Europeans at the 2015 NHL Draft

The Stanley Cup Champion has been crowned with the Chicago Blackhawks, who won the Final series in 6 games against Tampa Bay. But in the NHL celebrations never take too long as there is always the NHL Draft around the corner by the end of June. This year the Draft will be held in Sunrise, Florida, on Friday and Saturday.

Among many players from North America the 30 teams will also get to choose from a new class of European talents. We will introduce you to some interesting choices that will probably end up in the NHL sooner or later and will get to know their first destination this weekend.

Mikko Rantanen (FIN), TPS Turku

One of the most experienced talents in this year’s draft class has already 3 seasons on the elite level with TPS Turku under his belt. In the 2012/13 season at the age of 16 he was called up for 15 games and could score his first pair of professional goals. He is known as a great playmaker and improved his output in Liiga games over the last two years. Last season he scored 9 goals and 19 assists for 28 points in an otherwise disappointing TPS team that came in second to last. Since his season on the A team in Turku got cut short by missing the play-offs, he got moved to the junior team and led it with 14 points in only 7 play-off games to the junior championship in Finland. The right wing is ranked No1 among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting and might go very high in the Draft.

Joel Eriksson Ek (SWE), Färjestad BK

One season on the Swedish top level stands for the center from Karlstad, in which he scored 4 goals and 2 assists in 34 games for the storied team Färjestad. The other 25 games in his 2014/15 season brought him 21 goals in the SuperElit, Sweden’s U20 league. This number was not matched by any of his competitors league-wide, which is quite impressive for an 18-year old coming into a league full of older talent. He has size and skill, which should make him a very welcome addition to a lot of NHL teams, as this is a combination that does not come along too often these days. What he can do when he plays against players of the same age, could be seen in this year’s U18 WC, where he scored 5 goals in 5 games.

Michael Spacek (CZE), HC Pardubice

Not related in any kind to former NHLer Jaroslav Spacek, the young Czech from hockeytown Pardubice impressed at the recent U18 WC and got voted into the Top3 players of his team due to a goal and 4 assists in 5 games. In the Extra League he played his first full season with the pros this year and could contribute 12 points in 40 games. So far he has proven on all junior levels that he can be a point-per-game scorer, but as he is not the biggest center at 180 cm this might cost him a few positions in the draft. Nevertheless he is 5^th on Central Scouting’s European skater list.

Oliver Kylington (SWE), Färjestad BK

Another young gun from Färjestad sits in Central Scouting’s 6^th position for Europe. The defenseman cracked the elite team’s lineup two seasons ago and could already show his skills on the powerplay. Due to his hockey sense and vision, he can develop into a quarterback in those situations and also in 5-on-5 plays he can setup attacks really well. At the end of this season he was loaned to AIK of the second tier Allsvenskan to gather experience with increased ice-time. After he came back he supported the play-off run of Färjestad’s U20 team in the Super Elite with 5 assists in only 6 games.

Sebastian Aho (SWE), Skelleftea AIK

If you want to select Sebastian Aho this year at the draft, better make sure you get the right one as there are two players with the same name, one from Sweden, one from Finland. And both are expected to go at similar positions.
The Swedish one is a defender for Skelleftea and could win the SHL championship in his very first professional season in 2013/14, just to take the silver medal as well this year. While he split his ice time between the pro team and the juniors two years ago, he was a full member of the top team in North Sweden this year and could get 15 points in 54 games up to the finals. During the U20 WC he even scored one goal and 3 assists in 7 games and proved his offensive skills as well. In his last junior season in 2013/14 he was also voted the best defenseman in the SuperElit.

Sebastian Aho (FIN), Kärpät Oulu

The other Aho probably made the biggest headlines this spring. When the Liiga finals between Oulu and Tappara were coming to its climax in a double OT in a decisive game 7 and everybody expected guys like Esa Pirnes or Olli Palola to step up, Aho came in and stole the show with his championship winning goal. Although he was born in Rauma, he came up through Oulu’s system and cracked the line-up this season. In 27 regular season games, he scored 4 goals and 7 assists in a star-studded team that did not leave him too much ice time to do so. What he is capable of doing when he gets this chance, can be read from his numbers out of his last junior season in 2013/14, when he recorded 59 points in 44 games in the Jr A SM-Liiga. A lack of confidence won’t be his problem: When he was asked if he didn’t get nervous in his decisive break-away in the final game, he said it didn’t make any difference to him on which level he played.

Jonas Siegenthaler (SUI), ZSC Lions Zurich

The highest rated Swiss player this year will be a defenseman from Zurich. Siegenthaler got voted into the U18 WC all-star team this year and also played the U20 tournament, where he achieved a +9 plusminus record in 6 games. At 190 cm, he might frighten a couple of NHL attackers in the future since he knows how to use his body. He is a good passing player and played his first full professional season this year. In 59 NLA games he kept a +6 plusminus record.

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