I have to honestly say that it is quite funny that Niku is here praised as an elite skater, while Laine is constantly called a mediocre or even bad skater. I wouldn’t ramble about this otherwise, but because just before the 2016 WJC tournament team Finland had an internal skills competition where they had also skating competition, which Puljujärvi won before Laine, whom in fact beat Niku very comfortably in the first round.
What is good to realize also is that Laine was still only recovering from his knee surgery that completely ruined his off season earlier that year, and after that Laine has in fact substantially improved his skating. But still to understand his stealthy speed, he didn’t lose by a really huge margin to Puljujärvi in that skating competition final, although Laine had the injury recovery for most of that year and Pulju had been healthy.
Anyway, I do like Niku very much, but in my opinion he is just a bit over average skater, at least with his top speed and acceleration. His skating sure looks smooth and effortless, but it is not exactly as fast with his top speed or even acceleration, as the eye can fool us to think. This is how it can often be with skating. Many times skaters whom look so great and effortless with their skating are not after all so great skaters with their top speed or even acceleration, when compared to edgier or lankier skaters. What really matters in the end with this is the end results, and not how pretty or smooth each player’s skating looks like.
That I do agree with though that Niku has pretty darn good agility and lateral movement with his skating, which of course are important factors for defencemen especially. He is also a smart player and a very good passer, so I think he might really be a gem for the Jets in the future. I definitely hope so!