Hey Jackets fans, was doing some random team draft browsing for fun and saw this Nutivaara kid was a 7th round pick in last years draft!
What's he like?
Here is a feature piece from the Columbus Dispatch.
In the hope of providing additional context;
Nutivaara was a 7th round pick in the June 2015 draft. He was 21 at the time he was chosen, so he had not been selected when he became age eligible to be drafted and had not signed a FA contract previously.
He played last season in Europe as he did not feel his game had the maturity and development to yet translate and contribute to North America or the NHL. Like many Europeans that come to North America, he is still getting used to the smaller ice surface.
He was not anticipated to make the team at any point. Even as final cuts approached, it was widely speculated that he would be returned to the AHL Cleveland Monsters. And yet, when the final team was announced, he was still standing and Cody Goloubef, on a one-way contract, was returned to Cleveland. Goloubef was just traded earlier this week to Colorado for Ryan Stanton (AHL on an two-way contract).
Most of the commentary, coverage, and analysis pieces written about Nutivaara include something about; 1. Coach Tortorella likes the way he is willing to quickly move the puck up the ice; 2. is not afraid to take a puck-moving chance or opportunity; 3. does make some mistakes but quickly recovers; 4. has not shown a penchant for continually making the same mistakes; 5. is quickly adjusting to the North American game; 6. has held his own as a 3rd pair D-man and can play on the 2nd PK unit.
The odds are that less than 50% of the players drafted in the 7th round ever play a game in the NHL. The odds drop even further when you think about a 7th round pick playing NHL games in the first 3 years after being drafted. Many of those situations would be a talent starved or injury depleted team being forced to play a 7th round pick in the 3 years since his draft - especially a D-man.
My point is that Jarmo K and his scout team obviously saw something in a late blooming youngster (currently 22 yo) and took a chance. After last night's 22nd game he has 22 games of NHL experience, for a team that currently resides in a playoff spot.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have not been forced to give Nutivaara (currently 1-2-3 and 2 Pims) a 3rd pairing (5-6) role because of lack of talent or depth. Most nights Dalton Prout has been the healthy scratch (7th) (8 NHL games this year 0-0-0 with 8 Pims). The Columbus Blue Jackets have been forced to give him a role because he has contributed and shown more promise thus far than Dalton Prout (64 NHL games last year 3-6-9 102 Pims) and Cody Goloubef (43 NHL games last year 1-7-8 and 20 Pims).
