LEAFS TOP DEFENSE PROSPECT TOPI NIEMELA PROVING HE HAS STAR POTENTIAL

Team: 2022-23 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 28, 2022

Published: Jul. 28, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Topi Niemela who is a right handed defenceman with star potentIal in the NHL.

The only way to obtain a right hand defenceman with star potential in the NHL is to draft and develope the player which is what the Leafs are doing with Topi Niemela.

Kyle Dubas and the Leafs hit an absolute home run when they drafted Topi Niemela in the third round and 64th overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and he is proving to be one of the Leafs most exciting prospects with star potential.

He put on an absolute clinic at the 2021 World Juniors and took home the Best Defenseman Award which caught the attention of the hockey world and just put up a great year playing for Karpat in the Finnish League where he had 10 goals and 22 assists for 32 points in only 48 games.

He has the ability to accelerate at high speeds, moving both forward and backwards and plays a positionally sound defensive game with high hockey IQ and competent stick handling skills.

He looks like a future top-four defenceman for the Maple Leafs with tremendous power play and penality kill abilities and may arrive in North America next spring in time for the NHL playoffs playoffs to bolster the Leafs.

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