He was great, with each shot my confidence in him grew. He was always square, moved well and always ready for the next shot. Made his saves look easy. Impressive rebound control for a player his age. A couple of times he did get hung up on the net when trying to push across when a player went behind the net but the rest of his game was really good. Only one appearance and we will have to see what level of consistency he has but I don’t think he is far off being a NHL goaltender.
This is quite much what he was whole season in Finland. I have followed closely his every game this season and what a journey it has been. He started the season as 2nd goalie behind Joel Blomqvist (Penguins prospect) that had incredible break trough last season. How ever Joel had at least two severe concussions during season and Meriläinen became goalie who pretty much started every game on net. Before this year he had never played in men's league since he left Kärpät to play in OHL 2021.
Coach of U20 team made surprising move by taking Meriläinen over Blomqvist to U20-games, and it was quite big thing in Finnish media, after all Blomqvist had impressive season and was considered as best talent of this age group. Meriläinen didn't have that good start for the season and he was still little bit bad with rebound control, there was some problems with consistency and he was maybe bit stressed on goal from time to time. He was playing as second goalie for start of the season and had some good games, but also games where he could have been better. Quite early on the season Blomqvist got his first concussion and Leevi had to step up, and he was playing behind team that was seriously underperforming. Little by little his game developed and he started to look like confident, calm version of himself that he is now. End of the season he had played 42 games out of 60 and was easily the most important player of his team. Before last few rounds of the regular season he was league #1 of the all stats: saves on average, save% and shutouts. Unlucky for him his team played really, really terrible games and made it impossible for him to stay there, but he was for sure best goalie of the season if you ask me. In most of the games defense of the team looked terrible and he had to make game savers to keep the team on playoff spot. After the season I thought he could be chosen to world cup 3rd goalie, but well he exceeded expectations once again.
Like Jussi Jokinen who is retired Kärpät player said, we have one of the worlds best goalie coaches in our club, Ari Hilli who has been part of Finnish national team and coached in KHL too for few years. He has great ability to work with young talents and make them shine wolrd class. He is able to make young goalies calm, and especially improve their rebound control. Leevi and Joel both had some similar issues on their game but during one season on Finnish elite league they became top of the league. He has been coaching many big names here that include: Pekka Rinne, Niklas Bäckström, Tim Thomas, and new generation Justus Annunen (Avs), Joel Blomqvist (Pens), Leevi Meriläinen, and 2022 drafted Niklas Kokko (Seattle). All these new generation talents have performed well and even tho Kokko is maybe the biggest "natural talent" of this club ever, I think Leevi has been better than Annunen was few years ago.
Meriläinen also seemed to develop himself on mental side during the season, and he was able to bounce from "bad games" back to his best level easily. It will take some time to adjust to smaller rink again, but lucky for you he has quite much games on small ice too. You can expect that he is able to play well, even when opponent is on top of the game. He wont be goalie that positions himself out of the goal easily and gives opponent empty net, his moves sideways are quick but somewhat calm. His rebound control at the end of the season was amazing and even when he made those hard saves with pads, puck goes exactly where he wants it to go. Even tho Finnish League had really good players this season due to KHL dump, I think biggest challenge to Leevi will be that he is facing lot more shots from good sector from top players of the world. Quality and timing of the wristers will be on another level due to small ice and better players. It is impressive to see what he did this year, and for him it was good that Kärpät was kind of shit show this season.
I believe you could have diamond in your hands and maybe he will be new Pekka Rinne from my home town. He has been able to adapt quickly to new level, and he has been on fire for long time. Hopefully he will have some other opportunities and can continue with same confidence.
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