D Ville Heinola - Manitoba Moose, AHL (2019, 20th, WPG)

ijuka

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I'll say it's a bit worrisome that after playing the start of the season in the u20 league qualification round, he after 2 games in the actual u20 league got demoted to the lower u18 division and had pretty disappointing performance points-wise there. Not really the trajectory you'd like to see.
 

TheFinnishTrap

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I'll say it's a bit worrisome that after playing the start of the season in the u20 league qualification round, he after 2 games in the actual u20 league got demoted to the lower u18 division and had pretty disappointing performance points-wise there. Not really the trajectory you'd like to see.
Where are you getting this? Looking at Eliteprospects he played 33 games in A SM-liiga with pretty good production, and was comfortably over PPG in B SM-sarja.
 

ijuka

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He played in B SM-alempi jatkosarja, which isn't B SM-Sarja even though Eliteprospects says so. It is the lower division which doesn't have the 10 top teams(it has teams 11-20 instead). From what I've checked, scoring is about 1.6 times easier there or that at least seems to have been the trend.

Eliteprospects does the same thing with Kaapo Kakko for instance, where it says his games just were in plain A-SM when it was in A SM-alempi jatkosarja where scoring is much much easier(almost 2x).

In general, Eliteprospects isn't a good source for Finnish leagues, it lumps vastly different divisions together and has some other oddities.
 
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Quethas

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The rumours about him signing to Lukko started well before the U20 season ended. That might have some effect to the decision of the level where Heinola played. Also at the end of the regular season, Ässät heavily focused on success at the U18 league since they didn't want to start second season in a row from Jr. B Mestis. Antti Tuomisto and Juuso Ketola also played a lot in the U20 league but played more or less in U18 league at the end of regular season.

Heinola got 22 points in 17 games in U18 league. The best forward of Ässät (Samuli Aaltonen) got 16 points in 18 games. I would consider that pretty damn impressive performance for the defenceman. Also while I watched the February's U18 Five Nations tournament, I found Heinola's performance really solid, especially so when considering that he's U17 player.
 
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NotProkofievian

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He played in B SM-alempi jatkosarja, which isn't B SM-Sarja even though Eliteprospects says so. It is the lower division which doesn't have the 10 top teams(it has teams 11-20 instead). From what I've checked, scoring is about 1.6 times easier there or that at least seems to have been the trend.

Eliteprospects does the same thing with Kaapo Kakko for instance, where it says his games just were in plain A-SM when it was in A SM-alempi jatkosarja where scoring is much much easier(almost 2x).

In general, Eliteprospects isn't a good source for Finnish leagues, it lumps vastly different divisions together and has some other oddities.

Do the Jr. A and Jr. B leagues ''split'' into top 10 bottom 10 at some point during the season like SuperElit does, or are they just separate leagues?
 

ijuka

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May 14, 2016
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Do the Jr. A and Jr. B leagues ''split'' into top 10 bottom 10 at some point during the season like SuperElit does, or are they just separate leagues?
This will probably be helpful:
Sk3tnI1.png

First there are the qualifiers in the fall, then the follow-up leagues. It works that way for B-SM as well. Even 2 Mestis teams qualify for alempi jatkosarja and those teams tend to be total junk.

I'll use 2 examples, being Kaapo Kakko and Aleksi Klemetti because they are the first 2 players that come to mind for me.

Kakko in qualifiers: 32 points in 26 games
Kakko in alempi jatkosarja: 23 points in 12 games

Klemetti in qualifiers: 43 points in 33 games
Klemetti in SM-Liiga: 20 points in 18 games

You see the difference? They're like entirely different leagues and you can't just lump them all together as A-SM or B-SM like eliteprospects does.
 

NotProkofievian

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Nov 29, 2011
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This will probably be helpful:
Sk3tnI1.png

First there are the qualifiers in the fall, then the follow-up leagues. It works that way for B-SM as well. Even 2 Mestis teams qualify for alempi jatkosarja and those teams tend to be total junk.

