Film Room: A look at the skills driving Jani Nyman's hot start

The list of players who scored more than Jani Nyman during their draft-eligible seasons in Mestis is a short one. In fact, only Roby Järventie, a second-round pick by the Ottawa Senators back in 2020, has added more goals and points in Finland's second-best men's league as a 17-year-old, and even then, only by a few points. 

One could argue Nyman's 18 goals and 35 points in 34 games from last season is an even more impressive feat when you look at the context. Both players were loaned from Ilves to KOOVEE, but the team finished dead last in the Mestis standings last season, while they were an above-average squad during Järventie's campaign. 

In reality, Nyman was the sole bright spot for KOOVEE in 2021-2022. He scored double the amount of goals compared to the next-most productive player and led the team in points by a 13-point margin. He did all this while playing in just 34 out of 52 games. The environment wasn't inducive to scoring, but Nyman found ways to generate offence nonetheless. 

Though Nyman's efforts between his play in Mestis and international competition (21 points in 21 games with Finland's U18 team) enticed the Seattle Kraken enough to select him with the 49th pick in last summer's draft, his outlook for this season wasn't exactly clear. While he had nothing to prove in Mestis or at the U20 level, Ilves' Liiga team was also bolstering a top forward group. A top-nine role wasn't a given; he had to earn it. 

So far, he's succeeded. After playing a few warm-up games at the U20 level to start the season, Nyman has now played in eight regular season games with Ilves. More importantly, he's produced right away, adding four goals and six points, already among the best marks on the team with a smaller game count.