One of the more surprising picks of the whole draft, Senators take a swing on the Finnish goaltender
Not ranked by any scouting services before the draft, Leevi Merilainen was an unknown commodity that wasn’t expected to be drafted, nevertheless, the Senators saw something in him.
There’s not a whole lot on Merilainen but the Senators hope they’ve found a diamond in the rough.
Biography
Date of Birth: August 13, 2002
Hometown: Oulu, Finland
H: 6’2″ W: 159 Pounds
Catches: Left
Merilainen, a player with not a very extensive background, has spent his whole minor hockey career in the Kärpät organization. Starting in 2016-17 with their U16 team in the U16 SM-sarja, then starring for that same team the following season leading them to a silver medal in their league. Merilainen would then jump up the ranks to U17 and U18 the next season (mostly as a backup for the U18’s), once again leading his team to a silver medal in the U17 SM-sarja mostly due to his dominant play, in 6 playoff games he had a 0.932 SV%. Then in 2020, the lanky netminder would break out, appearing in 19 games at the U18 level, producing a ridiculous 0.942 SV% while also playing 16 games in the U20 SM-sarja recording a 0.908 SV%.
Never really ahead of others his own age, Merilainen stayed under the radar all the way up to his draft year and even then didn’t generate much hype. A lanky goalie at just 159 pounds, Merilainen has a ton of room to grow but he has a lot of time to get where he needs to be, he was one of the younger players in the draft as an August birthday.
Attributes
Trent Mann, who was a former goalie himself, commented on the Merilainen selection:
"There’s a tremendous upside there, Pierre Groulx has looked at his game, he’s excited to have him, the staff are excited to have him. The goalie list for us wasn’t large this year, but this kid here is one of the ones we felt had a tremendous amount of upside”"
There’s obviously limited tape here with Merilainen but SensProspects once again provides the goods:
🇫🇮 Leevi Meralinen stopped 17/20 in a 7-3 win on Friday for Karpat U20, improving his record to 6-1-0 with a .911 SV%
— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) October 18, 2020
Haven't seen much of Ottawa's 3rd round pick yet, but here are a couple saves + a rebound goal against from Friday's win. pic.twitter.com/munbknKZ1R
The Senators draft pick looks super athletic from what I can see and this is probably the main reason why the staff took a shot at the raw puck stopper.
What They’re Saying
A Well renowned scout for Dobber Prospects was surprised by the selection:
A consistent theme here, the overwhelming majority of scouts were in shock after the selection was made.
Unranked by all 50 sources, certainly a strange pick and with a deep prospect pool of goaltenders the selection was met with some heat, but with their surplus in draft capital they were bound to take a few swings.
2020-2021
Merilainen is currently splitting reps on Kärpät’s U20 team and has put up respectable numbers, winning 6 of his 7 starts, with a 0.911 SV% and 2.29 GAA.
Look for Merilainen to push for a spot on Finland’s World Junior squad when the tournament rolls around after Christmas. It would also not be a surprise to see Merilainen appear in a few games with the Kärpät’s men’s team in the Liiga.