I'll use 2 examples, being Kaapo Kakko and Aleksi Klemetti because they are the first 2 players that come to mind for me.

Kakko in qualifiers: 32 points in 26 games
Kakko in alempi jatkosarja: 23 points in 12 games

Klemetti in qualifiers: 43 points in 33 games
Klemetti in SM-Liiga: 20 points in 18 games

You see the difference? They're like entirely different leagues and you can't just lump them all together as A-SM or B-SM like eliteprospects does.

Thanks! I wish I could like this post twice. The site that has all the game logs and stats for the Swedish league in detail is here:

J20 SM-slutspel | stats.swehockey.se

Is there something similar for the Finnish Jr leagues?
 
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FinPanda

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Thanks! I wish I could like this post twice. The site that has all the game logs and stats for the Swedish league in detail is here:

J20 SM-****spel | stats.swehockey.se

Is there something similar for the Finnish Jr leagues?
Etsi

All the stats are there. You can find "alkusarja", "alempi jatkosarja", "playoffs" etc. for all the leagues
that have stats in Finnish junior leagues.

Also you can search by every players name and find their stats for the season or every game. I have found very interesting to watch every players own stats from each game.
 
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FinPanda

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He has played two Liiga games now. He has no points (he could've got one assist in the first game but that goal was disallowed), but he is +4 after those games. 0 goals against when he has been on the ice when the team has allowed 7 goals. He played 18 minutes yesterday.

Good start, he is in the lineup again tonight.
 

FinPanda

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Small update. Now 7 games in Liiga, his ice time average is 15.44 and he has not been on the ice for goals against. He is +6.
 

JJTT

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Has anybody seen more of him this season? In the two games vs Kärpät this season, he's probably been the best defenseman for Lukko. Played over 21 minutes today on both PK and PP. Handles the puck and skates really well without making too many mistakes on the defensive end.
 

FinPanda

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I have not seen him play but I think his +7 on a -16 goal difference team is quite impressive. Best on his team AINEC when next best has +1.

He is averaging nearly 16 minutes per game so he isn't playing small minutes either, even though it is 6th lowest for defenceman on his team. 2 goals against in 11 games when he is on the ice.
 

Daximus

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I have not seen him play but I think his +7 on a -16 goal difference team is quite impressive. Best on his team AINEC when next best has +1.

He is averaging nearly 16 minutes per game so he isn't playing small minutes either, even though it is 6th lowest for defenceman on his team. 2 goals against in 11 games when he is on the ice.

16 minutes is about average for a 3rd pairing defender that gets PK time.
 

FinnishSniper

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Those #'s don't look impressive to me. Anyone know where his projection would be for the 2019 draft?
He is playing around 21 minutes a game now which is impressive. I see him having a potential to score around 30 points in the NHL in his prime with solid two-way game. So I'd say mid second round or if he picks it up point wise he could challenge for late first.

+ He is also +9 in an awful Lukko team which is really impressive for a 17-year old
 

Ippenator

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Those #'s don't look impressive to me. Anyone know where his projection would be for the 2019 draft?
You don’t then really understand how difficult and rare it is for his age of defencemen to get much at all points in Liiga. I think Heiskanen has in fact the record for 17 year old defencemen in points and he scored still only 10 points that season. I think at least it was this way. Someone please correct me if I wasn't after all accurate. His 1+3=4 points in 17 games is in fact very promising for his age.
 
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ookhaab

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I think Heiskanen has in fact the record for 17 year old defencemen in points and he scored still only 10 points that season.

Reijo Ruotsalainen and Timo Jutila both scored over 20 points as u18.

But you're correct, those numbers are perfectly fine, Urho Vaakanainen only scored 6 points in 41 games and Ristolainen 8 in 40 games, both clear 1st rounders.
 
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FinPanda

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Another primary assist. Now 6 points in 21 games. I really want to see him make the WJC team. He is one of the best options. Some think Heinola may be better than Kokkonen because of higher offensive potential. He has been playing 19 minutes a game and is +10 on a -13 team (clearly the best on his team, next best has +5).

Late first/early second. I am calling it now.
 

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