The Liiga is about to change in a way it has not in more than a decade. When the season opens Sept. 1, 17 teams will take the ice instead of 16, because Jokerit are back in the top flight for the first time since 2014. It is also the final year in the current shape. The three lowest finishers will drop into a new Liiga-run second tier, and the top division shrinks to 14 teams in 2027-28. Finland is calling it the superseason, and for dynasty and deep-league managers it is the deepest slate of Finnish prospect viewing in years.

Last season this column worked through a full slate of Finnish names, from January’s Potential Unknown Gems to March’s Playoff Buzz. Much of that watchlist has since scattered, some players to the AHL, others still developing at home, so the 2026 board resets below and starts clean.

This edition is built around a simple filter: who is staying in the Liiga, who is coming back to it, and which draft pedigree earns a roster spot before opening night. It opens with the class’s top pedigree, a first-round center on loan to Tappara, and closes on the forwards Jokerit are bringing to their first Liiga season since 2014. Time to get into it.

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Oliver Suvanto, C, 6-3, Washington Capitals (18th overall in 2026)

Tappara: 2G, 9A, 48GP (2025-26)

Suvanto is the headliner of this class and the highest-upside name on the board. Washington took him 18th overall in June, the franchise’s first Finnish first-round pick since Miika Elomo in 1995, and signed him to a three-year entry-level deal on July 14. The plan is straightforward. He goes back to Tappara on loan for 2026-27 and keeps playing men’s hockey a year early.

The raw totals, two goals and nine assists in 48 games, undersell the season badly. Suvanto was 17 and skating regular minutes for the reigning champions, and no under-18 skater scored more in the league last year. Tappara asked its young players to defend and forecheck while the skill lines rested, so his value showed up in retrievals and matchup minutes rather than the scoresheet. That is a harder job than a fourth-line label suggests, and he handled it.

He models his game on Aleksander Barkov, and the comparison holds up on tape. Suvanto is a 6-3, 213-pound center who wins his battles and reads the ice with a maturity rare at 17. The two-way game is already heavy. The offense is projectable rather than proven, but the hands and the sense are there for more once he is asked to create.

For fantasy managers this is the profile you draft and hold without overthinking it. A first-round two-way center rarely comes cheap, and a full season back in the Liiga is the right next step, not a red flag. Add him in every dynasty format and give the point production a year or two to catch up to the pedigree.

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Petteri Rimpinen, G, 6-0, Los Angeles Kings (152nd overall in 2025)

Kiekko-Espoo: 13-11-11, .911 SV%, 2.29 GAA (2025-26)

Rimpinen enters the superseason as one of the Liiga’s more established young starters, though the way he got there was quiet rather than loud. He won Kiekko-Espoo’s net as an 18-year-old rookie, held it through a second season, and the Kings used a fifth-round pick on him in 2025 after Vegas passed a year earlier. He is staying in Espoo for 2026-27, and he spent the summer in military service before flying straight to the Kings development camp in Los Angeles in July.

The 2025-26 line reads modest at 13-11-11, but the finish is the tell. He closed the regular season as the hottest goaltender in the league, posting a .943 save percentage with four shutouts over his final 12 appearances, then added five playoff starts. The surge echoed his 2025 World Junior run, where he backstopped Finland to silver and took Best Goaltender honors. Twice now he has answered a wobble by getting sharper, which says more about a goalie projection than any single season number.

The scouting read is consistent, and I broke the toolkit down in full for The Hockey Writers: efficient routes and calm hands, with tracking that holds up when the front of the net gets busy. At 6-0 he is undersized for the position, so the projection leans on the Juuse Saros template, a smaller goalie who plays bigger than his frame through positioning and quickness rather than reach. The Kings have a clear path for him through the Ontario Reign, most likely once this season tips into next.

For fantasy purposes he is what most goalie prospects are, a long hold rather than a quick return. Goalies rarely pay off before their mid-20s, and Rimpinen is no exception. Hold him in deep dynasty formats with prospect and goalie slots, and watch whether his play forces the Kings to pull him across to North America mid-season. If he stays in Espoo all year and repeats that late-season form, the stock only climbs.

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Lasse Boelius, D, 6-0, Anaheim Ducks (60th overall in 2025)

Ässät: 1G, 7A, 40GP (2025-26)

Boelius is the bet on tools over production, and the tools are the reason to buy in. Anaheim took him 60th in 2025, and he spent last season in a third-pairing role with Ässät, where the point totals stayed modest at one goal and seven assists in 40 games. The number that matters more is the 40, a full men’s-league season logged at 19 on a three-year Liiga contract.

Skating is the separator. He accelerates past forecheckers in a few strides and defends off that same base, steering attackers wide and winning races to loose pucks. He shoots more than he passes, and the next step is keeping his head up longer before he does, since he still forces low-percentage looks when a lane closes. Anaheim has a history of taking fast offensive defensemen and rounding them into two-way players, which fits what he already does well.

