Film Room: Juho Piiparinen's well-roundedness makes him the most promising Finnish defenceman in years

In the 2019 NHL Draft, both Lassi Thomson and Ville Heinola were selected inside the first round, with both players being off the board after the 20th pick.

In the following seven years, there hasn't been a single Finnish defenceman drafted inside the first round. If you expand your scope to players picked inside the top 50, only Aleksi Heimosalmi fits the criteria.

This summer, Juho Piiparinen has a good chance to break free from the mould and become the first Finnish blueliner in a long time to be selected among the first 32 players in his draft.

While he had already been on scouts' radar for a long time before, it was Piiparinen's Hlinka Gretzky Cup performance that first properly catapulted him into first-round conversations. He followed it by snatching himself a spot from Tappara's Liiga lineup, which in turn helped to elevate him onto the World Juniors roster, where he showed some promising flashes in a limited role.

And while his second half wasn't as strong as his first, dropping down to mostly play with Tappara's U20 team, Piiparinen closed the season out on a relatively positive note at the U18s, captaining his team and logging top-pairing minutes in all situations.

All of Piiparinen's accomplishments are made even more impressive by the fact that he's one of the youngest top prospects eligible in his class — the developmental runway in the future could be significant.

The breakdown

While Piiparinen is a well-rounded, do-it-all type, he's at his most comfortable as a transitional puck-mover. His ability to break pucks out stood out at every level he played in this season, from the professional environment to the junior ranks.

The cornerstones behind Piiparinen's breakout ability are his motor, poise, and passing vision.

Everything stems from his activity rate. He accelerates immediately after gaining possession of the puck, trying to find initial separation. If he's successful, he's comfortable at skating the puck out or giving a quick first pass down the boards or up the middle.

However, Piiparinen shines the most in more complex situations, especially when he's passing through pressure. He's one of the most skilled defencemen in the draft at finding cross-lane options in transition, regularly slipping and hooking pucks to the inside from the boards while under pressure. A strong puck manager overall, he also knows when and how to effectively defer, drawing in the F1 before passing to his partner.

Piiparinen also showed lots of projectable elements on retrievals. He can move the puck efficiently on the first touch, maintaining possession with simple bank passes, but is also capable of eating physical contact from the forechecker while still staying in control of the puck, then making a controlled play. These kinds of sequences are highly translatable to the NHL.

Piiparinen's motor is his No. 1 defensive asset, the major factor behind his ascension to Tappara's Liiga lineup as a freshly turned 17-year-old.

Like many top prospects today, Piiparinen defends with a lot of aggression and likes to get on top of things early.

Given his activity rate and willingness to be involved in the play, he's often in a position to disrupt opponents early, pinching consistently to keep plays alive in the offensive zone. He's good at reading opponents' intentions on breakouts, allowing him to be in position to surf and guide pass recipients towards the boards quickly.

Once the play settles in the defensive zone, Piiparinen isn't content with just trying to prevent attackers from accessing the middle. Instead, he has a play-killing mentality and is actively looking to stop cycles as soon as possible. Combining the high-octane motor and projectable physical habits, he regularly overwhelmed junior-level opponents and looked competitive against men, too, managing to break up attacks regularly at both levels.

Once in a while, Piiparinen's aggressive style came back to bite him. He was occasionally prone to pinching up in the wrong spots, taking himself out of plays by stepping up too late while lacking the higher-end skating ability to recover once he was a step behind.

When Piiparinen first appeared on scouts' radars, he was known for putting up very strong counting stats when adjusted for his age and the level he played at. Since then, offence has played a smaller part in his game and projection, but he's still flashed potential in this regard, too.

Many of Piiparinen's best offensive sequences from this season start from his aggressive defence. He'd be up in the play and ready to engage early, then turn on the jets to gain the zone or move downhill near the boards before showcasing the passing vision by finding a teammate in the slot.

From the point, he lacks higher-end footwork or dynamic 1-on-1 skill, instead preferring to operate methodically and focus on facilitating others. Just like on breakouts, he can attract pressure and create space for others before passing. 

Production-wise, Piiparinen's last months of the season were far from stellar. He added 13 points in 15 games during the U20 league regular season, but only logged two assists in 14 games during the playoffs, even while playing top-pairing minutes. At the U18s, he failed to record a single point in the five games he played.

While this has to be accounted for, Piiparinen was also somewhat unlucky during this stretch and was reasonably due more based on his offensive involvement. He could eventually become a solid offensive distributor at the Liiga level, likely run a power play unit, too, but compared to his transition and defensive play, it'll likely always be the least noteworthy area when it comes to his NHL projection.

As a prospect, Piiparinen does a little bit of everything and excels at many aspects of the game, but it's fair to wonder what his big selling point and main strength will be at the NHL level.

As we touched on, he doesn't have the kind of dynamic skill that'd make him an offensive quarterback. There are also others with more special defensive elements and tools at their disposal, whether it's more impressive mobility, an elite physical game, or sheer size.

The most obvious answer would be his transitional play, but young defencemen with puck-moving — especially those who lack higher-end tools and are on the smaller side — as their main strength have generally struggled to establish themselves in the NHL to a degree expected from them. As such, it's an archetype we've become more and more wary of. 

On the other hand, Piiparinen doesn't properly fit that mould. Listed at 6-foot-2 and over 200 pounds, he's not the biggest blueliner in the draft, but he's also far from the smallest. When that's combined with the projectable defensive habits and physical edge, he's got more defensive upside than the vast majority of the prospects in the puck-moving archetype typically do.

What also gives us more confidence in Piiparinen's projection is that his physical tools have steadily improved.

Last season, a lack of quickness was a big-time limiting factor for Piiparinen both at the Finnish U20 level and internationally, but it quickly became evident that he had taken steps forward in this regard over the summer, going from a below-average to an average-to-slightly-above-average skating projection.

Sure, he still sometimes looks like Bambi out on the ice due to a lack of coordination, balance, and handling skills. And it'd be a one thing if he were on the older side for this year's draft, but the fact that he won't turn 18 until August makes us more optimistic about his potential development runway in this regard.

Piiparinen's floor as a prospect is still relatively high. With his strong hockey sense, commendable motor and physical play, and good-enough physical tools, he'll likely become at least a bottom-pairing NHL option in a few years.

And if the skating and handling continue to take steps forward and allow him to add more dimensions to his game, he could eventually become an all-around reliable second-pairing defenceman.