Juuso Valimaki

[Carty]

Drafted 16th overall in 2017...Welcome to the Flames kid, let's see whatcha got...

 

 

[420since1974]

Juuso Valimaki's Player Profile

ISS Hockey - Mar. 11th: "Underrated offensive upside. Very good shot/gets it to the net rarely using a slap shot"

Jeff Marek of Sportsnet - Mar. 8th: "A good all-around blueliner who’s enjoyed great experience at the junior and international level. Not huge, but possesses great awareness. Has drawn comparisons to Olli Juolevi (VAN)."

ISS Hockey - Feb. 11th: "Smart w/great passing skills. Very good shot & gets it to the net; rarely using a slap shot."

Mike Morreale NHL.com - Jan. 20th: "The two-way defenseman has brought more assertiveness to his game in his second WHL season. Valimaki (6-1, 204) has 39 points (12 goals, 27 assists) in 38 games and has shown more offensive drive and confidence in his game."

Future Considerations: "A strong, minute-munching, two-way, dependable blueliner…not a lot of high-end offensive flash or dash to his game, but just makes the right play consistently…good vision and puck moving ability, has no panic to his game and waits for his options…can sling the puck around with strong accurate passes…his hockey sense allows him to read and react to the play well in advance…very committed to blocking shots"

Dennis Schellenberg Hockey Prospectus - Nov. 9th: "A mature and responsible two-way defenceman who makes good decisions with the puck. Not the most flashy player but he shows poise with the puck and plays very reliably at both ends. Shows some leadership skills, especially when quarterbacking the powerplay. "

[420since1974]

Another good read with highlight reel.:

 

https://flameforthought.com/2017/06/17/calgary-flames-2017-draft-profile-juuso-valimaki/ 

[JTech780]

Sounds like he was on loan to Tri-City from his Finish league team, which makes him eligible to play in the AHL next year. Not sure if he is ready to make that jump yet, but I think you will see Valimaki his way to the NHL quicker than most of our defense prospects.

[jjgallow]

I like the pick.  I think the Flames did as good as they could with the 16th overall, and I think there's a lot of upside here.

 

I do wish the flames had upgraded their pick, that said, I think they made a solid choice here and I am yet again impressed by their recent drafting.

 

My guess is he Could make the AHL jump, but I would rather he plays another year of junior because:

A:  It will give him another year of playing first line minutes in a dominant leadership role

B:  The Flames have a bit of a defenseman glut in the AHL this year, which should be cleared out by next season (current prospects will either make it, be traded, or not make it)

[travel_dude]

8 hours ago, jjgallow said:

I like the pick.  I think the Flames did as good as they could with the 16th overall, and I think there's a lot of upside here.

 

I do wish the flames had upgraded their pick, that said, I think they made a solid choice here and I am yet again impressed by their recent drafting.

 

My guess is he Could make the AHL jump, but I would rather he plays another year of junior because:

A:  It will give him another year of playing first line minutes in a dominant leadership role

B:  The Flames have a bit of a defenseman glut in the AHL this year, which should be cleared out by next season (current prospects will either make it, be traded, or not make it)

 

I have no issue with him going to the AHL, assuming he is good enough for his age/size.  He probably should play one more year in junior.  

 

The glut is players like Spoon, Kostca, Kulak, possibly all 3 will be gone from the AHL this season.  I would prefer to see Olas-Mattsson get a fair shake down there, though he is a shut-down player.  So, I don't think the glut is big this year.  Fox won't be there soon.  Falkowsky may be there sooner than later, but he is one of the few that has a high upside.

[Cowtownguy]

55 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

I have no issue with him going to the AHL, assuming he is good enough for his age/size.  He probably should play one more year in junior.  

 

The glut is players like Spoon, Kostca, Kulak, possibly all 3 will be gone from the AHL this season.  I would prefer to see Olas-Mattsson get a fair shake down there, though he is a shut-down player.  So, I don't think the glut is big this year.  Fox won't be there soon.  Falkowsky may be there sooner than later, but he is one of the few that has a high upside.

I really have high hopes for Fox. I get the sense that he will be a Tkachuk-like player in a few years. Maybe the speed needs to develop, but he reads the play so incredibly well. That is so important for a defenceman. It is a rare quality. 

[travel_dude]

49 minutes ago, Cowtownguy said:

I really have high hopes for Fox. I get the sense that he will be a Tkachuk-like player in a few years. Maybe the speed needs to develop, but he reads the play so incredibly well. That is so important for a defenceman. It is a rare quality. 

