Film Room: Oliver Suvanto's physical skills, two-way maturity make him a high-certainty NHLer

Oliver Suvanto's path to becoming a first-round lock has been anything but ordinary.

Most top Finnish prospects follow the same path: They're already top-tier players in the U20 league in their draft-minus-one season, likely get some games at the Liiga level, too, before turning into full-time professionals in their draft year.

Meanwhile, not only did Suvanto spend his entire draft-minus-one season with Tappara's U18 team, but he was often overshadowed and outproduced by the likes of Simon Katolický and Vilho Vanhatalo.

This makes the fact that he was able to establish himself as a full-time fit on Tappara's stacked Liiga lineup right from the jump — causing him to basically skip the U20 league entirely, even if he ended up returning to it towards the end of the season — one of the most unique achievements I've witnessed during my years of scouting Finnish prospects.

The same qualities that helped convince Tappara's coaches of Suvanto's Liiga readiness also helped him comfortably slot in as Finland's fourth-line centre at the World Juniors, being one of the team's better-performing players when adjusted for their roles.

And in June, those qualities are likely to make Suvanto one of the first centres taken off the board.

Elite physical skills

Being just weeks away from being eligible for the 2027 draft, Suvanto is one of the very youngest top prospects in this year's class. At the same time, he's one of its most physically mature.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 209 pounds, Suvanto has the kind of frame NHL organizations salivate over when it comes to their centre prospects. More importantly, he has a strong desire to leverage that frame every chance he gets, not only bringing lots of physical intensity, but a deep well of contact skills that made him an overpowering presence against his peers and a formidable force against men.

All of this makes Suvanto an incredibly difficult foe to defend on the cycle. He knocks opponents down with booming reverse hits and absorbs contact like nobody else in this draft class. Practically unmovable when he plants his feet along the wall, he shields the puck with expert knowledge, handling it with one hand on his stick while using the other to push away pressure. 

On zone entries and breakouts, Suvanto can fight through checks and physical pressure on a regular basis. And when he wants to set the tone, he can deliver punishing hits on the forecheck, too.

Suvanto's physical prowess is also the foundation of his offensive game. He's very good at powering through and spinning off checks near the end boards, then quickly looking to take the puck to the net-front.

Through his size and strength, boxing him out is also a highly difficult task, allowing him to deflect pucks and get to rebounds regularly. He mainly played the net-front role on the power play this season, and projects to do the same going forward.

Reliable two-way presence

In addition to his physical maturity, it was Suvanto's reliable two-way game that allowed him to make the exceedingly rare jump straight from the U18 level to Liiga.

From the jump, he became one of Tappara's most competent defensive centres. He rotated effectively, kept track of his assignments and potential threats, hustled hard on the backcheck to take away weak side and trailer options, and never cheated on his duties for offence.

Suvanto's physical skills and motor were also a big-time defensive asset. Right away, he was able to regularly contain play to the outside, trap attackers to the boards, and outmuscle them to win battles for loose pucks.

Watching all of this, you can't help but draw parallels to what Anton Lundell did in his first two Liiga seasons with HIFK, with both prospects standing out immediately due to their responsible style. While he might not be quite the same level of a prospect overall, Suvanto does have some advantages over Lundell, too, most notably a larger frame and more power forward upside.

Cycle playmaking and manipulation flashes

While Suvanto's high floor is built on top of the size, physical skills, and advanced habits away from the puck, he wouldn't be a first-round lock without budding offensive upside.

A lot of his best work is done off the cycle, where he's able to combine the contact skills with his playmaking vision, creating required separation before dishing the puck to a teammate in the slot. He can make plays on the first touch, too, capable of scooping up pucks sent down the rim from the boards and immediately feeding them to the netfront.

Suvanto doesn't complicate things too much. He prefers to create through short possessions and puts heavy emphasis on give-and-go plays. Off the rush, he often looks to pass laterally before the zone entry, then sprint down the middle and crash the net as F2, creating space and offering a net-front passing option.

However, from time to time throughout the season, Suvanto would wow us with an impressive flash of manipulation or deception. He'd fake going wide on a defender and get him to cross over his feet before exploding to the middle instead. He'd fake a pass to the point while moving uphill along the boards, then take advantage of the newly-opened path to the slot.

Still, how much offence Suvanto is going to provide at the NHL level remains a rather sizeable question mark.

11 points in 48 Liiga games is a respectable total when adjusted for his age and role on the team. On the other hand, eight points in 17 combined regular season and playoff games at the U20 level is a much less flattering total for a prospect of his calibre. He had strong flashes at both the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the U18 Worlds, but we had higher expectations for his output in the latter event.

A lot of the time, Suvanto is more of a cycle extender — for every impressive passing read he makes from the boards, he's prone to missing two or three. Skating being the weakest tool in his skill set and projecting as at least slightly below NHL average tool, his lack of quickness and agility limits his efficacy off the rush. He seemed to lack a killer instinct as a finisher, too, often trying to work a cute pass in situations where he should rip the puck himself.  

Does Suvanto need high-level offensive creation ability or dynamic skill to play in the NHL? Absolutely not.

His physicality, advanced details and habits, and size alone are going to make him someone that NHL coaches want in their lineup. As such, Suvanto has one of the highest base floors in the draft outside of the top 5 — you're getting an NHL player out of him, which matters a lot to many organizations.

Taking Suvanto in the top-15 range — the range he's currently projected to go in based on public chatter — would mean banking on him being able to develop more offensive pop in the future, though.

It's not an entirely unreasonable bet to make, given how young he is for this draft, how many rapid developmental steps he's taken over the past year, and how he's shown just enough flashes to make you wonder what he could be if he'd show those qualities more regularly.

One can't deny there's a solid amount of uncertainty around that kind of projection, though, which makes Suvanto one of the tougher prospects to properly rank — there's a good chance he becomes just a fourth-line centre, and you would ideally aim for more with such a high pick.

That being said, if Suvanto can develop his skating further, adding more quickness out of his turns and pivots while also becoming more fluid and agile, and add more layers to his playmaking and creation game while maintaining his defensive reliability and physical dominance, he could follow in Lundell's footsteps and eventually become a middle-six pivot whose value only goes up in the NHL playoffs.