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Up-and-coming prospects from non-traditional hockey countries

Gordon Graham

Gordon Graham

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
205
97
Saitama, Japan
Laine's lost lover said:
Interesting. Thank you for the extensive insight. It seems to me as if Sato has a much better chance at making it to the show in comparison to Aito Iguchi. Hopefully, Sato can grow a few inches, as it'll be tough to succeed at 5'5". Then again, Eliteprospects does not update the height and weight category very oft.
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Yu Sato is 5'9", 175lbs now. His dad is 6ft so he could have more of a growth spurt still. He's currently playing in the Finnish Jr. League. He was recently moved up to the top division. EP has his stats as 11pts in 10 games but he missed 4 of those games due to a collar bone fracture. He has 11pts in 6 games.
 
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Porky

Porky

Registered User
Jan 22, 2019
9
4
Gordon Graham said:
He's currently playing in the Finnish Jr. League.
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He's playing in the "top" Finnish U18 league. You have to remember that it's the latter half of the season and the team got promoted to play against the bottom six teams in Jr.B along with three other promoted Jr.B Mestis teams. Technically it is the top league but he's not playing against great competition so his production isn't really comparable to players from the top ten teams.

He has played 10 games, not six, as you can see here. You can open the game reports if you need to. His team has played 16 games so he did miss some games though.
 
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Kshahdoo

Registered User
Mar 23, 2008
20,154
9,764
Moscow, Russia
Gordon Graham said:
Yu Sato is 5'9", 175lbs now. His dad is 6ft so he could have more of a growth spurt still. He's currently playing in the Finnish Jr. League. He was recently moved up to the top division. EP has his stats as 11pts in 10 games but he missed 4 of those games due to a collar bone fracture. He has 11pts in 6 games.
Click to expand...

Funny thing, he played in Moscow for Krylya Sovetov U16 last season and scored 27 points in 27 games. Not bad at all, considering one of the top Russian 2002 players and potential 1st-rounder Vasily Ponomarev scored 21 points in 14 games on the same team. He could probably have made the MHL team this season, but he prefered to move to Finland.
 
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Gordon Graham

Gordon Graham

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
205
97
Saitama, Japan
Porky said:
He's playing in the "top" Finnish U18 league. You have to remember that it's the latter half of the season and the team got promoted to play against the bottom six teams in Jr.B along with three other promoted Jr.B Mestis teams. Technically it is the top league but he's not playing against great competition so his production isn't really comparable to players from the top ten teams.

He has played 10 games, not six, as you can see here. You can open the game reports if you need to. His team has played 16 games so he did miss some games though.
Click to expand...
How many teams are there in total including the top and bottom divisions?
 
singlesliceofcheese

singlesliceofcheese

Registered User
May 9, 2018
220
106
alko said:
Robert Ossipov, 15 years old D from Estonia.

Now in Finnish Jr-B (U 18 league?) with 23 points in 28 games. There is some potential.
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He's actually doing very well. He's first for PP/G among defencemen U-16 and by a solid margin, too (.82 vs .57 in second place with more than 10 games). If he's promoted to Junior A and can produce, then I think he could be a top defensive prospect come the 2021 draft (still a while until then, so anything can happen, but he shows promise).
 
Eyelanders

Eyelanders

Registered User
Jan 9, 2011
422
4
Gordon Graham said:
Yu Sato is 5'9", 175lbs now. His dad is 6ft so he could have more of a growth spurt still. He's currently playing in the Finnish Jr. League. He was recently moved up to the top division. EP has his stats as 11pts in 10 games but he missed 4 of those games due to a collar bone fracture. He has 11pts in 6 games.
Click to expand...

I saw Sato in an exhibition tournament with K-Vantaa at the start of the season and he stood out significantly, though he played against less than stellar competition. He showed really good quickness, some nice agility and had the hands to keep up with his speed. Scored a couple of nice goals. Haven't seen him on the regular season, but he definitely looked like someone with long-term potential.
 
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Porky

Porky

Registered User
Jan 22, 2019
9
4
Gordon Graham said:
How many teams are there in total including the top and bottom divisions?
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In Jr.B there's 16 teams in the autumn series, which is sort of like a placement system. Teams play each other twice for a total of 30 games (this season had 31 because Salzburg had a bit of a tour in Finland). The top ten continue to the upper spring series while the bottom six and top four from Jr.B Mestis (2nd division) make up the lower spring series. Both the upper and lower series have ten teams and every team plays each other twice for 18 games.

