other teams really didn’t like him at all, then why use the higher pick on him? Why not take him in the 7th? It’s not a huge deal, and maybe there was at least one team who did like him, but if not then it seems like a missed opportunity to get a better skater earlier in the draft and get who you want with the throw away 7th.

I see it like this "Why did I just pay for that medium double-double? I have a filled out McD's stamp card for a free one right here!" If you get a player that has a 'cup of coffee' in the league or even more in the 5th round or beyond, you are doing well. Most amount to nothing anyway. I'm fine with taking a project goalie in the 5th and trying to get value out of him, especially if it's a guy other teams were eying with later round picks.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Says he won’t go there til 22-23 so another year in Finland. But impressive that a foreign kid whose native language isn’t English got into Harvard.

As a Fin, that is not a big deal really.

We learn english speak real gud here early on in school.

Here some stat analysis for you math heads:

"Official statistics in 2012 show that at least 70% of Finnish people can speak English."

 

[F A N]

I like it

 

[VanJack]

Goalies can be a funny breed, and very hard to scout imo. For every guy like Carey Price or Marc Andre Fleury, there's a bunch of high draft picks in the crease that just don't pan out.

Then there's some obscure guy plucked out of Sweden or Finland, who goes on to a stellar NHL career. I mean guys like Pekke Rinne and Henrik Lundqvist come to mind. Rinne was drafted 258th overall in 2004 when they had a nine-round draft. And Lundqvist was drafted in 7th round.

So you can never write off kids like Koskenvuo or Silovs. Both are a bit of blank canvas for Canucks goaltending guru Ian Clark. But his track record suggests that at the very least, these guys will dramatically outperform their draft status by a considerable margin.

 

[krutovsdonut]

is it too soon to learn how to pronounce his name?

 

[maroon 6]

is it too soon to learn how to pronounce his name?

Podzslovaf

 

[Gstank]

Goalies arent hard to scout at all you just need to know what you are looking for. Athletism, Compete Level, and the ability to read the play are the 3 most important skills to look at. If you stat watch thats where you start to get issues with goalies IE Mason Mcdonald over Thatcher Demko

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Podzslovaf

Gesundheit.

 

[Siludin]

The article about Ian Clark is a good one to read. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, for sure. The one question I have is that if other teams really didn’t like him at all, then why use the higher pick on him? Why not take him in the 7th? It’s not a huge deal, and maybe there was at least one team who did like him, but if not then it seems like a missed opportunity to get a better skater earlier in the draft and get who you want with the throw away 7th.

5th round picks are good luck charms in this org and they wanted to start him off on the right foot