Well he is already a better skater than Pulkkinen ever was, so I think he should be really able to make it. But I was worried last season of how easily Eeli got tired towards the end of his shifts. Also his complete vanishing for quite a while a bit after the halfway of the season, were signs of him maybe having pretty bad stamina and being still quite a physical weakling for the level that the NHL is really.I agree. Most of all, he needs to adjust his game to the smaller rink. Otherwise he'll become another Teemu Pulkkinen.
A bit of a worrying tendency honestly with the recent Finnish prospects to be physically in pretty weak condition. In addition to Tolvanen I have seen the same problem with Granlund, Teräväinen, Laine, Puljujärvi (to some extent), Hintz, Borgström and Heponiemi. They all could have been already earlier trained better to be ready also physically. Barkov, Rantanen and Aho are more like exceptions, as they all have been extremely well physically trained. Aho is crazy strong for his size, and he in fact made even crazier progress coming to this season, but he was already a physically well trained player as a junior. Especially his legs and balance have been very good for quite a while already.
But what’s wrong with the physical training with the Finnish junior players so far? I see at least some kind of problems with it.
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