Toronto Maple Leafs: Kalle Loponen to Play for the Sudbury Wolves

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a prospect coming over to North America.

At the 2019 NHL Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted six new prospects.

They didn’t have a first round pick, so the leader of the pack was forward Nick Robertson, who I covered in my last piece.

After taking Robertson at 53rd overall, they plugged through the rest of the draft and finished it off by selecting Finnish defenseman Kalle Loponen in the seventh round at 204th overall.

NHL Entry Draft

A native of Hameenlinna, a city just south of Tampere, Finland, Loponen is a right-handed defenseman who has been playing in Karpat’s organization since he was 15 years old.

This past season, he got his first taste of action in Finland’s Mestis league (essentially their version of the AHL) and spent most of the year there where he put up 12 points in 30 games. He also spent 18 games with Karpat’s Junior A team where he put up nine points through 18 games. (hockeydb.com).

Loponen is on the smaller side at 5’11 and 187lbs, but he isn’t afraid to throw the body and he doesn’t shy away from going into the corners.

The game style that suits him the best would be a puck moving defenseman with a good first-pass instinct. He doesn’t shoot very often, but when he does, he has an absolute rocket.

He has all the tools to become an effective defenseman in the pros, but he has kinks to work out. He sometimes tends to panic with the puck in his own zone resulting in giveaways, but this is absolutely nothing to write him off for considering he’s only 18.

He will have plenty of time to work out these kinks and hone his skills as the years go by.

It was announced recently that Loponen would be opting out of his contract with Karpat and making the transition to North America, where he will spend next season with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL.

In my eyes, this is a very, very good move for him. He now gets a chance to play against kids his own age and likely get more ice time whereas in Finland, he would likely see limited minutes and lots of sheltered playing time due to his age.

Assuming he gets more responsibility in the OHL, this will also help in exposing any true flaws he has in his game and figuring out what his true strengths and weaknesses are.

Overall, it will be interesting to see how Loponen fares in the OHL. While I believe it’s the best decision for his development, it’s also good for both the Toronto Maple Leafs brass and the fans considering tracking a player’s development in the OHL is much easier than trying to keep up with him in Finland.

Overall, it will be interesting to monitor his progression as a player over the next few years.