Good news from the European prospects

Prospects in Finland

Finland is well represented on the NHL level on the Rangers with top pick Kaapo Kakko, but thre are a couple of players we could see playing with Kakko in the future.  All three prospects in Finland definitely have NHL potential.

Lauri Pajuniemi (RW) – 2018 5th round, #132

So, the Rangers have to be asking themselves if Lauri Pajuniemi is real or not. After scoring five goals and 13 points for TPS Turku last season as a teammate of Kakko, he has exploded offensively.

He is second in the league in goals with 23 and 12th in the league in scoring with 35 points.  He is a power play specialist with 12 of his goals coming with the man advantage. The 20 year old right wing is playing under 15 minutes a game, by far the fewest among the top scorers in Liiga.

In the video below you can see Pajuniemi (#48) score two power play goals in TPS’s loss to Kookoo.  The two goals are consecutive and start at the 1:15 mark of the video.

For the sake of comparison, Edmonton Oilers top draft pick Jesse Puljujarvi has played the same number of games and has 17 goals and 38 points.  Last season, Kakko had 22 goals and 38 points in 45 games.

Before we go crazy over Pajuniemi’s stats, it’s worth nothing that Malte Stromwall led Liiga in goal scoring last season with 30.  Stromwall was signed by the Rangers in 2016 and played two seasons in their system, scoring two goals in 44 games for Hartford,  before being released and returning to Europe.

Pajuniemi is a righthanded shooter who stands 6’0″, 183 pounds.  He turned 20 in September.

Leevi Aaltonen (W) – 2019 5th round, #130

18-year old Leevi Aaltonen was selected to go to the Team Finland WJC training camp, but didn’t make the final squad.   He is a smaller player at 5’9″, 176 pounds and he needs to build up his strength.  He is playing for KalPa of Liiga where he  has only three assists in 32 games.   As a rookie he is playing 10:31 average ice time, a number that will grow as he gets more experience.

Tarmo Reunanen (D) – 2016 4th round, #98

21-year old Tarmo Reunanen  is the only Ranger prospect playing in Europe who is under contract to the Rangers.  He signed his Entry Level deal with the Blueshirts last June or they would have relinquished his right and they thought enough of him to ink him.

He’s one of the top defensemen for Lukko in Liiga with two goals and 12 points in 34 games.  That’s good for third best among defensemen for Lukko and he is playing almost 20 minutes per game on the second defense pairing.

The Rangers have to be hoping that Reunanen is a candidate to make the Finnish national team playing at the World Championships in April.

Reunanen is 6’0″, 180 pounds and spent some time with the Rangers in the preseason and no doubt get another long look next fall.  He could be another victim of the Rangers’ depth on defense or could be dangled as trade bait.

The best prospect in Europe is clearly Nils Lundvist who is living up to his status as a first round pick.  Pajuniemi is the prospect that needs to be monitored. If the Rangers were able to pluck a gifted scorer out of the fifth round of the 2018 draft, that would be exciting and good news for the team.

Considering the lack of forward depth in the pipeline, his performance this season has put him just behind Vitali Kravtsov and Morgan Barron as the Rangers hope for the future.