Confirmed with Link: Eetu Liukas Signed to ELC

[SI90]

Liukas has legit bottom 6 potential. I'm excited to get him over here

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[IslesNorway]

Nice. He will be replacing CC or Martin in a year.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

I actually am high on this kid to be a NHLer

 

[Skip To My Lou]

Interesting tidbit:

 

[xECK29x]

Excited to see him (eventually) come over, will be a long time fixture on the bottom 6

 

[SI90]

I actually am high on this kid to be a NHLer

Me too. Plays relentless. Put up decent offensive to last year in Liiga

 

[Luolis]

Nice pickup for you guys. I've followed him these last couple of seasons in Liiga because of him being a TPS homegrown kid.

He's a strong power forward type player, who also has skill with the puck. He also plays very physical and lays down lots of big hits.

I could see him becoming a regular bottom 6 forward in NHL in the future for sure.

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

Et tu, Brute?

 

[doublechili]

Et tu, Brute?

I gave him the nickname "Brutus Liukas" a while back.

 

[periferal]

It's not often the Isles sign somebody and react with, "Who?", but such is the case here.

 

[PK Cronin]

It's not often the Isles sign somebody and react with, "Who?", but such is the case here.

The first highlights that show up when you search for him are all of him being a goon too, not something I'm super excited about. Doesn't mean he can't make it but I'm tempering expectations on this one big time.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

It's not often the Isles sign somebody and react with, "Who?", but such is the case here.

The first highlights that show up when you search for him are all of him being a goon too, not something I'm super excited about. Doesn't mean he can't make it but I'm tempering expectations on this one big time.

Eetu Liukas was a 5th rounder who had NHL size from the get-go, but skating was a deficiency when he was selected. In his draft year, he had missed considerable time to injury, but did primarily play in Liiga action (3 points, 20 PMs in 19 games).

The season thereafter, he played basically the entire season in the Finnish Liiga, albeit on a crash-n-bang 4th line. He scored 8 regular season and 4 postseason goals.

He was then outstanding in a 3rd line checking capacity for Finland at the summer WJC, taking no prisoners and proving to be a handful for even Canada, making several key plays in Finland's gold medal game comeback to push the game to OT. The Finns took silver.

He then followed that up with 14 goals and a league-leading 104 penalty minutes in the regular season for his pro team. This was accompanied by 7 international games for Finland at the men's level, being cut before the WC in Tampere.

My take:
His skating has improved considerably, even if his first few steps continue to be plodding when he starts wearing down. He has a strong understanding of the game with and without the puck. He is very good at forechecking and being a thorn in the side of the opponent. Some guys simply understand how to get under people's skin, and that's a forte of his.

Had no doubt after his DY+1 season that he'd get his ELC. As I understand it, he'll still be in Finland next season, so look for him to join BPort at the end of the season if he hasn't worked his way into Team Finland's WC plans.

In Liukas and Kuefler, the team certainly seems to hoping to groom its next Matt Martin internally.

 

[mm11]

Can this kid drop the mitts???