The Carolina Hurricanes "seeing Tuukka Tieksola at his best" this season

The 2019 NHL Entry Draft was one of the most intriguing ones of the last decade as far as Finland was concerned. Kaapo Kakko battled Jack Hughes for the No. 1 overall pick right to the end, and a total of 22 Finnish players heard their name called in Vancouver, the second-best mark of the decade behind only the 2017 draft.

Somewhere in that mix was Tuukka Tieksola, an intriguing name for me as a talent evaluator. Playing in the Finnish U18 circuit during his draft-minus-one season, Tieksola didn't place himself on many scout's radar going into his draft-year. It took a prolific season with Kärpät's U20 program, in which Tieksola scored 60 points in 51 games, to turn heads and earn him a top-six spot on Finland's U18 roster.

It was easy to go to bat for Tieksola after such a season. Ultimatel