Despite his young age, Urho Vaakanainen has already played for two teams in the CHL. We take a look at his career to date as another of this year’s prospects tipped for bigger things.

Making his Champions Hockey League debut as a 16-year-old in for Espoo last season, defenceman Urho Vaakanainen notched an assist for the Blues in one of his first two European games. He went on to play 25 Liiga games with the team, scoring 6 points (1+5), while also hitting 13 points (2+11) in 18 games for the club’s Junior A-Liiga team as they went on to finnish as runners-up in the championship.

A product of the Jokipojat junior system before joining Espoo as a 14-year-old, Vaakanainen had already played two seasons at U16 level before switching clubs. On arrival in Espoo, he scored 33 points in 41 U18 Junior B SM-saarla matches, and the following season notched 4+8 in 30 games at U20 level as part of his progression through the Blues’ system.

Vaakanainen was also part of last season’s Finnish team at the World U18 Junior Championships which picked up the gold medal. He scored 3 points in the competition (1+2) and finished with a +/- rating of +6 in seven games.

In this summer’s off-season, Vaakanainen moved to JYP as a member of their Liiga side, and has so far scored 2 goals in 19 senior games for the team. He played a further five CHL games for his new team, adding an assist to his overall record in European competition. Vaakanainen was also drafted by the Windsor Spitfires in the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft.

“He’s just a very good player,” said Spirfires’ GM Warren Rychel, after the draft. “Probably one of the best ’99 (born) defencemen available for the NHL Draft next year.”

The International Scouting Service and Hockeyprospect.com both list Vaakanainen #22 on their November list – in the former’s case as the best defenceman prospect playing in the Liiga. Future Considerations puts the JYP man at #19 – one of only six D-men in the Top 20 list. Even as far back as 2013, MTV Sport specialist Tero Lehtera described Vaakanainen as “the most talented Finnish defender ever coming down the pipeline.”