Today, the Boston Bruins made some news as they announced the signing of defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to a three-year entry level contract with a yearly cap hit of $925,000, plus bonuses.
Vaakanainen was drafted by the Bruins 18th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
He spent the 2017-18 campaign playing for SaiPa in the Finnish Liiga, scoring four goals and 11 points in 43 games. He led all defenseman on his team with a plus-eight rating. To go along with that, he played in nine playoff games, tallying only one assist.
In 2016-17, the Joensuu, Finland native tallied two goals and six points over his 41 regular-season games with Liiga’s JYP. He was also a plus-five.
The 19-year-old skated in five games for Team Finland in the 2018 World Junior Championship. Throughout those five games, the blue-liner only recorded one assist with a plus-three rating.
Overall, Vaakanainen won’t be looked at to make an immediate impact this year. For one, the Bruins have a lot of defensemen, many of them young. Also, he’s still developing and doesn’t seem as though he’ll be ready until the 2019-20 season.
Either way, the Bruins clearly look at him as someone who will be apart of this next core of young guns.
The Boston Celtics cruised past the Philadelphia 76ers 123-105 on Thursday night, securing another dominant…
The Patriots are undergoing yet another rebuild, but this round is expected to be more…
On this episode of Poke the Bear, Conor Ryan and Evan Marinofsky react to the…
Payton Pritchard erupted for a career-high 43 points, draining a career-best 10 three-pointers to lead…
In a solo episode, Andrew shares why he's flip-flopped on the Patriots' best options with…
On this episode of the Greg Bedard Patriots Podcast, Greg Bedard and Nick Cattles discuss…