European free agent signings for next season

[Noma]

There have been a few Finns that have been rumoured to be signing to an NHL team for next season.

F Joonas Kemppainen, Kärpät is one of them. Kärpät's GM said in an interview that he is planning the next season's team with an assumption that Kemppainen signs an NHL contract since there is interest from multiple teams. Kemppainen is a very responsible two-way forward with decent offence.

F Joonas Donskoi, Kärpät is Kemppainen's teammate from Kärpät. 22-year-old forward was originally drafted by the Panthers in 4th round in 2010, but he didn't sign a contract after that. He has been producing at a good rate in Finnish league this season and is probably heading across the pond.

F Markus Hännikäinen, JYP attended Columbus Blue Jackets prospect camp last summer. He played previously in Jokerit, the team that Jarmo Kekäläinen was a GM for. It's believed that Hännikäinen will be signing with the Blue Jackets for next season. He's a big (6-2, 183) body and is now fifth in Liiga goal-scoring race with 18 in 55.

F Olli Palola, Tappara had an offer from an NHL team on table a year ago but he didn't take it back then. And he will probably have another offer or a few again this season. He won the Finnish league goal-scoring title last season with 27 goals in 60 games and is now leading the race again with 29 in 58. He also represented Finland in last year's World Championships and scored 4 goals in 10 games there. He isn't big (5-10, 176) but knows how to play physical game too.

D Otso Rantakari, Blues is a 21-year-old "late bloomer" who broke the goal-scoring record for rookie D-men in Finnish league this season and is trailing Sami Vatanen's rookie-D point record with one point when there's two games left the regular season. As a 1993 born player Rantakari (6-0, 176) is not draft eligible anymore. He is a very good skater and has been quarterbacking Espoo Blues' first powerplay unit during his rookie season.

[Dobber]

This is great, thanks Miika

So you are in fantasy hockey leagues that use SM-liiga? How long has that been a thing? Do pool managers cover it?

[Noma]

This is great, thanks Miika

So you are in fantasy hockey leagues that use SM-liiga? How long has that been a thing? Do pool managers cover it?

Yep, I am. We've been playing one since 2011. The draft-based league we have is running on an engine that I have coded myself. There is no such thing publicly available. A pick' em -league however is, called Liigapörssi, one that's been running since 1995, first via postcards in a newspaper and later in the internet. There is only provider though, that has exclusive rights for SM-liiga pools.

[The Bottlenecker]

Thanks for the heads up. I think it is important to consider guys playing in Europe who want to come to the NHL. I mean how stupid would you feel if you didn't draft Jori Lehtera before this season began and instead took someone like Manny Malhotra simply because you had never heard about Lehtera? (No offence Manny, but your point totals aren't very good this year even though you are a hell of a Faceoff guy).

[Potatoeman]

Thanks for the heads up. I think it is important to consider guys playing in Europe who want to come to the NHL. I mean how stupid would you feel if you didn't draft Jori Lehtera before this season began and instead took someone like Manny Malhotra simply because you had never heard about Lehtera? (No offence Manny, but your point totals aren't very good this year even though you are a hell of a Faceoff guy).

What is even better here is that except for Donskoi, none of these guys were drafted. In the Lehtera example, he had been drafted buy St-Louis, but just took his time before coming over (a bit like Soderberg with Boston), so in a deep league like mine where every nhl drafted prospect also gets drafted in the league, someone already owned him well before Lehtera announced he was coming over. With these guys, like Keranen last year or college UFAs like Folin, Trevor Van Riemsdyk or if we back up a little, DeKeyser and Krug, well they won't be on many GMs radars. Getting this head's up might make the difference in an ultra-deep league like mine.

Thanks Noma!!

[potatoetree]

This is pretty cool stuff.

Looking to see if Rantakari can do some damage here.

[Potatoeman]

Was doing a bit of research on Rantakari, it seems he signed an extension for 2015-16 in the Liiga.

http://blues.fi/component/bluesnews/1647?view=uutinen

(ran it through a translator to understand what it said though...)

Perhaps he has an out-clause in the event he signs with an NHL team? Or will we have to wait another year and then he'll be on everyone's radar if he does well again?