 

I'm only saying Fox isn't going to leave Harvard after one or two years.  I think this year could be a Hobey for him.  He was probably the best defender in the ECAC, possibly the NCAA last year....as a freshman...He did okay in the WJC, perhaps a bit underused.  This year could be HUGE. 

[cross16]

I'd like Valamaki in the A as well. He should be ready for it, as a late birthday he's already played his 2 years in the Dub. Decision would be based more on the team on the A as he would need to be in their top 4 for it to make sense. No sense putting him in the A to play 3rd pairing. But given that I think the team moves on from Wotherspoon and kulak should be an NHL option Valamki should have a shot down there. 

[travel_dude]

5 minutes ago, cross16 said:

I'd like Valamaki in the A as well. He should be ready for it, as a late birthday he's already played his 2 years in the Dub. Decision would be based more on the team on the A as he would need to be in their top 4 for it to make sense. No sense putting him in the A to play 3rd pairing. But given that I think the team moves on from Wotherspoon and kulak should be an NHL option Valamki should have a shot down there. 

 

Agreed on the bolded.  As much as I like to give players like Spoon a fair shake, he really hasn't taken many strides forward since being drafted.  His game has stifled at being a shutdown defender.  He was +30 last season, but I don;t know that I give him that much credit for it.  

 

 

[Flyerfan52]

19 hours ago, jjgallow said:

I like the pick.  I think the Flames did as good as they could with the 16th overall, and I think there's a lot of upside here.

 

I do wish the flames had upgraded their pick, that said, I think they made a solid choice here and I am yet again impressed by their recent drafting.

 

My guess is he Could make the AHL jump, but I would rather he plays another year of junior because:

A:  It will give him another year of playing first line minutes in a dominant leadership role

B:  The Flames have a bit of a defenseman glut in the AHL this year, which should be cleared out by next season (current prospects will either make it, be traded, or not make it)

How high do you realistically think the Flames could have gone with the limited tradable assets they had?

Outside the top 3 (which would have cost us a minimum of Bennett+) we got the player I wanted most. When the Jets used to own #13 I saw them as lucky if he'd still be there & getting him @ 16 was a steal IMO. I expect to see him as a regular within 2 years over most of our current D prospects.

Heiskanen was the only D I thought higher of.

[jjgallow]

On 24/06/2017 at 8:36 PM, Flyerfan52 said:

How high do you realistically think the Flames could have gone with the limited tradable assets they had?

Outside the top 3 (which would have cost us a minimum of Bennett+) we got the player I wanted most. When the Jets used to own #13 I saw them as lucky if he'd still be there & getting him @ 16 was a steal IMO. I expect to see him as a regular within 2 years over most of our current D prospects.

Heiskanen was the only D I thought higher of.

 

I think everything after the first two draft picks was negotiable, and we had options imho.

 

But I also agree with your assessment that we were very fortunate to get Valimaki at 16th, to the point that, yeah, it may have been a steal.  I do like it.

[zima]

On 2017-06-24 at 11:03 AM, travel_dude said:

I really have high hopes for Fox. I get the sense that he will be a Tkachuk-like player in a few years. Maybe the speed needs to develop, but he reads the play so incredibly well. That is so important for a defenceman. It is a rare quality.

How many ppl on this forum be leave Fox will sign with this team at the end of his duties in College? If he keeps up his play and excels each yr do you all actually think Mr Fox will be on this team? I for 1 don't being an Americain at heart I see him being a Ranger or Chicago one of those teams.   

[AlbertaBoy12]

52 minutes ago, zima said:

How many ppl on this forum be leave Fox will sign with this team at the end of his duties in College? If he keeps up his play and excels each yr do you all actually think Mr Fox will be on this team? I for 1 don't being an Americain at heart I see him being a Ranger or Chicago one of those teams.   

Do you think any of our college players are going to sign here?

[zima]

How many College kids do we have in the system right now ?

[MAC331]

On ‎2017‎-‎06‎-‎24 at 4:17 PM, travel_dude said:

 

Agreed on the bolded.  As much as I like to give players like Spoon a fair shake, he really hasn't taken many strides forward since being drafted.  His game has stifled at being a shutdown defender.  He was +30 last season, but I don;t know that I give him that much credit for it.  

 

 

You here a number of comments regarding Wotherspoon being a player others like Andersson have a lot of respect. Maybe he is more solid than most on here give him credit, nothing wrong with a solid defender for your 6th or 7th defenseman. I might be more inclined to see a 3rd pairing of Andersson RS with Wotherspoon and Bartkowski alternating on the LS rather than overpaying for Stone.

