2024 NHL Draft player profile: Julius Miettinen, Everett Silvertips

Julius Miettinen is watching intently as his fellow countryman Aleksander Barkov pushes for a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers.

The Helsinki-born Everett Silvertips forward has idolized Barkov since he suited up in the Finnish Liiga as a 16-year-old and made the jump to Florida less than two years later.

However, Miettinen decided to forge his path to the NHL in the Pacific Northwest, joining Everett after being selected 30th overall in the 2023 CHL Import Draft.

Since 2014, six Finnish hockey players who opted to play in North America- including Buffalo Sabres blueliner Henri Jokiharju (Portland) and Arizona forward Juuso Valimaki (Tri-City)- have been selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft.

Miettinen hopes to join their ranks at the end of the month.

“It’s hard to leave home but when you get here it will pay off,” Miettinen said of the decision to come to the Western Hockey League. “It’s an awesome experience to be here.”

The 6-foot-3, 207-pound forward cuts an intimidating presence when parked in front of his opponent’s nets.

But as he adjusted to the North American game at the start of the season, his offensive numbers weren’t overly impressive and NHL Central Scouting initially tagged him as a ‘C’ prospect- a potential fourth or fifth-round pick.

But the glimpses of dominance were there for his coaches.

“Even in the beginning when he wasn’t scoring a lot, he was still really effective for us without the puck and defending,” Silvertips assistant coach Mike Field said. “The second half of the year he was a different player.”

Miettinen ended up leading all WHL rookies with 585 faceoff wins and closed out the 2023-24 regular season with 31 goals and 36 assists for 67 points and a +27 rating in 66 contests.

Forty of those points (19 goals, 21 assists) came in his final 29 games, highlighted by a 10-game point streak to close out the campaign.

The 18-year-old snagged Kal Tire WHL Rookie of the Week honours three times as well as an invitation to the Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in January.

He’s also come out of his shell and become a chatty and popular figure in the Silvertips dressing room, known for his competitive nature- no matter how small the game- and self-deprecating humour.

“I think confidence is the biggest thing right now,” Miettinen added. “I feel I’d been playing pretty good all the time, but now it’s starting to pay off and getting more confidence every game.”

As his confidence grows, so does his draft stock.

Miettinen vaulted up NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings to sit 18th among North American skaters, with many mock drafts projecting him as a late first-round pick.

“I just think his game translates at the pro level where he has a lot of different ways that he can help you win,” Field explained. “He’s going to be a two-way power forward. He’s really good at the net front. He’s not shy about getting into those dirty areas- and then he’s got the skill to make some plays. Being a big man with hands like that, he’s always going to be able to find his way onto the score sheet.”

Miettinen has represented Finland six times on the international stage, most recently scoring once in five matches en route to a fourth-place finish at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

The 2024 NHL Entry Draft runs from June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada.