The Tips select Finnish forward Jesse Huhtala (updated)
Published 3:27 pm Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Tips decided to exercise their first-round pick in the CHL import draft, taking 1993-born forward Jesse Huhtala from Finland at No. 52 overall. He’s listed at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds. He will be eligible for next year’s NHL draft. It also means Everett’s two Euros for next season will likely be from Finland, as defenseman Rasmus Rissanen is returning.
More to follow.
—- UPDATE, 3:25 a.m.
Here’s some more on Everett’s newest player, Jesse Huhtala. His stats from the last two seasons can be found here. Last season playing for Assat of the Finnish U-18 junior B league he had 14 goals and 14 assists in 22 games, then added eight goals and four assists in nine playoff games. The U-18 junior B level in Finland basically consisted of 1993-born players last season.
Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said he’d identified Huhtala as a potential draft candidate back in February or March. Soetaert described Huhtala as a hard-working player who can play all three forward positions, skates pretty well and has decent hands. Soetaert also said Huhtala is definitely going to report.
The Tips were considering passing on their pick if there was no one available they were interested in, so . Huhtala was interesting enough to prompt Everett to make a selection. That being said, Soetaert didn’t exactly gush over Huhtala, instead saying the Tips would evaluate how Huhtala fits in after seeing him in person during training camp. For my part I haven’t found Huhtala’s name on any online top prospect lists or scouting reports.
It looks like we won’t know what Everett’s got in Huhtala until August.