The timeline is the catch. The Ducks are deep on the left side, so the realistic path runs through another year or two in Finland and then the AHL before any NHL look. That is normal for a teenage defenseman and not a knock on the pick.

In dynasty formats he is a stash, not an add for production. The upside is a puck-moving second-pairing defender with power-play value, which earns a bench slot in deeper leagues where you can wait. Hold, and watch whether Ässät trusts him with a larger role and power-play time this season, because that is the sign the offense is coming.

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Veeti Väisänen, D, 6-1, Utah Mammoth (96th overall in 2024)

Medicine Hat (WHL): 6G, 17A, 47GP (2025-26)

Väisänen is the steadiest name in this group, and his game is already built for the pro level. Utah drafted him 96th in 2024, and after two seasons in the WHL, including an Ed Chynoweth Cup with Medicine Hat in 2025, he signed a Liiga contract with JYP for 2026-27. He put up six goals and 17 assists in 47 games from the back end last season and left the Tigers a plus-51 over his two years there.

His calling card is reliability, not flash. He defends with good gaps and clean retrievals and rarely looks out of place, the same traits that had him holding Liiga minutes with KooKoo as a teenager before he ever went to Canada. The offense is functional rather than a driver, so the fantasy value tracks his defensive workload and his multi-category contributions more than his point totals.

Coming home to the Liiga is a sensible move for a defender who profiles as a bottom-pairing option with penalty-kill value at the NHL level. Utah will watch how his game holds against men again after two years on the smaller North American sheet.

For fantasy purposes he is a monitor in most formats and a depth hold in deep multi-category leagues that reward shot-blocking and steady defensive minutes. Keep him on the list, and see whether JYP hands him a top-four role that would push the projection higher.

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Emil Kuusla, F, 5-9, Jokerit (undrafted, 21)

SaiPa: 7G, 20A, 49GP (2025-26)

Kuusla is the story pick, and he earned the spot. Undrafted and listed at 5-9, he answered a year in a new city by winning the Jarmo Wasama trophy as the Liiga’s rookie of the year, putting up seven goals and 20 assists in 49 games for SaiPa before adding six points in the playoffs while playing hurt. Now he goes home. Kuusla came up through the entire Jokerit junior system and spent one season on loan at SaiPa, and he returns for the club’s first Liiga season in over a decade.

The game is built on quickness and hands. He is a shifty, skilled winger who drives play off the rush and finds space in tight, the kind of player whose feet and creativity travel even when the frame does not. Size is the obvious question at the next level, and being passed over twice in the draft is a fair reason for a fantasy manager to stay measured.

The Jokerit angle cuts both ways. A high-profile return brings attention and a real role on a club built to make noise, but it also means a crowded, veteran-heavy forward group where minutes are far from handed out.

This is a deep-league flier, not a core add. In shallow formats he does not move the needle, but in 20-team and deeper dynasty leagues a reigning rookie of the year with that skill is a name to hold and track. Watch his role in Jokerit’s top nine once the season opens, because that will tell you how far the skill can carry him.

I will say I am quite the personal fan of Jokerit so as your read my articles you will see I track their prospects pretty closely, hopefully that gives fantasy GMs an inside edge rather than just an inflated recommendation.

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Liiga 2026 Season Watchlist

This list maintains the prospects covered in the Dobber Prospects monthly Liiga updates. Player ranks are based on fantasy upside and updated with every new article. Contract status and NHL team situation are considered.

1. Suvanto
2. Rimpinen
3. Boelius
4. Väisänen
5. Kuusla

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Final Thoughts

The season is still weeks away, but there is already something to watch. The World Junior Summer Showcase is underway in Windsor, Ontario, from July 26 to Aug. 1, the four-nation under-20 event that starts the road to the 2027 World Juniors in Edmonton and Red Deer this December. For a Liiga column it carries more weight than a summer scrimmage should. A strong showing from a Finnish junior often becomes an expanded role, or an early call-up, once the league opens Sept. 1, so the Nuoret Leijonat roster is a preview of who could push onto Liiga ice this fall.

Finland brought seven NHL-drafted players to Windsor, and one thread ties straight back to this report. Goaltender Patrik Kerkola, who backed up Rimpinen at the 2026 World Juniors, is one of the faces of the Finnish team. Juuso Ainasto, a Toronto pick at 85th, already sits on Jokerit’s roster for the superseason. Track which of these names carries the summer into September. That is usually where the next Liiga call-up begins.

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That is the board as the superseason gets going. I will keep tracking these names through the fall and fold in the next wave as the early call-ups and junior breakouts sort out. Find me on X at @epps_andrew, and for the Finnish game in more depth, my Substack Lone Star to Leijonat

Andrew Epps