Dobber’s DraftCast Ep.5: Toronto Maple Leafs Prospects
For Episode 5: Kyle, Pat, and special guest Sam/Sammy discuss the top Toronto Maple Leafs prospects, along with some underrated and overrated prospects.
Liiga Report: February 2021
Photo courtesy of https://www.kaleva.fi/ Almost every professional hockey league has been forced to adapt this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Liiga is no exception. In December, the league was postponed for over two weeks, and since then all players have been required to wear ‘fishbowl’ visors to lower in-game transmission [...]
Prospect Ramblings: WJC Players to Remember
It’s no secret that the World Junior Championships provide a poor representation of a player's development, and scouts (and fans) should do their best to keep judgments realistic and take what they see with a grain of salt. With that being said, it is still a tremendous opportunity to get a fresh and perhaps rare [...]
April Draft Report: Mailbag, Defense and Mr. Safety
The NHL Draft Report is a monthly column that highlights a number of topics in the NHL Draft world at the time. Each month will have the main feature story, a themed ‘Team of the Month’, and a Prospect Spotlight that takes a bit of a deeper look at a player. This month the [...]
Prospect Deep Dive: Topi Niemelä
Topi Niemelä is a 17-year-old right-handed shot defenseman who plays for Kärpät in the Finnish Liiga, the top men’s level in the country, and he is eligible for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Here are the basic facts of him: Name: Topi Niemelä Team: Kärpät (Liiga) Position: defenseman Date of Birth: March 25, [...]
Tournament Review: U18 Five Nations (February 2020)
Jake Sanderson, Stanislav Svozil, Emil Andrae, Marat Khusnutdinov and Roni Hirvonen were some of the stars of the U18 Five Nations tournament in Czech Republic. Last week, under-18 teams from Finland, Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic and USA got together in Czech Republic to play a Five Nations tournament. European teams have these kind of [...]
Season Preview: Jr. A SM-liiga
We can finally begin the Finnish hockey season tomorrow with the Jr. A SM-liiga (U20 league) starting. I’ll be going over every team and mentioning relevant players from those teams. Because on many cases we don’t have the exact rosters, I’m trying my best to guess which players should play at the U20 level [...]