Leafs prospect sets league record in the final game of the regular season
Highly touted defensive prospect Topi Niemelä and his club Karpat finished their regular season today in SM Liiga (Finnish Elite League) action. In his third season with the club, Niemelä set a league record for most points by a U20 defenseman with 32 points (10G,22A) which beat the previous record by 1 (Sami Vatanen, who played more games).
Drafted in the third round (64th overall) in 2020, Niemelä is a right shot defenseman that fits the «Dubas mold» - small, but can skate very well and has a high hockey IQ. While he is only 5'11 and weights 170 pounds, he has been compared to the larger Miro Heiskanen. Heiskanen is only an inch or two taller but has more than 20 pounds on Niemelä, but given that he is only 19, he should have no problem adding a few pounds to his frame once he makes his way across the pond and works with the Leafs' strength and condition team directly.
Don't expect him to join the Marlies this season though as the SM Liiga playoffs run through April 19th and by then the Leafs will have filled their final contract spots with their NCAA prospects as we mentioned yesterday. That is not a bad thing though, it will give him more time to develop and add some size before participating in the Leafs rookie camp later in the summer.
The Finnish defender is signed through next season, so it's unlikely that we see him in North America until at least 2023-24.
| POLL | ||
MARS 22 | 267 ANSWERS Leafs prospect sets league record in the final game of the regular season Should the Leafs bring Topi Niemela to North America at the conclusion of the Finnish league season in 2022-23? | ||
| Absolutely | 147 | 55.1 % |
| No, still too small | 63 | 23.6 % |
| If he wasn't extended, he'd be here next month | 57 | 21.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
