Photo courtesy of tilastopalvelu.fi

Fantasy Summary

An undersized playmaking forward. A great skater and an excellent passer. Good effort and a decent two-way game. A natural center but will have to switch to wing at the pro level because of his size. Needs to improve his finishing abilities to add another threat to his offensive game.


Observations

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August 2021 – Mäenpää went undrafted for the second consecutive season. Nick Richard

October 2020 – Mäenpää passed through the 2020 NHL Draft without a selection. He will re-enter the draft in 2021.  Jokke Nevalainen

March 2020 – Mäenpää finished his rookie season at Jr. SM-liiga with 12 goals and 49 points in 52 game, and he took home the Best Rookie award at the end of the regular season. Mäenpää had an even better start to the season, scoring 26 points in his first 16 games before slowing down significantly after that. Even then, only one under-18 player had more points or a better points-per-game average than Mäenpää. Mäenpää is a playmaking center who is very good at creating plays from the middle. His passing skills are great and he also has very good vision. He also plays a reliable two-way game which is needed from centers. But the problem is that he’s only 5-foot-7, so he’s not expected to be a center at the NHL level. However, switching to the wing is not so easy for playmakers like him. But Mäenpää has a lot of good qualities that can help him transition to the wing and to the pro level. He is a great skater who doesn’t just have great acceleration and edge work like many small players but his top speed is also very good. Mäenpää’s effort level on the ice is also very good, so he can help the team even when he doesn’t have the puck on his stick. Mäenpää is a long-term project who will need to prove himself over and over again at every level because of his size. It is definitely not impossible for someone his size to make it to the NHL these days but it is still not a foregone conclusion. But if he makes it to the NHL, he will be there to produce offense, so the payout could be really nice. But because of the risk involved, he is projected to be drafted in the middle rounds of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.  Jokke Nevalainen

Attributes
Fantasy Upside 3.0
NHL Certainty 1.0
Country FIN
Position C
Roster Type Draft Eligible
Shoot/Glove Left
Date of Birth April 29, 2002
Height 5‘6”
Weight 141 lbs
Drafted No

Stats

 Season Team League GP G A TP PIM      Playoffs GP G A TP PIM 
 2017-2018 Jokerit U16U16 SM-sarja Q22 11 2637 0|        
  Jokerit U16U16 SM-sarja17 12 1527 14|Playoffs5 2 35
  Jokerit U18U18 SM-sarja2 0 11 0|        
  Finland U16 (all)International-Jr11 2 57 2|        
 2018-2019 Jokerit U18U18 SM-sarja41 14 2741 12|Playoffs7 2 35
  Jokerit U20U20 SM-sarja1 0 00 0|        
  Finland U17EYOF3 0 11 0|        
  Finland U17WHC-176 0 00 0|        
  Finland U17 (all)International-Jr24 0 44 0|        
 2019-2020 Finland U18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup3 0 11 0|        
  Jokerit U18U18 SM-sarja1 0 22 0|        
  Jokerit U20U20 SM-sarja52 12 3749 16|Playoffs1 0 00
  Finland U18 (all)International-Jr17 7 714 4|        
 2020-2021 KalPa U20U20 SM-sarja13 4 1014 2|        
  KalPaLiiga11 0 00 0|        
  IPKMestis10 0 22 0|Playoffs6 1 01
 2021-2022 KalPa U20U20 SM-sarja0 0 00 0|Playoffs10 4 610
  KalPaLiiga52 5 1621 10|        
  Finland U20 (all)WJC-20 Cancelled2 0 00 0|        
  Finland U20WJC-206 0 22 0|        
  Finland U20 (all)International-Jr13 3 36 0|        
 2022-2023 KalPaLiiga59 14 2034 6|Playoffs7 0 33
 2023-2024 KalPaLiiga59 12 3749 18|Playoffs13 2 1214
  Finland EHT2 1 23 2|        
  Finland (all)International2 1 23 2|        
  KalPaSpengler Cup3 0 11 0|        
 2024-2025 KalPaLiiga28 4 812 8|        

Highlights