After that mess the playoffs start. It's worth noting that one team from the lower series can make the playoffs. Sato's team is third with 28 points, and if they win the last two they'll finish at 34. The top two teams already have 35 points each so K-Vantaa didn't quite make it.
 
Gordon Graham

Gordon Graham

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
205
97
Saitama, Japan
Porky said:
In Jr.B there's 16 teams in the autumn series, which is sort of like a placement system. Teams play each other twice for a total of 30 games (this season had 31 because Salzburg had a bit of a tour in Finland). The top ten continue to the upper spring series while the bottom six and top four from Jr.B Mestis (2nd division) make up the lower spring series. Both the upper and lower series have ten teams and every team plays each other twice for 18 games.

After that mess the playoffs start. It's worth noting that one team from the lower series can make the playoffs. Sato's team is third with 28 points, and if they win the last two they'll finish at 34. The top two teams already have 35 points each so K-Vantaa didn't quite make it.
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Thanks. I appreciate your taking the time to break it down for me. Cheers!
 
ozo

ozo

Registered User
Feb 24, 2010
4,446
514
Any NLA fans can give insight on Deniss Smirnovs who is making a serious mark on the scoresheet in his first two pro games of his career? He is smallish, but can he overcome that and have a potential cup of coffee in NHL down the road?
 
Speyer

Speyer

Registered User
Sep 23, 2016
1,801
1,289
Im Wald
ozo said:
Any NLA fans can give insight on Deniss Smirnovs who is making a serious mark on the scoresheet in his first two pro games of his career? He is smallish, but can he overcome that and have a potential cup of coffee in NHL down the road?
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Haven't seen enough of him/Geneva this season to have a serious oppinion on his potential but I heard good things about him from people who know Servette much better than I doo when he was still on their Junior team. From the little that I have seen from him I liked his vision and hockey iq the most. I especialy noticed that he has the talent to predict how plays in the o-zone develop and therefore he can put himself in dangerous postions to score. In any case it has only been two games so we have to wait and see if he just had a hot start or if he is a legit prospect. Having a good import player like Wingels on his line certainly didnt hurt him so far.
 
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Speyer

Speyer

Registered User
Sep 23, 2016
1,801
1,289
Im Wald
If I am in this thread anyway I could also mention Alessandro Segafredo from the Zurich Junior system. I have never seen him play but I heard his name come up once or twice already from knowledgeable ZSC-fans. His junior point totals are comparable to guys like Denis Malgin (Florida) and Marco Rossi (2020 draft). Its obviously to early to tell if he has serious NHL potential but it would certainly be cool to have a decent NHL player from Italy...
 
landy92mack29

landy92mack29

Registered User
May 5, 2014
27,735
3,417
saskatchewan
Watched this pretty impressive Japanese kid this past weekend at a high end Bantam tournament in Saskatoon who plays for POE prep. Name is Taisetsu Ushio and has some pretty high end skill not too far off the top Canadian kids in Sask this year. He's listed at 5'7 130 so has more promising size than most from his country but hopefully grows some more. Still a couple years away from being import draft eligible but is a kid to track for those who like following non traditional countries players

Taisetsu Ushio at eliteprospects.com
 
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singlesliceofcheese

singlesliceofcheese

Registered User
May 9, 2018
220
106
Alex Graham was mentioned above and I found it interesting that at this juncture Jack Hopkins has the same stat line in the U-20 league as Graham last year (36p in 10 gp). If Graham has an opportunity to be drafted in '21, maybe Hopkins isn't too far off himself the year after? Bear in mind, I am not an expert on British hockey.

Jack Hopkins at eliteprospects.com
 
Appleyard

Appleyard

Registered User
Mar 5, 2010
32,191
42,645
Copenhagen
twitter.com
singlesliceofcheese said:
Alex Graham was mentioned above and I found it interesting that at this juncture Jack Hopkins has the same stat line in the U-20 league as Graham last year (36p in 10 gp). If Graham has an opportunity to be drafted in '21, maybe Hopkins isn't too far off himself the year after? Bear in mind, I am not an expert on British hockey.

Jack Hopkins at eliteprospects.com
Click to expand...

He certainly appears to be in a similar bracket to Kirk and Graham stats wise... will try and watch him at some point as well.
 
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