EDIT: Actually, Donskoi and Hannikainen are also signed in the Liiga next year. Palola is also rumoured to play for Jokerit next year.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Was doing a bit of research on Rantakari, it seems he signed an extension for 2015-16 in the Liiga.

http://blues.fi/component/bluesnews/1647?view=uutinen

(ran it through a translator to understand what it said though...)

Perhaps he has an out-clause in the event he signs with an NHL team? Or will we have to wait another year and then he'll be on everyone's radar if he does well again?

EDIT: Actually, Donskoi and Hannikainen are also signed in the Liiga next year. Palola is also rumoured to play for Jokerit next year.

Finnish language is really easy, even little babies understand it here!

Yes, Rantakari signed a contract-extension in February. But all Finnish league contract have built-in "NHL clause" by default. The NHL and the Finnish league have transfer agreement which allows any contract to be bought out from the Finnish league by an NHL team. So if an NHL team is truly interested and is willing to pay something like $200k to buy the contract out, then there's nothing the Finnish league team can do.

There's no such agreement between the NHL and the KHL. Other European leagues pretty much all have it.

[ericdaoust]

There's no such agreement between the NHL and the KHL.

You're right, there is no agreement except for Ilya Kovalchuk.

[Potatoeman]

Finnish language is really easy, even little babies understand it here!

Yes, Rantakari signed a contract-extension in February. But all Finnish league contract have built-in "NHL clause" by default. The NHL and the Finnish league have transfer agreement which allows any contract to be bought out from the Finnish league by an NHL team. So if an NHL team is truly interested and is willing to pay something like $200k to buy the contract out, then there's nothing the Finnish league team can do.

There's no such agreement between the NHL and the KHL. Other European leagues pretty much all have it.

Sort of like French over here :P

Thanks for the info about the transfer agreement though!

[Potatoeman]

Update:

Palola signed in the KHL so I guess he won't be coming over to the NHL for 2015-16 (1 year contract)

Hannikainen signed with Columbus.

[Potatoeman]

Other update :

Donskoi signed with San Jose and Kemppainen signed with the Bruins.

So Rantakri is the only one onn the list that hasn't signed an NHL or KHL deal as of now.

[chuckcouples]

How would you rank the guys that signed in the NHL in terms of fantasy production. I am in a 30 team dynasty league with deep rosters so any one who plays in the NHL for a few seasons has pretty good value. The league counts G, A, +/-, Hits, Blocked Shots, Takeaways, PP TOI/gam, PK TOI/game, Faceoffs.

[Jouko-Pouko]

How would you rank the guys that signed in the NHL in terms of fantasy production. I am in a 30 team dynasty league with deep rosters so any one who plays in the NHL for a few seasons has pretty good value. The league counts G, A, +/-, Hits, Blocked Shots, Takeaways, PP TOI/gam, PK TOI/game, Faceoffs.

My ranking of these Finnish players is:
Joonas Donskoi - could play in the NHL right away, very good offensive skills, not afraid of physical play but isn't a physical player himself; upside as high as 2nd line winger - will mostly just provide offense
Markus Hännikäinen - will take a year or two in the AHL most likely, a perfect 3rd line player for the NHL, could fill in on the 2nd line or end up on the 4th line - will provide hits and some offense
Joonas Kemppainen - should play in the NHL right away but most likely as a 3rd/4th line center; that's also his upside since he's not a prospect anymore - will provide FOW and PK time along with some offense
Otso Rantakari - good future ahead but will not likely see any NHL action for a few years, I haven't seen him as much as the players above

If you need more options, I suggest you take a closer look at some Russian players. I believe Artemi Panarin can score 50+ points in the NHL right away with upside for more. And Yevgeni Medvedev signed a $3M contract with the Flyers, so he will most likely get some minutes as well; could produce 20-30 points with hits and blocks. Viktor Tikhonov has yet to sign an NHL contract but I believe it's just a matter of time. But I don't think he has any fantasy value.

In addition, I don't believe Jakub Nakladal from the Czech Republic will amount to anything in the NHL.

I would rank all of these players like this:
1) Panarin
2) Donskoi
3) Hännikäinen
4) Medvedev
5) Kemppainen
6) Rantakari
7) Tikhonov
8) Nakladal