Could the Lightning have truly found another late-round gem in Niko Huuhtanen? The 224th pick in the 2021 NHL draft seems to have found his groove in his first full season with the Syracuse Crunch. After recording just two goals over his first eleven games, the 21-year-old has five in his last five games after picking up three goals over the weekend.
With the scoring outburst, Huuhtanen has moved into third place among rookie scorers in the league, trailing Frank Nazar (a first-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2022) and Sam Colangelo (a second-round pick of the Ducks in 2020) in goals scored. He’s also taken over the team lead for the Crunch with Dylan Duke in the second spot with six goals.
Unlike a lot of his contemporaries in the AHL, Huuhtanen had professional experience prior to joining the Crunch. He spent two seasons playing for Jukurit in one of Europe’s top leagues. Even though he was young by their standards, he produced, putting up 36 goals in 100 games over two seasons. He also scored 37 goals in 65 games in his lone season with the Everett Silvertips in the WHL. The kid is a scorer.
One of the key factors to his game is that he isn’t a one-trick pony. We’ve seen him score with a big one-timer from the left circle a la Steven Stamkos, and we’ve also seen him bully his way to the front of the net to clean things up. Huuhtanen plays with an edge (he’s up to 17 penalty minutes in 16 games) and uses his size well. The big obstacle that he’ll have to overcome in order to make it to the NHL will be his skating. We’ve seen improvement this year, but he’ll have to keep working on it to make it to the next level.
There may be some temptation to call him up, but at this point, sticking with the Crunch and getting plenty of ice time is more important than a quick look at the NHL level. Let him keep working at it, and maybe later in the season, he can get that call-up. Besides, Syracuse needs all of the scoring they can get at this point.
With the way the Lightning have sacrificed top draft picks in their quest for Stanley Cups, they need some of their late round picks to not only develop into NHL players, but productive ones. Huuhtanen is a raw talent, but he has the unteachable ability to put the puck in the net. There will be some openings on the top six for the Bolts over the next few years. Huuhtanen has the potential to fill one (and help out on the power play). Any time an organization can fill a spot from within, it frees up resources to fix other issues.
Hockey News
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Jim Montgomery was unemployed for less than a week. The St. Louis Blues, currently mired in mediocrity at 9-12-1 and 6 points out of a wild card spot, decided to make a change as they fired old friend Drew Bannister and signed Montgomery to a five-year deal. Good for him.
32 Thoughts [SportsNet]
Friedman shares his thoughts on why the Bruins came to the decision they did, Auston Matthews trip to Germany, next year’s salary cap, and the CHL/NCAA agreement.
Nontraditional PWHL Predictions [The Ice Garden]
With the PWHL season right around the corner, it’s time for some predictions. The gang over at The Ice Garden put together some guesses as to how the season is going to turn out.
Sidney Crosby scores 600th goal [Pensburgh]
On Saturday, Sid the Kid joined Alexander Ovechkin as the only active players to amass 600 career goals. Good for him.
Cam Talbot makes strong case for 4 Nations Face-off roster spot [NHL.com]
It’s kind of weird that a 37-year-old career back-up could be considered Canada’s starting goaltender for an international tournament, but here we are. With no sure-fire hall-of-fame goaltender currently carrying a Canadian passport, it’s an open competition, so why not Cam Talbot?
Projecting the 4 Nations rosters [Daily FaceOff]
We already know that Brayden Point and Victor Hedman will be participating in the tournament this February, but could a couple of their Lightning teammates join them? The DFO crew throws out some rosters prior to the official release. Jake Guentzel (USA) and Brandon Hagel (Canada) are on their shortlist.
