Photo Credit: www.leijonat.fi
Before taking forward Samu Tuomaala of Finland in the 2nd round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, the Flyers hadn’t bothered to take a Finnish player in the draft since selecting Joonas Lehtivuori back in the 4th round of the 2006 NHL Draft. Prior to him, to find one that that was drafted and who actually graced the Flyers’ roster you would have to look all the way back to 2002 when Philadelphia took defenseman Joni Pitkanen with the 4th overall selection that year. This is puzzling considering the number of years and production they got from future NHL Hall of Fame defenseman Kimmo Timonen and others that they traded for in the past.
However, with Tuomaala’s skates now scorching the ice down in Lehigh Valley, and Rasmus Ristolainen now patrolling the blue line for the Flyers, this absence of Finnish players in the Flyers’ lineup is now hopefully a thing of the past, which makes sense considering there has been no lack of talent coming out of the country that is nicknamed “the land of a thousand lakes” or, to be more precise, 187,888 lakes- all of which tend to freeze every winter making them perfect for aspiring youth to lace up and spend the day out on the ice fantasizing about one day reaching the ranks of the NHL like one of their current NHL inspirations: Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, Patrik Laine, or Anton Lundell.
With that being said, like so many draft classes before this one, the 2022 NHL Draft will be loaded with an abundance of talented prospects available coming out of Finland. This time the Suomi (Finland) will be highlighted by Top Ten talents like Brad Lambert and Joakim Kemell who are both already making names for themselves in their country’s top professional league, the Liiga, at just 17 years of age; however, given Philadelphia’s recent off-season moves, one would be led to believe that the Flyers are destined to make their first selection long after both of these players are taken by one of the league’s less-fortunate teams. In that case, the Flyers’ Director of European Scouting Joakim Grunberg shouldn’t even bother sending any of his people out to watch either of these player’s games.
Instead, the team should focus in on a lesser-known player named Aleksanteri Kaskimaki. For while, this 6’0 183-pound center/left wing may not currently play in the Liiga like Lambert and Kemell do. Kaskimaki does rank among the U20 SM-sarja (Finland’s premier junior league) leaders in both goals and points. In just 13 games played so far this year for HIFK’s U20 team, Aleksanteri has managed to average a goal a game, netting 13 goals, along with 10 assists, for a total of 23 points. That’s an incredible 1.76 point-per-game average. Kaskimaki also seems to excel in the defensive side of the game as well, seeing that he currently holds an unreal +17 average on the season already.
What fuels Aleksanteri’s ever growing appetite to score is his willingness to get to the front of the net despite him not possessing the largest frame on the ice surface. Kaskimaki takes what is given to him, tending to not overthink a shot but instead using his quick release to simply put the puck where the goalie is not. While the simplicity to his game would not work for some, when you add in Aleksanteri’s elite shot placement it all somehow seems to make perfect sense.
Over the years the Flyers’ roster has been predominantly filled with Canadian and American born players with the occasional Swede thrown in, but what they have lacked until very recently (with the addition of Cam Atkinson) is a proficient goal scorer over the years. One who, when the puck happens to land on his stick, doesn’t think twice before shooting it- which the Flyers would no doubt get if they so choose to add a player like Kaskimaki, who possesses such a unique offensive prowess this summer. Doing so would not only bring in another phenomenal European scoring threat into the team’s pipeline but would certainly help to build chemistry between him and Tuomaala- the team’s other promising Nordic player- for years to come.
