I've been meaning to really keep up on my prospects. Honest I have. But a weekend ultimate (and drinking) tournament takes a lot out of you. To those who read my blog (I'm sure there's a couple of you out there) and haven't taken a perusal of the other offers from the Oilogosphere, get on it. The boys at C&B have looked at a trio of prospects so far in greater detail than I could, so I'll avoid discussing Martin Marincin (A Slovak defenseman who always draws unfavourable comparisons to Zdeno Chara due only to his hulking size), Tom Kuhnhackl (whose name includes two dots over the u, can you tell I don't know much about him?) and most recently Viktor Svedberg. Over at Lowetide, he's taken control of the Dylan McIlrath booster club with such fervor that Dylan must be friends with LT's son, Marc-Antoine Pouliot. There's some great stuff out there, I'm only scratching the surface.
Continuing my list of potential second-rounders available to the Oilers is a goal-scoring forward who has seen his stock slide considerably since last year.
Teemu Pulkkinen is a 5'11" winger from the Jokerit system in Finland, producer of (in my opinion) the greatest Finnish talent the NHL has ever seen.
The rankings:
THN: 50
ISS: 53
CSB: 17 Euro
His stats aren't much to look at (12GP 1-2-3) and he didn't play in this year's U-20 tournament like fellow draft-eligible Finn Mikael Granlund, but it is important to note that like Granlund (and our two Swede prospects from 2009), he's already playing against men. Stiff competition at 17 years of age (he's a January birthday) makes me want to disregard the low production as a result of not playing often, or possibly with Jani Rita. He's put up points in the past against players his own age. His performance at the most recent U-18s where he was the top forward (6GP 10-5-15), at last year's U-18 tournament (6GP 7-6-13) and the year previous on Jokerit's junior team (32GP 36-24-60) so I find it hard to debate his offensive skill.
There are questions about his commitment to the physical brand of hockey - he's being called a perimeter player who has only average footspeed according to THN's draft preview. Others have not exactly agreed with his lack of speed, as thehockeywriters are absolutely glowing about his speed and agility (http://thehockeywriters.com/prospect-profile-teemu-pulkkinen-jokerit-helsinki-sm-liiga/). The positives seem more plentiful and noteworthy. The phrases "pure sniper" and "one-shot scorer" absolutely litter Pulkkinen's scouting reports. He's seen as a good complimentary player with a lightning-quick release, demonstrated in this youtube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTr9Ep3goMw&feature=related He's number 92 collecting what some might see as a garbage goal. I see it as him finding a high percentage area of the offensive zone much the same way John Tavares does.
One sore spot (literally) is his injury history. I haven't heard of an underage player who has had such tough luck since the aforementioned Pouliot. He's been limited to just 16 SM-Liiga games the past two years due to foot issues of one kind or another.
The Oilers have had no issues going to Europe in the last couple of years. They've found some great prospects in all areas of the draft. Sweden is represented three times in the last two drafts (Motin, Paajarvi, Lander) and a selection of Pulkkinen would make three Fins in the last three years (Hartikainen, Rajala). Pulkkinen fits the mold of a skill forward that could add offense to a prospect pool that is rather short on game-changing skill level. He was one of THN's top-10 2010 prospects last year and with the limited number of games he's played so far seems to me to have a higher ceiling than most prospects.
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