International Hockey Roundtable
Undrafted 18-Year-Old Finnish D-Man Has 5 Points in 6 Liiga Games
© David Reginek-Imagn Images - Undrafted 18-Year-Old Finnish D-Man Has 5 Points in 6 Liiga GamesThe Lahti Pelicans aren’t off to a great start to their Liiga season – after starting with a shootout win, they had lost five in a row heading into Friday’s game in Helsinki. But one player who has outperformed expectations so far is 18-year-old defenseman Daniel Nieminen.
“He’s a quick-thinking, confident young player – nothing seems to faze him,” former NHL defenseman and current Finnish TV analyst Antti-Jussi Niemi said on the air this weekend.
Those comments came following Friday’s 5-2 win over IFK Helsinki – the Pelicans’ first regular-season win of the year – in which Nieminen recorded two assists. He now leads the team with five helpers in six games. They are the first six professional games of his career.
Although he doesn’t have any goals yet, he drew a primary assist on one of the "top-five goals" of the Finnish Liiga’s second week of action. In fact, he orchestrated the goal that leads off the following video. Watch Nieminen (#87) make a nifty move on an opponent and feed his teammate for a backdoor tap-in.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQJB65MgSM0[/embed]
“The Pelicans need all their players to have that kind of confidence in the game,” Petri Kontiola, another ex-player-turned-analyst, also said on the air. “And it’s not the kind of overconfidence that could be costly in games, but he plays confidently and wisely.”
Nieminen was eligible for this past summer’s NHL Entry Draft but his resume going in wasn’t outstanding and he wasn’t selected. Last season, Niemela played for the Pelicans’ U-20 team in Finland’s top junior league, and he recorded 30 points in 40 regular-season and playoff games. He also represented Finland at the IIHF U-18 World Championship, recording one assist in five games.
He also wasn’t high on Finland’s list of top U-20 defensemen this summer. He didn’t make the World Junior Summer Showcase and was on the so-called “challenger” team in training camp. However, if he keeps producing in Liiga games and, more importantly, keeps impressing people with his confidence and hockey sense in the pros, he might get some consideration as the Finns begin preparing for the World Junior Championship with a home-ice tournament next month.
Here’s another video that Deep Sea Hockey made of every one of Nieminen’s shifts at a U-18 international game against Sweden last February. He helps open the scoring early in the game with a primary assist that’s almost a mirror image of the one earlier:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb9ne3I3OOc[/embed]
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