[MAC331]

1 hour ago, zima said:

How many ppl on this forum be leave Fox will sign with this team at the end of his duties in College? If he keeps up his play and excels each yr do you all actually think Mr Fox will be on this team? I for 1 don't being an Americain at heart I see him being a Ranger or Chicago one of those teams.   

I won't lose any sleep over it. Until the NHL fixes that walk away option in their favor it can happen.

[travel_dude]

24 minutes ago, MAC331 said:

You here a number of comments regarding Wotherspoon being a player others like Andersson have a lot of respect. Maybe he is more solid than most on here give him credit, nothing wrong with a solid defender for your 6th or 7th defenseman. I might be more inclined to see a 3rd pairing of Andersson RS with Wotherspoon and Bartkowski alternating on the LS rather than overpaying for Stone.

 

If in fact Spoon gets qualified, then I would be more inclined to have Spoon and Kulak fighting for the 3rd pair LD, rather than Bart.  I didn't see anything in Bart's game that led me to believe he was anything more than Kulak.  Besides, he was brought in to meet the exposure requirements, so I think it's more fair to give the nod to the guy you drafted first.

 

Should know soon enough what they think of Spoon.  Should also know if they were serious about Stone or not.

[MAC331]

28 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

If in fact Spoon gets qualified, then I would be more inclined to have Spoon and Kulak fighting for the 3rd pair LD, rather than Bart.  I didn't see anything in Bart's game that led me to believe he was anything more than Kulak.  Besides, he was brought in to meet the exposure requirements, so I think it's more fair to give the nod to the guy you drafted first.

 

Should know soon enough what they think of Spoon.  Should also know if they were serious about Stone or not.

Yes we will see soon.

[zima]

Isn't any one here concerned that we didn't pick Liljegren the kid was projected to go #3 last yr only set back was he got sick. Before the draft almost everyone on this forum was hoping he would drop to us and we walked right by him what has happened since the draft that has changed every ones mind?

[cross16]

11 minutes ago, zima said:

Isn't any one here concerned that we didn't pick Liljegren the kid was projected to go #3 last yr only set back was he got sick. Before the draft almost everyone on this forum was hoping he would drop to us and we walked right by him what has happened since the draft that has changed every ones mind?

 

Not really no.

 

IMO you can flip a coin between Lilejgren and Valamaki they are a very similar caliber of prospect. If they had of picked Liljegren first I would have been happy too just as i'm happy they picked Valamki, they are pretty interchangeable IMO.  One has more name recognition which is why you hear more chatter and why you saw people hoping he would drop. Valamaki just doesn't have the same recognition so I think most hadn't look him up as much but I think people should watch both and try to see if there is a discernible difference between the two. I haven't found one in the tape i've watched. 

 

[zima]

Ok Great I was of course reading all the chatter on this forum before the Draft and as you say Liljegren was the name that cam up almost every time as far as a D man goes so when we got Vali I was la little disappointed. But what I did find interesteing was that lou and Burk were chatting just before the draft knowing they drafted 16-17 it just makes me wonder if there was some king of hand shake going on. You know let me take Liljegren  and in the future we will pay you back something like that perhaps wish full thinking

[travel_dude]

13 minutes ago, zima said:

Ok Great I was of course reading all the chatter on this forum before the Draft and as you say Liljegren was the name that cam up almost every time as far as a D man goes so when we got Vali I was la little disappointed. But what I did find interesteing was that lou and Burk were chatting just before the draft knowing they drafted 16-17 it just makes me wonder if there was some king of hand shake going on. You know let me take Liljegren  and in the future we will pay you back something like that perhaps wish full thinking

 

Could well have been talking about the price for Hamonic.  Two old school guys.  Lou may have been helping out Burke by telling him he was never going to pay a 1st rounder.  Helping keep the cost down.  Not every GM is out to screw over a potential future partner.  I help you out, you let me know what you are out on.  Guys like Chia don't get that respect.  

 

Or it could have been two old buddies talking about what they are doing this summer.  Burke is in Toronto a few times a year.  

[zima]

Yes I also know Burk was TO for a few yrs as well but just never know what went down Passing on Liljegren is a stange thing when he had dropped to us I think it is strange is all

[travel_dude]

6 minutes ago, zima said:

Yes I also know Burk was TO for a few yrs as well but just never know what went down Passing on Liljegren is a stange thing when he had dropped to us I think it is strange is all

 

A guy that falls from 2nd overall to 17th.  If you look at the two players and rate them, you pick the guy you have higher.  Intangibles - slightly bigger and heavier, better offense to date, already playing in North America.  Neither is a bad pick.  One has a higher risk due to lack of NA hockey showing.